LanDynamix has successfully migrated the South African operations of its long-standing client, ManpowerGroup South Africa, onto the parent company’s global network. The move follows a decision by ManpowerGroup to move all its subsidiaries onto a single global network–until recently, ManpowerGroup South Africa had its own network and IT systems.
ManpowerGroup has been providing staffing solutions to companies around the globe for more than 70 years. It helps more than 400 000 clients in 80 countries address their critical talent needs. The company is quoted on the New York Stock Exchange.
“Moving everyone onto the same network obviously has huge benefits, most notably that the same high standards are applied consistently, and collaboration is much easier. It’s also much easier for work from anywhere in the world because it’s the same network everywhere,” says Peter Clarke, CEO of LanDynamix. “But because this required the existing local IT systems and networks to be completely replaced in line with the global standards, this was a massive job that required good planning and the resolution of numerous issues.”
Clarke says that three projects were the backbone of the migration. The first of these was the migration of all ManpowerGroup South Africa’s employees onto the same Office 365 instance. LanDynamix was able to move all the South African entities e-mails onto ManpowerGroup’s global Office 365 account with no loss of data, no downtime and minimal impact on users.
A second project involved moving ManpowerGroup South Africa’s three branches (Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town) onto their global parent’s next-generation network. This also included installing the new Cisco Meraki equipment specified by the global IT policy. This feat was accomplished in three days.
“Now that it’s on the global parent’s network, ManpowerGroup South Africa benefits from the security offered by its secure WiFi, firewalls and other security measures,” says Clarke.
The third project involved the migration of the South African company’s Active Directory onto the global network.
“Moving our entire network onto a new platform was a significant exercise with many moving parts. Having worked with LanDynamix for a number of years, we knew they were totally professional, and would be committed to solving problems – and there were many – as quickly and effectively as possible,” says Lyndy van den Barselaar MD of ManpowerGroup South Africa. “We were not disappointed.”