Yates improves its IT efficiency

Pub chain the Yates Group has made dramatic efficiency savings having overhauled its IT management processes.

The company, which owns the Yates' and Ha! Ha! Bar and Canteen chains, has introduced remote IT management systems, financial and training tools, dramatically reducing the time it takes to install and upgrade systems.

Yates has adopted a centralised deployment system based on Computer Associates' Unicentre Software Delivery and Asset Management products.

It has cut the time it takes to roll out PCs across its 152 sites by 90 per. It has also managed to slash the time it takes to install new software and configure PCs from four hours to just 18 minutes.

According to David Flacks, infrastructure manager at Yates Group, a recent refresh of 280 PC using the new software and processes saved the company's four-person IT department more than a thousand man hours

'We have dramatically cut the time it takes to perform software updates and repairs, which has given us the opportunities to concentrate on value-adds for the rest of the company,' Flacks said.

'Machines used to be physically sent for repair by courier, which took anything up to four days. Multiply this by the hundreds of PCs in the group and the different locations of each of the bars, and it was a logistical headache,' he said.

The new PCs the group have just installed are being used to electronically re-order food and drink stock.

They will also form the basis of a staff training package that will also be rolled out across the pub chains using the CA software, training staff on bar management skills.

Yates Group also plans to use the technology to centrally deploy updates and new applications, while also monitoring for software licences that may have expired and for software that should not have been installed.

'We can keep a track on software licencing, ensure the right applications are installed and monitor when a PC needs to be upgraded,' said Flacks

The system is part of the companies larger overhaul of IT systems, which last year saw legacy systems replaced by HP servers running Windows 2000 software.

The company has also rolled out Agresso financial software across the group to help evaluate sales and process accountancy functions.

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