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Welcome Break
31/10/2006
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Supporting critical business processes
Welcome Break is the UK’s leading operator of motorway service stations. IT infrastructure is critical to its operations. It runs 24 motorway service stations around the UK and each one is akin to a small village in its own right. There are three key areas on each site, the main one being the Amenity Building in which the shops, restaurants and toilets are located. There is also a fuel forecourt and, at almost all locations now, a hotel. All of these are linked to the central operations in Newport Pagnell by a wide area network. Within the site there are also fibre optic and wireless links connecting different operations within a service station – many operate on both sides of the motorway.
“IT is extremely important in helping us run our key business processes such as paying our people, servicing our customers, collecting sales, managing the pricing, booking hotel rooms, and managing our finances. Like many organisations of our size, IT is critical to the smooth running of the business,” says David Willock, Head of IT at Welcome Break.
All of the hardware on these sites – including the vital EPOS terminals – is maintained by Servo, which is one of Welcome Break’s key IT services suppliers. This service has been provided by Servo since late 2005 and before this it had supplied Welcome Break with cabling and network infrastructure services.
One of the first areas that Willock tackled when he joined the company was to review the
company’s IT suppliers. “I looked at the services provided by each supplier, including Servo. I quickly realised that Servo had a much wider capability than had previously been understood. The relationship was nothing like it is now. We used them to fix cabling or networking issues and that was about it.”
Willock decided to find out more about Servo – he liked what he found. “I had a very clear
strategy right from the start in that I wanted to deal with a smaller number of suppliers and have closer, more partnership-based relationships with companies that were open and could deliver well. Servo was fantastic in terms of finding solutions that could meet our needs at a reasonable cost. I was encouraged to spend time developing our relationship which has led to Servo securing a number of IT opportunities.
Exceeding expectations
When a contract for the maintenance of all IT hardware, including servers, PCs and EPOS
terminals on Welcome Break sites came up for renewal, Servo was included on a shortlist of three companies that would be put through a formal tender process. Welcome Break spent a lot of time with each company, visiting their locations, going on site visits with engineering staff, obtaining customer references and discussing its requirements in detail. It was a very comprehensive assessment, says Willock, but in the end the choice was not difficult.
“Servo came out head and shoulders above the others in terms of their ability to meet our requirements at the right price – and we just had a good feeling about how the relationship would develop.” Importantly, he notes, it was a much more objective than subjective process, but the feeling that Welcome Break would be able to work with Servo to achieve its own aims was certainly a factor.
There have been no regrets; Servo has exceeded expectations and the relationship between the two companies has grown stronger. “That particular maintenance contract has been fantastic. I’ve had a lot of experience with IT maintenance contracts and they are hard work. Servo is dealing with over 100 problems every month and while that is not the biggest of contracts for us, IT failures have a direct impact on our ability to serve our customers effectively, that’s very important.”
Servo’s stringent service level agreement requires that they respond and fix the most urgent problems that occur at Welcome Break, within four hours of notification, any time of the day or night. This is very important to Welcome Break due to the non-stop nature of its business and the importance of EPOS and other IT equipment on various sites. Servo has consistently delivered above the criteria set out in the SLA. More impressive however, says Willock, is Servo’s attitude and approach.
“It’s not just about the statistics – the way they deal with the problems on-site and with the account management is great. We have regular reviews with them every month and the service delivery manager is always totally on top of what is going on in terms of the contract and knows what the issues are. He works with us to implement improvements to the service to try and make sure that we maintain and improve even more.”
A model supplier
As a result of the excellent service and support Welcome Break has received from Servo for the on-site hardware maintenance, the relationship has been extended significantly. Welcome Break has contracted Servo to maintain its head office PCs and servers, and the implementation and support of a new Wide Area Network is also being entrusted to Servo. This is a huge and vitally important project for Welcome Break that will also entail the provision of 24-hour support.
Indeed, Servo is becoming involved in many more of Welcome Break’s strategic IT projects. It has been working with the company on its PC Build project. This enables staff to assemble all the software and hardware elements needed to build, for example, a point-of-sale terminal, so that installation is made quick, easy and cost-effective, and performed to pre-defined standards.
Servo has also performed an in-depth study of Welcome Break’s Citrix environment and looked at how performance can be enhanced. Meanwhile, Servo has continued to provide the networking and cabling service that it was providing before the relationship started to develop and blossom. Welcome Break often needs to implement new facilities and outlets at its service stations, and Servo provides a complete infrastructure service for this when required.
Servo is now one of seven strategic suppliers for Welcome Break and Willock does not see its status changing – if anything, it will become a more important partner. “For me they are a model supplier”, says Willock. “If I could get all of my suppliers working with me the way that we work with Servo then I’d be very happy.”
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