Managed services specialist e-know.net has announced further sales success with a significant extension of its contract with leisure giant Arleigh International.

The move comes following Arleigh’s acquisition of caravan and motorhome equipment wholesaler Nova Leisure. The Nova operation will transfer to Arleigh Head Office, and e-know.net has been tasked with migrating the IT systems over and delivering its range of hosted applications to a dozen more staff.  These comprise Managed Desktop complete with Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, BlackBerry Enterprise Server and a range of legacy and line of business applications.

Alastair Thomas, Arleigh’s managing director, comments: “When we decided to switch to e-know.net a year ago, the main driver was the fact that our existing IT systems were simply not keeping pace with the demands of a growing business. If we had tried to integrate Nova under our old IT regime, it simply wouldn’t have happened quickly, efficiently or cost-effectively enough for what is a hugely time-sensitive, logistics-oriented organization. With our systems now in the Cloud and managed by e-know.net, the transition was smooth, fast and painless, leaving us free to focus on other key aspects of the Nova project.”

Nigel Redwood, e-know.net’s managing director, believes that the Cloud is a sensible destination for acquisitive businesses. “Companies on the acquisition trail tend to be characterized by their agility and flexibility. Traditionally, IT integration has always been a bottleneck and a headache and that doesn’t sit well with a firm looking to get on and bed in the new enlarged organization. With systems sitting instead in a fully managed Cloud, for the client it’s basically as simple as dialing up some extra seats. It’s quick, direct and hassle-free – and makes light of what was once a heavy burden.”