The Client

The Client is one of the world’s leading supply chain management companies. They design and implement industry-leading solutions in both freight management and contract logistics.

Founded in the UK, The Client now has more than 35,000 employees, working in around the world.

The Challenge

The Client was struggling to maintain one of their asset management applications.

The incumbent managed support supplier had gone into administration and the application was put into Escrow, a data security measure in which a cryptographic key is entrusted to a third party.

The Client used the asset management application to aid in the delivery and tracking of automotive spare parts between distribution centres to dealerships.

The application was principally controlling the assets that the parts were packed into for shipping, (e.g. bags, cages, and boxes). The Client delivers more than 3000 assets to over 1500 dealers per night using 175 delivery vehicles.

Crimson managed services IT solutions team already had a working relationship with The Client, providing resources to support a Java-based transport application.

After the closure of its previous supplier in November 2011, The Client approached Crimson to see if they could recover the application and provide the much-needed managed IT support for it.

The Client wanted Crimson to improve and maintain the application so the company could continue to use it and develop it further. This would ultimately help The Client to continue to operate and achieve its on-going commercial strategy.

The Strategy

In early 2012, Crimson conducted an ‘on-boarding’ exercise of the asset management application, moving it into Crimson’s support team, whilst further enhancing the code.

The Client then entered into Crimson’s application lifecycle management support programme, which began on 01 March 2012.

Crimson instigated a database migration from the application in 2015, moving it to a new dedicated server. This made the asset management application more robust and improved its operating speed and scalability, which helped support The Client to take on new larger customers.

The ROI

Crimson succeeded in recovering the application from Escrow and returned it to full operational capacity within weeks of being contacted by The Client.

Over the last five years, Crimson has maintained and upgraded the application, scaling it to meet The Client’s growing business.

In 2016, The Client counted the likes of Porsche and Jaguar Land-Rover among its new customers.