Customer profile
Simon & Schuster UK, Ltd. (Simon & Schuster) is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing and media. The company is one of the fastest-growing publishers in Britain and their products are distributed throughout the world. The company has enjoyed long-term significant success with a number of well-known and respected authors, and their UK imprints include Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster Childrens’, Simon & Schuster Audio and Martin Books. Their UK operation is located at offices in London and Cambridge.

Situation
Simon & Schuster had previously outsourced IT support through a resource-based contract and was looking for a more pro-active, strategic and structured approach to managing IT systems and supporting users. Additionally, the company was poised to undertake a significant investment in their IT infrastructure in order to benefit from functional enhancements to Microsoft operating systems and messaging technology. Syntax Integration (Syntax) approached Simon & Schuster with a business proposal for costeffective and efficient IT outsourcing service, SyntaxOne. This combines the implementation of
robust and optimised Microsoft infrastructure with controlled processes for management and
administration, providing an opportunity to free up IT resources to assist the delivery of enduser support.

How Syntax helped
The first stage was an on-site analysis of the existing IT environment to understand what technology was in place at Simon & Schuster and how it was being utilised. This analysis also included looking at the business requirements for IT, and how support services could be delivered in a more effective manner. The result of the analysis was a series of recommendations on how to ensure a successful transition to a more measurable and efficient service model. One of the first changes Syntax recommended was updating the IT environment along with changing some of the key infrastructure technologies. Tim Pyle, IT Business Manager, Simon & Schuster UK, explained: “We had budgeted for investment in our server infrastructure as we were running systems that were coming to the end of the manufacturer’s support. Syntax recommended that we moved to a Windows 2003 environment for file and print services and Exchange 2003 for messaging, with one of the main benefits being that the network would be easier to manage and more reliable”.