Case Study: Fengrain
Fengrain recognised how much IT was evolving and partnered with CIT to help their organisation grow
Introduction to Fengrain
Fengrain is a dynamically operated farmer owned co-operative. They work for and on behalf of their growers to help them maximise their returns whilst at the same time, ensuring their customers receive excellent service and technically assured quality grain.
Complete I.T. (CIT) spoke with Kevin Cooper, Chief Finance Officer, who has been with Fengrain for over three decades and has taken on a variety of roles throughout the years.
Partnering with CIT
Fengrain has been a CIT client since 2003 and Kevin was an integral part of the process when selecting an IT support provider.
“We recognised how much IT was evolving and knew we would struggle with doing our day jobs if we didn’t outsource our IT. Being a smaller company, we couldn’t afford to have our own IT team and knew that keeping up with technology advancements inhouse as well as training and development for an IT team would be too difficult and too expensive,” said Kevin.
Kevin explained that “agriculture is an industry where you want to know who you are dealing with, you want to meet the people, know the people and have a personal connection.”
When searching for an IT support provider in the Peterborough area, Fengrain became aware of Complete I.T.’s Peterborough office and a “trusted, personal relationship” was formed, which remains to the present day.
CIT Support
CIT and Fengrain have adapted and evolved together and when asked what it is about Complete I.T.’s service that makes it right for Fengrain, Kevin explained that “you do what you say on the tin and haven’t ever let us down. Farmers are very loyal and once trust is broken it’s hard to re-build. We have always trusted CIT and know they would go out on a limb for us, as we would for them.”
Speaking of limbs, a few years into the relationship, Fengrain’s servers went down. CIT rushed to the premises straight away, armed with new servers and stayed until the early hours in the morning (with pizza) to ensure Fengrain would be up and running in the morning, resulting in minimal disruption.
Kevin stands by Complete I.T. not because of price but because of the trust, wealth of knowledge and understanding of Fengrain’s needs.
CIT Team
Complete I.T. “always deliver a solid consistency of support and having a technical consultant onsite who knows our systems and our quirks, really strengthens the relationship we have built over the years.”
Fengrain has a strong relationship with their technical consultant, they are part of the Fengrain team (supported by the wider CIT team) and Kevin feels as if Complete I.T. “always pull out all the stops to get problems sorted.”
In the past when circumstances have changed for Fengrain, CIT have been able to scale their contract reducing their technical consultancy onsite days whilst still offering the same level of support.
Future Proofing
CIT hold quarterly meetings to review Fengrain’s IT Roadmap, offering consultative advice and guidance. With the support of CIT, Fengrain are able to weigh up the pros and cons and understand where they should be prioritising and investing.
“We know it’s important to think about security by design and putting IT/ technology measures in place properly in the first instance, rather than as a result of something going wrong – which is why we always listen and adopt your guidance,” said Kevin.
Cyber Security
IT Support
Hosted Telephony