Servo has been selected by Shepherd Construction, an industry-leading private construction company, to upgrade its servers to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Exchange 2003. Servo advised on, and managed, the software deployment at Shepherd Construction’s York headquarters and its six divisional offices. 

Shepherd Construction awarded the contract to Servo because it has a proven track record in delivering IT solutions to the construction industry and, as a Microsoft Gold Partner, has an unrivalled level of expertise in planning and implementing Microsoft solutions.

Steve Slater, ICT Support Manager at Shepherd Construction, adds: “The main reason we chose Servo was because they had good references.  They had already partnered with other construction firms, showed a good understanding of what we needed to do and had good technical capability as well. They understood our requirements and the best way to meet them.”

Servo worked closely with Slater’s IT team on the planning and implementation of the software upgrade, and also supplied and configured new servers and storage area network systems for the company.  The main operational benefit of moving Shepherd Construction’s 1,000 employees on to Windows Server 2003 and Exchange 2003 has been that all messaging can now be managed and controlled from the York office. Previously, Shepherd Construction had had to run distributed mail servers in each office, with a central Exchange Server providing the synchronisation element. 

“Servo’s contribution to the project, which took almost 12 months to complete, has been very significant”, says Slater.  “All in all, it was as good an experience as we could have
expected and I’ve been impressed with what Servo has done. Servo has been very professional and very prompt – they do things when they say they are going to do them.”

In Servo, Slater concludes, Shepherd Construction found a supplier that was able to match its own high standards. “It is important to us that our suppliers don’t let us down because we need to be totally focused on our customers and we need to make sure that all our suppliers have that same attitude and approach – in the end that’s what your reputation depends on.”

Since the deployment, Servo has continued to provide advice and support when required and has organised regular ‘tech days’ on which a Microsoft-accredited Servo expert goes on site to iron out any system problems or issues that have arisen.