By Felipe Dreher - IT Web

Over the last three years, SMARTtech, a company of engineering projects, has doubled its sales. This accentuated growth made the company’s technological park obsolete. Without an adaptation of the IT environment, the plans of maintaining an intense rhythm and opening new fronts in Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, the interior of the state of São Paulo and in Argentina could be threatened.

In 2006, the company began to feel the effect of the intensification of business on its technological base. "We had an infrastructure supported by two people who were responsible for the entire user support process, the implementation of new applications and service for external personnel ", commented José Ricardo Andrade Nogueira, the company’s director, recalling a few problems experienced at the time.

"Increasing the team would not solve the problem.  We lacked managerial attention ", reflected the executive. In Nogueira’s view, the demands surpassed issues such as doubling the size or the capacity of the equipment. Our ambition was to support all the needs that might occur during the trajectory of growth that had been traced.

The organization reviewed processes, which culminated in the adoption of a model of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). In the full IT outsourcing concept, CIMCORP was the chosen supplier to provide SMARTech with equipment and people. "We did not know that outsourcing was possible for a mid-sized company ", said the director, adding that the movement conferred the group with benefits compared to larger sized corporations. "This provided us with a very different horizon ", he commented.

The project began in January of 2008 with the exchange of servers, the expansion of links, the migration of applications, the replacement of routers and security systems. Over time, CIMCORP’s work gradually evolved.

By outsourcing IT, SMARTtech was faced with a floating number of specialists servicing its IT demands. "During the preliminary phase, we had battalions of people ", recalled the executive, adding that the partner allocated six people to the company in order to execute the contract. Nowadays, a professional handles the needs while another one acts as a consultant.

The contract, in the IaaS model, consumes R$ 30 mil a month, covering any demand for the next three years. According to the executive’s calculations, prior to the outsourcing, the area’s budget was approximately of R$ 15 mil. "I am spending more, but the measure has opened a new frontier ", evaluated the director, and concluded by adding that the infrastructure as a service provides the company with the courage to grow without fear.