Case Study - Damper Technology
About Damper Technology
Damper Technology Ltd is an engineering design and manufacturing business specialising in industrial damper solutions for demanding applications across marine, oil & gas, power, carbon capture and general industrial sectors. Headquartered in Eastwood, Nottingham, with subsidiaries in India, North America and Denmark, the company employs around 40 staff at its UK HQ and 50 more in India, alongside a handful of staff across Europe and North America, all working on common systems and trading worldwide. ISO 9001:2015 approved and part of the ORBINOX Group, Damper Technology has completed over 6,900 projects across six continents. With operations this global, resilient and consistent IT was essential, not optional.
What Was Going Wrong
For many years, Damper Technology’s IT was run informally by MD Mark Hancock himself, a self-described “hobby IT manager” who had built the PCs, set up the network, and kept things running with only a little professional support layered on top. As the business grew, this arrangement became unsustainable:
- The MD as a single point of failure: Too much of Mark’s time was tied up in day-to-day IT tasks that had nothing to do with running the business, creating serious risk if he wasn’t available.
- An increasingly corporate incumbent provider: The existing IT provider had grown more corporate over time, and the service no longer matched what the business needed.
- No breathing room: Mark was effectively on call for IT problems around the clock, which limited his ability to step back from day-to-day involvement in the business.
Mark wasn’t looking for a silver bullet, just a provider who would look after the business properly without him having to micromanage the relationship.
What We Did.....
Your IT Department took over as Damper Technology’s managed IT partner, starting with a structured onboarding process and expanding steadily over two years to bring nearly all of the company’s IT under one roof:
- Structured, collaborative onboarding: Mark and his team met directly with the people who'd be looking after the implementation, and were able to define how they wanted the system to work, not just what they thought they were buying, before any changes were made.
- Smooth handover from the outgoing provider: Your IT Department liaised fully with the previous provider, making the transition considerably easier than expected.
- Microsoft licensing and admin: Brought under Your IT Department's management.
- Full network replacement: Routers, switches and Wi-Fi across the business replaced and managed.
- Server replacement: Legacy servers replaced as part of the wider infrastructure refresh.
- Lease line migration: Connectivity migrated over to Your IT Department.
- VoIP telephone system migration: Currently in progress, moving the company's phone system into the same managed umbrella.
Rather than a single one-off project, the relationship has grown deliberately over two years, with Damper Technology continuing to bring more services under Your IT Department as trust has built.
How This Has Helped
- At least 90% of Mark's day-to-day involvement in IT problems has been removed, freeing him up to focus on running the business rather than fixing it.
- All staff now have easy, direct access to support and troubleshooting for any IT software or hardware issue, rather than routing everything through the MD.
- Mark has been able to cut his working week from five days to two or three, something he says would have been impossible under the old setup.
- Greater visibility of risk, with better information on emerging IT risks month to month and a clearer basis for deciding how to mitigate them, whether that means investment, process change, or new systems.
- Real peace of mind, particularly when away from the office or on holiday.
- A steadily deepening relationship, with Damper Technology continuing to add more services under Your IT Department, described by Mark as "the best testament you could have" for how the partnership is viewed.
What Damper Technology Thought
I felt that you were large enough to look after us, small enough to care, and the business development guy did seem to know more about IT than I did, which is not always the case with many other IT providers, so that gave me a bit of comfort.”
“Most importantly, I think it’s taken at least 90% of my day-to-day involvement in IT problems away. It’s given all of the staff easy and direct access to support and troubleshooting for all manner of IT software and hardware issues. It’s enabled me to now work two to three days a week, down from five, and I just can’t see how I would possibly have done that before we moved over to Your IT Department.”
“I would definitely recommend spending some time with Your IT, having a chat, and considering whether they might be a good fit for your business. They’ve definitely been a very good fit for mine.”
Mark Hancock, Managing Director, Damper Technology Ltd
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