Creative Special Displays

Client Background

Creative Special Displays are global specialists providing services to the advertising and entertainment industries. For over 100 years they have provided world-class creative solutions, and their work is seen in areas as diverse as Theme Parks, film premiers and special build advertising installations.

Their team of CAD designers, model makers and artists are based in Essex and the USA and work with organisations like Disney, Clear Channel, IKEA and JCDecaux. Their work helps businesses engage with the public and to create memorable, lasting experiences for customers.

Our IT systems had developed organically over the years of our growth and as a result, we had many different suppliers each looking after a small component of our infrastructure. This meant that it was hard for information to be shared between our users and slowed down our productivity.

We needed a complete review of the current environment and someone that could help us understand the future requirements of our business. Carbon Cloud provided that service, helped us understand what was possible and have transformed how we work.

John Dickins, Managing Director

Project Detail

Creative Special Displays were frustrated with the lack of performance and reliability they were experiencing from their existing IT environment. Their support provider was reactive and often took extended periods of time to resolve issues. As the business had grown a number of suppliers had been engaged, each responsible for a small area of the environment. The lack of a unified solution across the business meant that collaboration was difficult and project files were stored in many different locations, slowing down the creative process.

Carbon Cloud was engaged to conduct a full audit of the existing systems and to make recommendations for improvements. This led to a full IT strategy being agreed with the Board of Creative Special Displays, with a roadmap for transformation at its core. This strategy allowed the consolidation of suppliers, reduced complexity and increased flexibility and performance.

It became obvious from our investigations that the existing IT Service was overly complicated and did not really meet the needs of the business. We were able to design a solution and future roadmap that added simplicity and delivered reliable performance to the users. 

Tarquin Dunn – Carbon Cloud.

As a first step in this project Carbon Cloud migrated all of the Creative Special Display users to Microsoft’s Office 365 platform and deployed Microsoft Teams to improve communication and collaboration between users. This migration was conducted in a manner that was completely seamless to the users and ensured that there was no disruption to normal business operations.

Once this migration was completed, Carbon Cloud provisioned cloud infrastructure on Microsoft’s Azure platform to replace the ageing hardware onsite at Creative Special Displays’ head office. The end result is that all their valuable data and project files are stored in a centralised location, is regularly backed up and is recoverable in the event of a disaster through the use of Azure Site Recovery and Backup.

All of the Creative Special Displays’ infrastructure is monitored 24×7 by our service desk and the entire environment and users are supported by our friendly, knowledgeable team.

The end result to users has been a reliable, high performing solution. We no longer have issues with sharing files between different departments of the business and our production process is significantly more efficient. We are now able to scale our infrastructure in line with business demands and have great confidence in the support and service we receive from Carbon Cloud.

John Dickins Managing Director – Creative Special Displays