The Dutch Bakery: Infrastructure Upgrade

February 10, 2008

What Derek Klaassen doesn’t know about making bread and cakes probably isn’t worth knowing – I know, because every time I’ve visited he’s fed me different types of his produce.

The Dutch Bakery is expanding it’s operation and it is a big job, especially when you have to keep the current bakery operating, make sure the phones are working and that customers orders are getting delivered.

Derek contacted us for independent advice regarding what he should do about phones, computers and other related systems.

Straight away it was obvious that Derek (who was running the entire project!) had no interest in learning the buzz words related to technology – he wanted a solution.

The various suppliers he had spoken to already had send him pages of technical information that (for all intensive purposes) was, to Derek, gibberish.

We worked with Derek and got him to explain where he wanted to be and what he wanted to acheive.  We then documented a solution that we knew would allow him to acheive not only his immediate goals, but also allow him to expand in the future.

We supplied plenty of diagrams, pictures and examples to explain to Derek how the system would operate and the benefits it would bring.

For example:

• Part of our advice was that he should, as he was rewiring most of the bakery, install (at least) CAT5 sockets through the building and have everything routed back to a single location.  In conjunction with his Electrician, an accessible site was located to house a small cabinet to, ultimately, contain the PABX, Switch, Router, etc.
• We recommended a VOIP phone solution to replace their aging PABX and then helped sort through pricing and solutions from a number of Vendors. 

Having seem it all come together I think that the various sub-contractors have done a fantastic job.  Derek is happy and the cakes are certainly just as good as they always have been.

Hopefully we have proved to Derek that bringing in a Consultant is a good use of time and money.  It is our job to turn his requirements into a solution and help him make the (hopefully) correct choices. 

The Dutch Bakery also received business support and advice from InvestSefton.

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