Designer Doorware

Overview

Designer Doorware was an Australian designer and supplier of door hardware, with a separate locksmith services arm. The business operated from a combined office and factory plus a separate retail store. Over several years, BaseHost consolidated their IT footprint, decommissioned their legacy on-prem servers, moved their ERP into AWS, modernised the networks across both locations, and brought a locksmith e-commerce experience online.

The Situation

When Designer Doorware engaged BaseHost, the technology environment was held together by a patchwork of unrelated vendors. Marketing, IT, networking, computer supply and the on-prem servers running the ERP were each handled by a different supplier. Coordination was painful, accountability was diffuse, and the underlying technology was ageing. The brief was simple: consolidate everything onto a single managed platform and modernise the parts of the stack that were holding the business back.

What We Delivered

Vendor consolidation onto one IT partner. BaseHost absorbed the work that had been spread across marketing, IT, network and hardware suppliers, so the team had one number to call instead of six.

Microsoft 365 standardisation. A single tenant with SharePoint and OneDrive used extensively across the business, replacing the previous mix of local file shares and ad-hoc cloud accounts.

A mixed Windows and Mac device fleet. Predominantly Windows with some Apple devices, all procured, deployed and managed under one operating model so the support process did not change with the platform.

On-prem servers retired and the ERP moved to AWS. The internal servers running the ERP were decommissioned and the ERP itself migrated to a cloud-based deployment in AWS that BaseHost provisioned and managed.

Multi-site networking with site-to-site connectivity. Office, factory and the separate retail store all connected with managed networking, so the retail store and the back-of-house operations behaved as one logical network even though they sat in different buildings.

Cloud print via Printix. The printer fleet across both sites consolidated into a single cloud-print stack under Printix, removing the need for a print server.

Website modernisation and a locksmith e-commerce build. The web presence was modernised, and the locksmith arm of the business was moved off a manual ordering process into a proper online ordering and checkout experience.

Fully remote management. The entire environment was supported remotely with no on-prem IT presence required.

The Outcome

• One technology partner across an environment that previously had several, with clear ownership of every layer of the stack.
• On-prem servers gone, ERP modernised on AWS, and the operational overhead that came with both retired alongside the hardware.
• One logical network across two physical locations. Retail store and back-of-house operating as a single environment.
• A retail locksmith business with proper e-commerce instead of manual ordering, freeing the team from order entry overhead.
• A managed-print fleet under one platform. Across two sites, no print servers.