Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Datapac, Ireland’s leading technology solutions and services provider, has enabled warehouse solutions and forklift manufacturer Combilift to move to a digitised environment with a number of bespoke cloud and disaster recovery solutions.

Combilift is the largest global manufacturer of multi-directional forklifts that optimise how businesses manage their warehouse storage and load handling. Based in Monaghan, it employs 650 people and has sold more than 50,000 units in over 85 countries across the globe.

Technology has been at the heart of Combilift’s success and also its ability to maintain services throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. The company evolved its free warehouse design and layout service to a virtual system, using purpose built technology and video calls to help customers around the world resolve warehouse problems and maximise space. Overall, Combilift has seen a 50% increase in enquires for its products and service over the period of Covid-19.

As part of its digital transformation journey, Datapac equipped Combilift with a cloud-based productivity and collaboration infrastructure, as well as implementing disaster recovery solutions to protect Combilift’s data and systems.

Datapac deployed Microsoft 365 Enterprise for Combilift, managing the migration of over 400 mailboxes and associated applications from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud in a period of 48 hours, with minimum disruption for users. Through the full suite of 365 cloud applications, Combilift’s staff can stay connected and maintain services to customers during the pandemic. Using file sharing and anywhere access, staff can work securely on company documents from home and have replaced face-to-face meetings with Microsoft Teams, a socially distant alternative.

In addition to managing and updating these cloud services, Datapac also implemented a full VMware disaster recovery cluster to replicate Combilift’s existing server site. This ensures that all of Combilift’s services, including design, sales, finance and accounts, are fully backed up and protected. This greatly mitigates the risk of Combilift experiencing system downtime and helps ensure customer experience is not negatively impacted.

Datapac continues to provide Combilift with network support, IT hardware and help in optimising its IT systems. By embracing a digitised environment, Combilift is enhancing efficiencies throughout the entire organisation.

Fearghal McCorriston, IT manager, Combilift said: “Technology plays a vital role in everything Combilift does and our digital transformation has without doubt helped us to navigate the challenges of Covid-19. For example, we’ve seen a marked increase in demand for our free warehouse survey service. Within just 24 hours of speaking to a site owner, we can produce layout designs to show the substantial benefits of making the most of space – one of any business’s most valuable commodities.

“Any downtime to our systems can have a significant knock-on effect for our customers, who often are working to project deadlines themselves and can’t afford delays in the delivery of our products or services. It’s essential that our IT systems are robust, reliable and work to support our organisational goals. Datapac’s disaster recovery solution has been very reassuring in protecting our systems and its specialist knowledge has helped us to maximise the benefits of the cloud – helping our teams to stay connected and productive.”

Eoghan Kehoe, Account Relationship Manager, Datapac, said: “Combilift is a true Irish export success story with a well-deserved global reputation as an industry leader. It’s approach to Covid-19 has been exemplary, showing other manufacturing companies how technology can be used to reimagine services and ensure business continuity, employee collaboration and customer satisfaction.”