Micronet Systems wanted to focus
In a world that changes quickly, long-term partnerships have benefits.
Much has changed in the world of IT infrastructure since 2004. The vast majority of organisations still owned and managed their own servers and networks, often from a server room located within headquarters. For the team at Micronet Systems, it was the year they first dipped their toes into the world of private cloud hosting – a move that was ahead of the curve at the time.
It also marked the beginning of the company’s relationship with Macquarie Technology Group. Over the last 20 years, their partnership with Macquarie Technology Group has evolved to the point that Micronet rarely needs to consider the daily details of their technology support – it simply just works.
"If you’ve got great partners, it doesn’t feel like an outsourcing relationship. It feels like it’s part of your team."
Robert Butler,
Micronet Systems
A turn-key solution requires seamless digital infrastructure.
Micronet is a proudly Australian-owned company that has been providing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solutions for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) since 1983. The company introduced its Software as a Service (SaaS) model more than 20 years ago, making it one of the first providers in Australia to offer a hosted version of their software.
Today, hundreds of companies across a broad range of industries use Micronet’s SaaS hosted solution worldwide. Called HARMONiQ, it’s a turn-key solution hosted in Macquarie Cloud Services’ Launch Private Cloud, which leverages MCS’ expert managed hosting team to deliver the digital infrastructure.
This provides the ideal foundation for the team at Micronet to focus on customer success, training and education – in other words, all the value-adding activities that are aligned with their core business.
The Technical Solution.
Set-up and management of server environment for Micronet’s cloud-based ERP solution.
Private cloud supports more than 2,000 Micronet customers, with security updates and patching, 24/7 support, monitoring, provision of insights and alerts.
Flexibility for Micronet to scale compute resources up and down with overnight online ordering.
Development of customised security solution, which Micronet can on-sell to customers as a managed service.
Data sovereignty assured with all data located and managed in Australian facilities.
Results.
The end result of Micronet’s partnership with Macquarie Cloud Services is a solution that removes the IT complexity for Micronet’s customers, said Robert.
“Our solutions empower our customers to streamline business processes, make informed decisions and achieve their business goals. And to do that, you need seamless infrastructure in the background.
“If you take a software system away from a small business, it can be the difference between success and failure. With Macquarie Cloud Services’ support, we’ve got our customers so accustomed to continuous uptime, they don’t really know what life is like without it.”
Like the proverbial duck swimming across the pond, most of the cloud hosting work happens below the surface, invisible to Micronet customers. However, there are occasions when the seamless nature of the hosted infrastructure – in particular, the continuous uptime – has its moment to shine.
“Our customers really notice when they’re moving warehouses or opening new premises,” said Robert. “More often than not they’re amazed because they can pick up their equipment, connect to the internet and be operational in moments, because they’ve got the cloud infrastructure in place – and it just works,” said Robert.
“Macquarie Cloud Services offers us the performance and scalability we need to fulfill our customer promise.”
"Macquarie Cloud Services offers us the performance and scalability we need to fulfill our customer promise. As we’ve grown over 20 years, they’ve grown alongside us. And our customers benefit from that seamless stability."
Robert Butler,
Micronet Systems
Next steps into security.
The reality of the business landscape is that new reporting rules mean that an increase in cyber threats has been compounded by an increase in mandatory reporting. Not just more attacks, but more visibility of who is getting hacked. It’s a reality that has not been lost on Micronet – or their customers.
“Security is always one of those things that is at the forefront of our offering, but you have to keep improving it, always,” warns Butler. “It’s one of our transitions with Macquarie Cloud Services, working to integrate a whole new security layer infrastructure product from MCS that we can offer as an option to our customers. We always want to offer the best of breed of technology when it comes to security, and we’re in a great position to continue to offer that now as more business leaders start to understand the threat and begin to grapple with it more seriously.”
Let's talk!
Eliminate distractions and get back to business.
According to Robert, one of the brightest outcomes of the long-term partnership between Micronet and Macquarie Cloud Services is that over time, you discover value being added in new and unexpected ways.
“If you’ve got great partners, it doesn’t feel like an outsourcing relationship. It feels like it’s part of your team,” Robert explains. “We get access to Macquarie Cloud Services’ specialist skills when we need them – for example, we may only use their engineers for two or three hours per month, and we wouldn’t be able to justify the overhead expenses of having those people as FTE.
“Nor would we be able to build and maintain the digital infrastructure on our own – or want to do it. In other words, we get access to all the great resources at MCS when we need them – and only when we need them.”
The long-term partnership with Macquarie Cloud Services provides a solid foundation for Micronet to focus on what they do best.
“Our core business is providing an amazing ERP solution, as well as training and ongoing education for our own customers. That’s where we choose to be, and we have great resources and people in our team to deliver that. Meanwhile, the team at Macquarie Cloud Services does a great job of taking away those day-to-day distractions from “keeping the IT lights on”.
“As we’ve grown over 20 years, they’ve grown alongside us. And our customers benefit from that seamless stability.”
Service we supplied for Micronet Systems.
Launch® Private Cloud
Private Cloud Solution
How Macquarie Cloud Services helped Micronet Systems.
Learn how the long-term partnership with Macquarie Cloud Services provided a solid foundation for Micronet Systems to focus on what they do best.