M Duerden Ltd Successfully moves its Pegasus Opera system to the cloud with the help of Synergy Technology
Introduction
Based in Burnley, Lancashire, UK, M Duerden is a provider of flexible packing materials such as bubble wrap, stretch plastic wrap and strapping, as well as bespoke printed labels, and have been serving the wholesale and distribution industries since 1982.
M Duerdan pride themselves on offering the highest levels of customer service and aim to provide their customers with exactly what they need, when they need it, ensuring they never experience production downtime from running out of packaging, halting production and despatch. This means the careful and accurate management of their own stock and provisions is critical to maintain this reliable and direct service.
Caron Chattwood, the Financial Director at M Duerden, outlines how implementing their line of business software Pegasus Opera on a hosted digital workspace offers a secure, mobile and efficient system for the business. “We have used Opera as our main line of business software for over 10 years. We use Opera for our stock and warehouse management and our financials and accounting. We have currently five users of the system, mainly in accounts and warehouse management.”
Simple to Use
“Opera is very easy to use and simplistic in its operation. What I like about Opera is that you only pay for the modules that you use, and when have the time and resources to deploy further modules we can add them to our Opera package and change our user licences accordingly.”
As a long standing client with Synergy Technology, the decision for M Duerden to go with hosting their line of business software came after much consideration when the internal server was reaching end of life. The senior team had talked about it a number of occasions and discussed their objectives and concerns with Synergy Technology, before making the final decision.
“We’d heard about the cloud and hosted solutions, but never considered it to be an option for us. But after learning about the benefits of a secure digital workspace, requiring no internal hardware infrastructure nor the cost and resources to maintain an on-premise server, the choice to move to cloud seemed the right decision.”
The Solution
Pegasus Opera Hosted on Citadel Remote Desktop
“It really offers great benefits – the peace of mind of the security aspects and the ability to work remotely both from home and other sites outside the head office. By simply paying for the service via a monthly licence fee for the number of users we have, we also know our outgoings and future investment going forward, there’s no unexpected costs for server repair nor hardware maintenance.”
“Our Opera users are all on one site but our print manager works in a completely separate unit which again is much more efficient since adopting the hosted solution, because in the past we had all sorts of ways to connect the unit to our network. The other four Opera users are two in finance and administration, one in sales and one in the warehouse again something we didn’t have prior to moving to Citadel.”
When a laptop went missing after a break in at M Duerden – the benefits of security came home: “It was so reassuring to know there was nothing stored on the lost laptop to jeopardise the security of the business – it was all on Citadel. We were quickly able to replace it and simply log onto Citadel via the new device and carry on working, no other preparation or set up was required.”
Security Benefits
This reiterates the security benefits of a hosted solution. Citadel provides a secure hosted desktop for the team at M Duerden to access their line of business software; Pegasus Opera as well as Microsoft Office (including Excel and Outlook for email). M Duerden simply pays the individual licences for their number of users. This can be altered depending on the number of employees deploying the system.
“Despite being ‘set in our ways’ as a fairly traditional family run business – we made the leap of faith into adopting a hosted solution and have greatly benefited from this decision.”
“What people don’t realise is that there is a lot of down time, lost time, when a server needs servicing or replacement. And there is still the requirement of data back up and restoration of data if required which all has to be done in-house. We don’t have a dedicated IT manager either and we truly benefit from the fact this is all managed by Citadel.”
“We have the peace of mind it is all managed for us. There is of course still sometimes an interruption on the system which would be prevalent in any similar hosted solution, but we recognise it is mainly necessary scheduled out of hour’s maintenance that only goes to reassure us the Citadel platform is incredibly secure.”
The continual and growing threat of Cyber Attack, which is often targeted at Accounts departments by email, is frequently disguised in attachments such as invoices statements and payment advice. Caron has the confidence that their system is monitored, and can be shut down the instant that they may think the system is breached, this is a great asset to working on a hosted workspace.
“As much as anyone tries to be totally vigilant about what email links and attachments to open, the Cyber Criminals always seem to be one step ahead of the game!”
“We are very pleased with the service and support that we get from both Synergy Technology and Citadel and through their direction and professional guidance, we really do feel that moving to a hosted solution was the right decision for our business.”
Want More Information on Hosting Pegasus Opera in the Cloud?
The Synergy Technology team is proud to be an official partner of Pegasus Software and to offer Pegasus Opera solutions throughout the UK. We also offer integration with a number of other platforms including Citadel Remote Desktop. Find out more by visiting our add-ons and integrations page.
To learn more about anything in this case study, or to book a demo, please contact the Synergy team today. You can call us on 0345 456 0050 or send us an email via our contact page at any time and we will be delighted to assist you.
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