A remote resolution

Australian businesses are increasingly looking to expand across the country and an IT infrastructure is essential to this aim, but how you manage your IT requirements in disperse locations is a vital element.

That is where resellers such as Queensland-based Dennis’ Computers are called in as specialists in the field of providing and supporting servers, storage and workstations for networks of differing sizes. The firm also builds offerings for other IT firms, and is a partner of both processor giant Intel and virtualisation firm VMware.

Dennis’ Computers has an ongoing relationship with fellow Queensland-based Tropic Distributors, a fuel firm which has been operating for more than 40 years. Tropic is a Caltex fuel distributor engaged in wholesale and retail sales alongside the distribution of bulk fuels and lubricants. The firm’s retail division encompasses 11 sites including nine service stations located in Tully, Ingham, three in Townsville, Charters Towers, Ayr, Bowen and Winton and two unmanned sites at Roseneath and Rossiters Hill.

“Tropic is a big company and had a nightmare managing its PCs which are located all over the place,” said Dennis Evans, owner and president of Dennis’ Computers. “We have implemented SyAM Software – which is a third-party software certified for Intel – for Tropic Distributors.”

Dennis is the Australian distributor for US-based SyAM Software which manages instances of unanticipated downtime or issues. SyAM Software develops products that aim to help SMBs and enterprises manage their multi-vendor computer assets more effectively, prolonging their life and decreasing total cost of ownership. Its products are offered in either System Client or System Area Manager configurations and work across all brands of computer systems. SyAM Software System Area Manager is its flagship product for system management. It is a single tool to manage multiple servers, PCI RAID storage systems, desktops and notebooks within the IT environment.

“What’s key for my clients is catching issues before they became problems, being proactive, rather than reactive,” said Evans. “For example, for one of my client’s sites I got an urgent email from a device installed with [SyAM Software’s] System Area Manager. I got on the phone with the client and told them their hard drive was about to fail. Sure enough, during our conversation the hard drive did just that.”