To achieve the high availability and resilience that it required for these business critical applications, Swan Mill decided to work with Attenda who could deliver a fully managed outsourced Microsoft Dynamics AX solution to meet the immediate and future needs of the business.

Swan Mill Paper Company, trading under the Swantex brand name is a market leader within the paper tableware industry, manufacturing quality tableware for the catering and retail industries. The company was established in 1892, with its head office on a five acre site in Swanley, Kent, where it manufactures and distributes the majority of its products both nationally and internationally. Swan Mill was winner of the Food Service Packaging Association 2008 Manufacturer of the Year Award.

Swan Mill Paper Company needed a replacement for its legacy AS/400 system that could integrate with industry standard operating systems and typical office applications. The existing ERP system infrastructure was hosted internally, alongside their core infrastructure systems.

In order to meet the future requirements of the business, Swan Mill decided that they wanted to implement a fully managed outsourced ERP solution, including a technical refresh of the existing hardware and software components. They also needed to replace the legacy corporate messaging system.

The proposed ERP solution would need to be accessible via the internet from remote locations and where possible without fixed communications links. Swan Mill were looking for a scalable infrastructure that could serve the needs of the business for at least five years; a solution that could drive the cost out of their IT both now and in the future, and eliminate the need for internal IT specialist skills.

“In undertaking a major refresh of our in-house systems and technologies, it made sense for us to opt for a fully managed service solution. This would allow us to free up our internal IT resources to add value to the business, rather than be focused on IT operations.”Tony Bowyer, IT Manager, Swan Mill Paper Company

After an extensive evaluation of the industry leading ERP systems, Swan Mill chose to implement Microsoft Dynamics AX for its ERP solution and elected to work in partnership with Attenda, to deliver an integrated production and test environment as a fully managed service. The solution would allow content and development releases to be remotely deployed seamlessly through a secure and reliable environment. The solution design incorporates various levels of resilience specifically scoped to match the criticality of the service being provided to the business.

Microsoft Dynamics AX was the ERP system of choice because of its proven capability in the mid-marketplace. The solution would enable the business to be run with an adaptable solution that would integrate their key business processes and information and would be easy to upgrade and maintain. It would enable the business to more easily connect and interact with customers, partners and suppliers both nationally and internationally, and would facilitate service agility providing the ability to respond rapidly to change.

Bowyer comments, “We recognised that Microsoft Dynamics AX has the lowest TCO in the ERP market and would provide us with a scalable and future proof solution. The integration with widely familiar Microsoft products - such as Exchange & Office would mean our employees could work with tools they are already familiar with, thus lowering our implementation and training costs and accelerating our ROI.”

Attenda demonstrated strong Microsoft skills as a Certified Gold Partner and had a proven capability in the delivery, operational management and support of business-critical, high-quality business solutions based on Microsoft technologies.

Swan Mill recognised that Attenda could take on the operational responsibility and management of the underlying Microsoft Dynamics infrastructure, in a secure and robust environment, ensuring that these business critical applications would always be available.

Bowyer continues, “Attenda’s credentials stood out - they can provide fully Managed Services across several Microsoft solutions – Web Applications, Exchange, Dynamics and Software as a Service for ISVs. Their contract flexibility would enable us to fully align to the needs of the business both initially and in the future.”

The Microsoft Dynamics Managed Service fully utilises Attenda’s operations platform, Attenda M.O. This industry defining technology automation platform is a combination of a specialist team of ‘combat’ experienced IT operations staff, ITIL based processes refined over years of practical operational experience and a technology investment that demonstrably increases application availability, performance and security.

Swan Mill is already reaping the benefits of Attenda’s Microsoft Dynamics Managed Service, which is providing the business with predictable IT costs and improved IT certainty. Attenda’s 24 x 7 support eliminates the need for the specialist internal IT resources to focus on IT operations; instead, they can now concentrate on improving business processes and application functionality to drive the business forward. Microsoft Dynamics AX is proving to be a flexible and highly functional ERP solution, with ease of integration to other Microsoft applications. The new functionality is already improving business efficiencies in some key operational areas, in particular in the production warehouse.

Bowyer concludes, "We see our relationship with Attenda as progressing for the foreseeable future, we have already proven the real value of a managed services approach to the operational management of our critical business applications. Our business strategy will continue to evaluate the market for best value including selective outsourcing in the future.”