AFS Global Ltd: From On-Premise Limitations to a Resilient Hosted Future

AFS Global was founded in 2007 by Alan Harrison and Steve Holland, both career experts in global logistics. Alan and Steve’s goal was to support their customers with outstanding personal service no matter what it took. Based strategically near to Manchester airport, AFS have grown consistently, increasing their headcount to ensure their focus on customer service is maintained. A rebrand in 2020 added Global to their name in recognition of their wider international reach. 

Albacore have managed aspects of IT services for AFS Global from the start. Our involvement has steadily increased, supporting just CSP connectivity initially and providing support, consultancy and customer contact through periodic account management meetings as well as assistance through premises moves. The relationship between Albacore and AFS Global developed significantly in early 2018 when we took over all aspects of IT support and service management. 

AFS Global have continued to invest in IT and systems, recognising that the freight industry is heavily reliant upon IT as the key tool that is used to exceed customer expectations. 

In early 2021, as the business rode the waves of Brexit, the second national lockdown was in full swing, and the pandemic continued to quickly evolve working patterns, it became clear that the server residing their office connected to a desktop computer at each desk was not a fully futureproof solution. An infrastructure outage within their office facility further underscored that while the business had invested in their technology, some aspects remained outside their control and more resilience was needed. The solution to all of the above was a migration project to a hosted server from Albacore. 

Albacore already knew the systems in place at AFS Global to a very detailed level, but an audit of data volumes and the programs in use was conducted. A proposal that included a side by side breakdown of the current and proposed ongoing IT costs was developed and presented to the management team. The hosted server solution was provided in Albacore’s new datacentre facility and the 3 cornerstones of the new solution are scalability, reliability and security. 

Migration of the solution to the hosted platform was completed by Albacore engineers. Just over a month elapsed between agreement of costs and the migration to the new hosted servers. The cutover was undertaken fully remotely and in the working day by Albacore, who handled all aspects of the application migration fully in house. The old server system was retired within another 2 weeks.

“As a business, AFS were acutely aware that we needed the most robust yet agile IT infrastructure that we could achieve. Having identified the core requirements of a new system, one that offered maximum protection, unprecedented reliability, and un-hindered access from any location, we engaged Albacore to create an environment to meet these needs.

As expected, Albacore delivered on all aspects from design and transparent costings to the seamless implementation and on-going support. Albacore and our new hosted system are an invaluable part of our current operations, one that future-proofs our infrastructure and allows AFS to focus on delivering our services.”

AFS Global Ltd
Chris Higgins – Head of business development