IT
SHIPSHAPE
Casper Shipping the latest success
in Cornerstone contract wins
T
here’s been a sea change in the quality of
systems at a leading maritime services business
after Cornerstone Business Solutions carried out
a full-scale IT infrastructure installation.
But Middlesbrough-headquartered Casper Shipping
continued to sail on calm waters with minimal disruption
to their maritime business across 11 sites despite a
challenge Cornerstone director Chris Bibby described as
the firm’s “most challenging yet”.
Casper Shipping is just one of a string of happy new
customers won by Cornerstone, along with Teesside
charities The Hope Foundation and Daisy Chain, while
Teesside International Airport manager Shaun Woods
has praised the firm’s customer service as “second to
none”.
Cornerstone’s long-term client list includes
Middlesbrough Football Club, Camerons Brewery, Heck
Foods and many more across the region.
The Stockton-based firm installed an entire new IT
infrastructure over a weekend for Casper, who employ a
team of 55 including 25 at its Dockside Road head office
on the River Tees.
With further sites across a total of six divisions in
Tyneside, Grangemouth, Immingham, Hull, Merseyside,
Plymouth, Swansea, Southampton and on the Thames,
Casper described themselves as “happy customers”
following successful completion of the complicated
installation.
Explaining the challenge, Casper Shipping director Alan
Appleyard said: “As we grow Casper Shipping’s brand
and presence in the UK, we need a proactive IT supplier,
providing outstanding service levels, a first class network
and efficiency excellence.
“IT isn’t our thing. We look after ships. So when it
comes to our technology, we rely on our IT supplier as an
external consultant to guide us and push us in the right
direction.”
Casper wanted to improve network stability and speed
and focus on cyber security and fraud prevention to
ensure they had a system in place fit for the 2020s, but
they had pondered the big change for some time.
Happy clients - Cornerstone director Chris Bibby
(centre) with Casper Shipping director Alan Appleyard
(left) and Casper MD Michael Shakesheff.
“We had concerns about switching suppliers and changing our
long-established IT network,” explained Alan. “It’s not as easy as
turning it off and back on again, we couldn’t risk any downtime.
“As a shipping company, we work 24/7 every day of the year.
Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, it doesn’t matter, shipping doesn’t
stop and, as our company tagline of ‘Always on’ suggests, we
literally don’t stop. So we needed that continuity of service, we
had to be able to send and receive emails, with minimal downtime.
“We knew that wouldn’t be easy, so I wasn’t looking forward to
it but it went incredibly well. It was all pre-planned and mapped
out in advance and in great detail by Cornerstone. The transition
happened with minimal fuss and disruption. I was relieved and I
doubt very much our clients even noticed.
“I’ve got nothing but praise for Cornerstone. They managed
the entire project and implementation. Onboarding took them the
whole weekend and they worked incredibly hard but it was done,
on time and on budget.
“We are a happy customer indeed.”
Chris Bibby described the project as a perfect case study for
what Cornerstone is capable of but admitted it wasn’t all plain
sailing.
“Casper had been with their previous supplier for decades
so it was a big decision for them to switch to Cornerstone,” he
said. “They were having speed and performance issues across
the business so they knew it was time to change but they were
understandably nervous about the implications.
“It was a complicated set-up, with a combination of embedded
on-premises, hosted and cloud-based solutions across six different
businesses within Casper Shipping.
“We knew it was imperative that they were back up in time for
first thing Monday morning and this was achieved.
“Our lead engineer Mike Igo was absolutely awesome
throughout and deserves real praise.
“It was probably our best possible case study and certainly one
of our most challenging installations, considering the challenges.
The client was happy and we were chuffed to bits.”
For more details about Cornerstone, visit cornerstonebs.co.uk.
The voice of business in the Tees region | 45