SPM Assets is a software company that has helped organisations since 2001 to make asset management work better by empowering them to proactively leverage property lifecycle asset management.
Background
SPM stands for sic parvis magna in Latin meaning “great things from small beginnings”. The company was initially founded in Auckland by two business partners and has since grown into a trans-Tasman company with offices in Sydney, Australia and a growing presence in the United States and South Africa.
As the company grew, Chief Technology Officer Diego Abrianos was shoulder-tapped by a former colleague to join the company two years ago to manage strategic IT projects that would enable the company’s further growth by embracing cloud software technologies.
At the time, SPM’s employees were using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to do their daily work through a virtual desktop system. While that system had initially worked for the company, as it continued to grow challenges were becoming evident.
“Half our staff are on PCs and half are on Macs. This combination was challenging to manage – for example we had Mac users that were using RDP to connect to a virtual PC environment,” explains Diego. “We also became self-conscious about cyber security and ensuring that all our software was up to date and properly licensed. Sometimes it was challenging to have visibility over these things, which is important to ensure they’re properly managed.”
Additionally, because staff were working from saved files when they needed to collaborate, storage space and version control were becoming issues.
Solution
Diego made the case for change to senior management and needed to allay concerns from staff used to their old ways of working.
“For some people leaving RDP was difficult because they used it every day. It can be scary
to try something new. There was also a fear that files or information would be lost if we migrated systems.”
Diego and SPM Assets engaged CodeBlue to shift their IT systems into the cloud, handle the migration process, and take over ongoing maintenance of these systems.
While CodeBlue was able to swiftly transfer all of SPM’s data and files in just one week, the entire migration process took about three months to complete to ensure that change was gradual, well-managed and SPM staff could become confident using their new cloud environment.
“We have a team split across Australia and New Zealand, so planning and file mapping was challenging, but the physical migration was easy,” Diego says. “A lot of conversations and demos were required to make people feel comfortable.”
Results
Now, Diego’s company has experienced a “cultural shift” to a new, more modern way of working where staff get to use their own assigned computers without RDP and his team enjoys the ease of working with CodeBlue.
“CodeBlue manages this for us and as a result we have better management and support. There’s more simplicity and we’ve reduced costs,” he says. “There’s just less mess. You eliminate what you don’t need, and the bills get smaller.”
After an initial project investment, SPM Assets will achieve full ROI in just 18 months after completing the project.
“We met the expectations of our stakeholders and gained peace of mind that was well worth the initial investment,” Diego says.
For example, collaboration now happens in real-time on SharePoint, where collaborators can see feedback and changes clearly marked and resolve any potential clashes and maintain version control easily.
“Our team had never seen something like this before, so they didn’t fully appreciate the benefits until they started using it,” Diego says. “Now we get lots of positive feedback.”
