Printerland
History
Originally established in 1993 and based in the North West of England, Printerland has carved a niche in the B2B market offering a huge range of printer solutions to all size businesses. The online catalogue includes colour printers, mono printers, dot-matrix printers, fax-machines, accessories, media and consumables.
Printerland has gained a reputation for competitive prices and rapid delivery. The team have built the business by successfully advising clients on the most suitable product for their business and backed this up with the best purchase price and quickest possible delivery.
While hosted by a previous ISP, Printerland experienced a drop in web sales in summer 2005. The team discovered the servers were running so slowly that enquiries timed out before orders could be placed. Periods of downtime also contributed to the decision to find a new provider. Printerland moved to UKFast in September 2005.
Exceeding expectations
Printerland needed a solution that would keep its business running at speed 24/7. It chose UKFast in a bid to rediscover an initially strong web presence. Dedicated servers were set up with UKFast. RAID technology which stores the same data in different places on multiple hard disks immediately helped to streamline operations allowing them to overlap in a balanced way. Within days, traffic bottlenecks disappeared. To ensure no single point of failure load balancing hardware was also implemented into the solution.
The MD of Printerland is glad he took decisive action. "We discovered UKFast through word of mouth and were delighted by their efficiency. Within days the site was functioning better than ever. And with their Linux expertise, I'm confident that I have a direct line to their experts should I need it. You can't ask for more than that."
By embracing the Internet Printerland has gained a competitive advantage. The online business cuts out the middleman, expensive shop rent and overheads do not have to be paid so Printerland is in a superior position to undercut traditional retailers and exceed customer expectations. Despite this advantage Printerland understands its web infrastructure is essentially its 'shop on the high street'.
Shoppers are reluctant to enter a disorganised, untidy retail shop. In the same vein Internet users will not stay on a website for very long if it is disorganised, lacks effective security and runs at a very slow pace.
The importance of speed and constant uptime
Customers can buy printers online any time of the day or night so constant uptime is essential. Printerland has recently invested in extra dedicated high grade bandwidth to deal with the high levels of traffic and to ensure the servers run at full speed with no chance of latency.
More than one third of Printerland's sales come from online business therefore it is important that the company does not hold back its web presence as this is the most readily available port of call potential customers have.
Customer service
Because of the Printer vendors increasing online profile and ambitious nature, the partnership is reviewed on a rolling basis. UKFast's Technical Director and Operations Manager visit the Printerland offices at regular intervals in order to assess the success of the solution and look at how new emerging technologies can benefit the company's infrastructure. As the Internet climate changes rapidly, this allows UKFast to be responsive and proactive, keeping Printerland at the competitive edge of the market.
Data protection and security
In response to increasingly complex security threats Printerland improved its level of protection in early 2007 by taking out a Cisco Pix Firewall. This provides hacker protection, access control and other much-needed tools to assist in the security of the network. This also works in conjunction with intrusion detection systems (IDS) and CTmonitoring™ to not only defend against compromise but allow engineers to anticipate possible hacker attacks before they have any chance to taking hold.
As well as associated network protection, emphasis is also placed on multiple server monitoring. Connectivity is checked and monitored every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in 3 locations in the UK, preventing problems before they even occur.
If you would like to find out more and discuss how we can help your business flourish online call today on $phoneno or contact us online.
