Sep 27 2007 by Iain Laing, The Journal

Northern Defence Industries has agreed on a new deal with North-East business provider Knowledge I.T. for the largest infrastructure refresh in its history.

NDI, which represents more than 200 defence companies, has hired the Washington company to help out after moving to the Marine Design Centre in Newcastle.

Originally based in Sunderland’s Business Innovation Centre, NDI switched to Newcastle’s Central Square South last April before the launch of the centre, which allows design engineers in the region to collaborate on international marine projects.

With financial backing and support from development agency One NorthEast, the £2.3m centre was set up as a subsidiary business of NDI.

The Knowledge I.T. contract, worth £100,000 to the Washington firm, has already seen the implementation of a new network infrastructure to deal with the demands of NDI’s expansion. NDI group managing director Trevor Harrison said: “Technology lies at the heart of NDI, with every department relying heavily upon intuitive and stable IT systems.

“The Marine Design Centre required an extremely high-spec level of equipment to cope with the computer-aided design environment.

“Knowledge I.T. offered an impressive, durable and cost effective solution to meet these demands, while providing a stable and low-risk platform to meet our daily business needs.”

Based on an invitation to tender, Knowledge I.T. sourced and procured an extensive list of hardware and software to enable NDI to meet business and client needs.

The initial installation was completed last July. This included the set-up of two Windows 2003 AD domains running on a new network infrastructure and the procurement and installation of three servers, 55 PCs and several printers.

The final stages of the project will see the completion of a new common user facility and the installation of a remote monitoring system to maintain NDI’s daily communication requirements.

Before the migration to Knowledge, NDI had relied on a mix of technology platforms at its previous premises, which required development into a single integrated solution to provide the support needed for the influx of new and varied business growth.

Knowledge I.T’s sales and marketing director George Sanger said: “We spent a lot of time with NDI understanding their business strategy.

“We then worked with them to create a package which would meet their individual needs, providing a flexible, cost effective ICT solution.”

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