Established in 1964, H Roberts & Sons has grown to become one of the leading suppliers of metrology, search and detection equipment in the UK. The Leicester-based company specialises in the manufacture and supply of a vast range of search and detection tools and equipment, aiding numerous lines of work, including emergency services, aerospace manufacturers, automotive and military and defence operators.
Combining specialist knowledge in the field of precision engineering with a stock of over 20,000 items, the company is also able to serve a multitude of skilled trades and groups, aiding them in high risk situations such as bomb detection and engine inspection.
With a team of 10 users normally operating from its on-site locations, H Roberts & Sons turned to an Atlas Cloud solution that would help them to stay operational, as the Coronavirus pandemic forced a rapid transition to remote working. In order to maintain its supply and serve customers during lockdown conditions, the company leveraged its newly-implemented cloud hosted solution in order to provide its entire team with seamless remote access to a full suite of desktop applications from their homes.
An effective resolution for lockdown
Facing lockdown without a remote working solution in place would have undoubtedly caused huge difficulties for our organisation and team members. As a supplier to a strong network of customers across the nation, it was important that we found a partner that could not only support us with the right technology and expertise. We also needed to get our team up and running with the new technology with minimal impact on the service of customers. The team at Atlas Cloud has given us just that.
Since introducing the cloud-based hosted desktops, our employees have been able to stay safe and productive, with added flexibility to ease the pressure of working in such difficult times. We can safely say that without this technology, our business and staff simply would not have been able to function as normal during the pandemic. It truly is one of the best decisions we have ever made, and we’re incredibly glad we crossed paths with Atlas Cloud and its DaaS solution before the pandemic.
Nick McCaffery
Commercial Director, H Roberts & Sons
A swift transition to daas
In March 2019, H Robert & Sons had partnered with Atlas Cloud to implement an Application-as-a-Service solution specifically for its existing Sage software. Based in Newcastle, Atlas Cloud specialises in managed cloud services and cloud hosting solutions for SMEs, empowering its customers to enable great work from anywhere. This form of application hosting allowed the company to move the legacy applications off-premise and into a more accessible and secure cloud hosted environment. It also removed the pain points of having to install, maintain and update the software on each individual device.
When many UK businesses were instructed to introduce remote working in March 2020 at the hands of the Coronavirus, H Roberts & Sons was no exception. Fortunately, six months prior to the national lockdown, the company had extended its partnership with Atlas Cloud to implement cloud hosted desktops for employees across the whole organisation.
Atlas Cloud’s Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution provides users with a familiar Microsoft Windows environment on a virtual desktop, where they can easily and securely access emails, files, applications and storage on any device. The level of accessibility afforded by its hosted desktop service has provided H Roberts & Sons with the capability to work from home or any other remote location, with the only requirement being an Internet connection.
Atlas Cloud was able to integrate the solutions into the company’s network quickly and successfully. Onboarding of the cloud-hosted desktops also proved to be seamless, providing H Roberts & Sons simple and effective remote access to files and applications as lockdown ensued. Additionally, the solution’s automatic backup functionality has given the company further assurance that all employees can work easily and securely, without any work lost to poor connectivity.
Enhancing experiences in lockdown
Making remote operations possible with Atlas Cloud and its DaaS offering in time for the lockdown meant that whilst the world was facing incredible challenges, H Roberts & Sons was able to operate a business-as-usual service throughout the UK lockdown. Importantly, this ensured that team members were able to continue delivering high-quality customer support at every point of need, and do so efficiently from their homes.
Just a few months prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, H Roberts & Sons did not have an existing remote working setup in place for its team members. Its local network was based on-site, which meant that emails, documents and company information could only be accessed by those physically present in the building. H Roberts & Sons’ leadership team has since recognised the risk of not being able to work from home or remote locations, which could have proven disastrous for the company if left unaddressed.
By having a robust and reliable system in place, H Roberts & Sons has been able to successfully empower its team to work wherever they are. In addition to operational benefits, the switch to hosted desktops has also allowed the company to address the work-life balance of its employees to unlock better working experiences on a company-wide scale.
With the support of Atlas Cloud’s accessible and user-friendly solution, H Roberts & Sons was able to respond swiftly to national remote working procedures and enable employees to work productively outside of the office. Most importantly, it could ensure the safety of its staff, remain operative and protect jobs in a time of national crisis.
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