Introduction

Norwest Productions Pty Ltd is based in Sydney, with offices in multiple locations around Australia, New Zealand and China. Norwest Productions is Australia and New Zealand’s largest audio service provider, supplying big events such as Melbourne’s Commonwealth Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

Norwest Productions specialises in audio services for Special Events, Arena Concerts, Touring Bands, Theatre, Broadcast, Conferences and other corporate events. Currently consisting of 36 full-time and 45 part-time staff, the business has expertise in every area of the audio industry - from live production to broadcast to recording.

The Challenge

According to Adrian Riddell, General Manager of Norwest the search for a solution came with the realisation that their infrastructure and software were due for an upgrade in 2009.

“Our servers were due for a replacement within the next year, and some of our software was due for replacement too. I was looking at some rather large capital expenditure and also high operating costs, and was evaluating the options for how best to invest in our pending upgrades,” recounted Mr Riddell.

At the time, Norwest’s entire server infrastructure was housed and maintained in the Sydney head office. Norwest’s core business application - Rental Point was installed on a single Citrix server and accessed by users in the head office and all remote offices. The installation was limited to 20 users and was accessible via a single Internet connection, which was shared with the head office users. Due to constant access and an increasing larger requirement due to expansion, it often reached its limit and performance was often slow as a result – especially for Norwest’s remote office users.

Managing and maintenance of IT became a resource hungry exercise as Mr Riddell quickly realised. “l was spending a significant amount of time managing and maintaining our environment; meaning l couldn’t focus effectively on my core business. We knew there must be a more efficient solution out there". 

The Solution

“After researching l knew that not trying to build our own infrastructure made the most business sense for us, so l tried to find a provider who could truly deliver an end-to-end and highly reliable cloud based infrastructure solution. We needed to focus our core business and needed a professional provider who focused on enterprise grade delivery of our full IT solution and infrastructure.” commented Mr Riddell.

According to Mr Riddell, the combination of IntraPower’s innovative solution as well as savings presented by the solution was the main driver for selecting IntraPower.

“l was impressed with how IntraPower was able to articulate the savings we would make using their ROI tool. Being able to put a figure on a per user basis allowed us to plan for future requirements, instead of just paying for what we currently use. I was also reassured that IntraPower were able to host all the applications we require on a day-to-day basis. Not having to migrate to a different application or system was important to us, as we did not want the time and cost associated to retrain our staff.

Overall, IntraPower provided the best solution at a price that made sense”, explained Mr Riddell.

Norwest decided on the integration of IntraPower’s Desktop On-Demand, Managed Exchange and Application Hosting services, which were all parts of IntraPower’s complete Business On-Demand service.

“As part of the service, we gained access to professional, enterprise-grade infrastructure without having to build our own IT infrastructure. This is a marked improvement to our prior situation. In addition, the services provided by IntraPower are backed by 24x7 support with the security of proven backup and disaster recovery processes and procedures,” stated Mr. Riddell

Once IntraPower scoped Norwest’s business and IT issues,  a solution design was produced for Norwest’s approval. IntraPower then built the system in parallel to Norwest’s existing system including a new Managed Private Network for all of Norwest’s sites. Norwest’s software environment and data were duplicated into IntraPower’s data centre, and testing was done throughout the entire process.

“What we liked about this was that our business continued to run as normal throughout the process. There was minimum risk on our part, and the transition occurred in a single day. I was very impressed”, commented Mr Riddell. 

The Result

There have been many benefits to Norwest Productions as a result of engaging IntraPower, as Mr Riddell discovered:

The most obvious benefit was that we pay fixed costs per user based on our selected services. Our operating expenditure is transparent, allowing us to plan for any possible changes requiring us to scale up or down. Our infrastructure suffers from less downtime, we get access to enterprise level systems and we are more eficient as a result.

For myself personally, the most valuable aspect is the fact that l no longer have to manage our IT on a daily basis, and that means that l can concentrate solely on our core business. That’s made a massive difference.

About Norwest Productions

Norwest Productions Pty Ltd is Australia’s largest audio service provider. Offices are located in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Beijing. Recently Norwest Productions purchased Oceania Audio, New Zealand's largest provider of audio and lighting, as well as McLean Audio in Melbourne.

The company provides audio solutions for

• Special Events
• Arena Concerts
• Touring Bands
• Theatre
• Broadcast
• Conferences, Conventions and other corporate events
   

Norwest has a large full-time staff with expertise in every area of the audio industry – from live production to broadcast to recording.