Microsoft technology allows company to capitalise on publishing phenomenon
Profile Books, a small, independent publishing company specialising in non-fiction and publisher of The Economist Books, found it had a surprise hit on its hands when Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots & Leaves became an international bestseller. The increased demand and workload caused by this success led the company to examine its IT systems. By upgrading to Microsoft® Windows® Small Business Server 2003 and Office XP , the company built systems able to support the increased workload that the phenomenal success of the book brought about.
Situation
Profile Books was formed eight and a half years ago by a former publisher at Penguin. It is based in London and employs twelve people full time with a further two working part time. Historically the company has enjoyed moderate if steadily improving sales and growth, but in 2003 the company had a surprise hit in punctuation guide Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
Edwin Laing is Systems Manager for Profile Books. “Our IT usage is fairly basic - we use computers for reporting, accounting, data management and word processing. Because of this, our IT systems were similarly basic - in fact we were operating with just a dial-up Internet connection and outdated networking software.”
The sudden success of Eats, Shoots & Leaves caused Profile Books' workload to grow significantly and made the value of the IT systems obvious. Laing said: “We were all working longer hours with a much greater workload, and this included the computers and server. They began to feel the strain - for example we had a problem with the server which meant that over three months we were having to restart it six or seven times a week.”
This led the company to examine an upgrade, according to Laing: “I am essentially the IT manager as I am the only member of staff with IT knowledge but I have other responsibilities too and we needed more stable IT systems to cope with our sudden success. Quite simply, we needed systems that supported the success we were beginning to enjoy and the added workload that brought about.”
Solution
Profile Books employed technology company Gregory Micallef Associates (GMA) to upgrade its systems. “We knew we could rely on GMA as it is a Microsoft Ò Certified Partner. To me, that means a certain level of expertise and professionalism is guaranteed. GMA understood that we needed a reliable IT backbone and recommended installing Microsoft Windows® Small Business Server 2003.”
Creating a new computer system for Profile Books was a surprisingly quick and painless process. Laing confirmed: “The whole process was completed in two days. The server wasn't available during the upgrade so the fact we were offline for such a short period of time was very pleasing.”
Benefits
Profile Books now has a computer system that is more than 'just good enough'. The system, based on Small Business Server is reliable and robust enough to cope with sudden increases in workload and will support the business for some time to come.
Importantly, the frustrations of frequent crashes and server restarts are things of the past. Laing said: “Small Business Server is far more reliable than our old setup. As a result, the business is on a firmer footing, and future growth won't be undermined by our systems.”
The new system is also easier to maintain and so makes a far smaller demand on Laing's time. He said: “The system does not crash constantly, which means I can spend less time problem-solving. Just as important though is the fact that GMA can access our systems from its own offices to fix minor problems or carry our routine maintenance.”
This has allowed Laing to focus on other projects: “I've been freed up to concentrate on more strategic work. For example, we needed to redesign our website, as the current one is basic and unwieldy. Before Small Business Server, developing a new solution would have been difficult.”
For Laing, the overall impact of Profile Books' new computer system is simple - it supports success. He concluded: “With the success of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, it has been a busy year. Next time, however, we will be able to cope with the extra demand with fewer problems, quite simply because we have the right infrastructure behind us. The ability to cope with our continuing growth is testament to this.