Emerald Grain is a globally competitive grain trading, marketing, storage, and handling company with a footprint in most of Australia’s key grain-growing regions.
Since starting as a small marketing operation in 2004, Emerald Grain has experienced significant growth, having expanded to include marketing offices, port, and grain handling sites in 15 locations around Australia.
“In terms of support, VITG has a culture of following up on outstanding issues to resolution and are not afraid of testing our satisfaction with their service to help improve their offering.”Joshua Whiting, Chief Financial Officer
The Challenge
However, in 2011, Emerald Grain underwent a corporate restructure, which required a corresponding change in their IT infrastructure. With this need, they turned to VITG to help them with the changes.
“As a result of a corporate restructure, Emerald had to create its own IT environment from scratch. Due to the fact that we were effectively starting from a clean slate, we needed VITG to help design and establish that environment,” says Joshua Whiting, Chief Financial Officer at Emerald Grain.
The Solution
Realising that their previous IT model was not the right fit for their restructured business operations, Emerald Grain implemented VITG’s proactive Unlimited Support plan, which was tailored to their needs. Through this support plan, VITG offered Emerald Grain desktop support, as well as scheduled technician visits both locally and regionally.
“We have had several major transitions. The first has been the new infrastructure environment, and the second was a business merger. Whether the project was small or large, they were well-planned and resourced with technically competent individuals who operate as a team. The continuity over the last seven years is what surprised us and one that delivered real value,” says Whiting.
Throughout their 7-year partnership with VITG, Emerald Grain has looked to VITG to plan, project manage, and implement change in their IT department, both in the short-term with day-to-day services, as well as in the long-term with more in-depth IT projects, including disaster recovery and business continuity support systems.
“We experienced excellent service from VITG, who invested time in understanding our operations to deliver the most appropriately tailored IT environment. In terms of support, they have a culture of following up on outstanding issues to resolution and are not afraid of testing our satisfaction with their service to help improve their offering.”
The Results
As a result of their implementation of VITG’s IT solutions, Emerald Grain now has an IT infrastructure that is perfectly suited to their business’s needs, which gives them an advantage over competitors — not to mention the money and time that is saved through VITG’s advanced IT support.
“Having VITG as a partner allows us to maintain an up-to-date IT service for our business in a changing IT landscape, without devoting a large amount of internal resources. VITG’s knowledge of our business and broad IT expertise gave us confidence that our IT risks are well-handled. They are also proactive when it comes to forecasting potential IT issues, which no doubt saved us money in fixing small problems before they became big ones and helped us maintain productivity through smooth IT operations,” says Whiting.
Emerald Grain’s IT systems are now readily available with a disaster recovery fallback, something which is imperative for a business that operates across multiple regions, particularly during crucial harvest periods for the company.
“VITG is truly a business partner aligned with our IT organisational goals. They have a positive and committed service culture and great IT expertise.”
