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Enterprise Overview
Industry: Construction
Size: SME, 300
Revenue: £70 million (2006)
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Quote
"We stumbled on to Open Source, but since then we have really taken to it. The licensing costs are a lot less. Realistically we're saving about £100,000 a year in software and product costs."
Jeremy Vickers, Finance Director
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What is Killby & Gayford?
www.killbygayford.com
Killby & Gayford Group were a £70m per annum construction company based in London.
Business Situation
Rapid and substantial growth made them suspectible to punitive licensing charges from Microsoft and Sun. This was a particularly acute problem because of the firm's highly distributed nature - at any one time they have 30 site offices to run.
The Solution
In 2003, Killby & Gayford took the strategic decision to run their entire infrastructure on Open Source software. There 350 staff now benefit from a centrally authenticated, fast Open Source network whilst keeping their desktops of choice - whilst the majority of staff use Windows, the IT department use Linux and the Marketing department require Macs.
By standardising on Mozilla Thunderbird, all users have access to a virus-free e-mail system that is capable of handling the demands of transferring large architectural drawings and services schematics.
The Benefits
- Annual IT spend on software reduced by £100,000
- Faster, more stable and secure network
- Scalability at zero additional cost in software licensing
- Support heterogenous desktops - Windows, Macs, Linux and Solaris
Technologies
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