Mike Donoghue of NXD on leading the IT transformation for an established manufacturing business and delivering immense value

1. Mike Donoghue
CIO / IT Director
No.1 Provider of Non-Execs to UK SMEs
Working together with Smith of Derby:
De-risking the IT backbone of the
business
Case Study

2. The Challenge:
Smith of Derby were faced with a situation of an aged IT
operating infrastructure with ever escalating IT costs. Along
with this, service levels were downward spiralling and pressure
was increasing to invest in further in a service provider
recommended solution to remedy a select number of issues.
Client:
Economit have led our strategic IT transformation and delivered
immense value. We wouldn’t make an IT decision without them”
Bob Betts
Managing Director
Smith of Derby
De-risking the IT Backbone of the Business

3. Main challenges:
 On-premise email storage was incorrectly configured and storage was almost at capacity
 A number of complex data backup strategies were in place although many important data
elements excluded
 All operating hardware including servers, SAN’s and firewall’s were not covered under
hardware warranties
 Aged and poorly configured server operating systems
Overcoming the challenges:
Mike identified that the safest and most cost effective was to eradicate risk from their
environment was to adopt virtualisation and cloud technologies and composed a strategy for the
client to do this.
An alternative, cost effective and qualified service provider was sourced to manage and maintain
the uptime of the environment on a clearly defined SLA. All outstanding IT capital costs were
reduced by approximately 20%.
What value was your role to them:
For the first time, Smith of Derby were able to call upon a truly independent and impartial
technologist and strategic IT leader who had the values of the company and it’s best interests at
heart.
So much so that Smith of Derby have continued their engagement with Mike and Economit since
initially appointing him over 4 years ago.
De-risking the IT Backbone of the Business

4. Profile: Mike Donoghue
Mike a highly experienced and motivated strategic technology leader with
28 years global IT consultancy experience mainly in SMEs. His main drivers
are a passion for growth through technology - with digital transformation,
business process automation and cyber security as specialisms.
He co-founded Economit in 2011 and grew the business to just under half
a million pound services-only revenue within the space of five years.
Through his engagements with Economit, Mike has a proven track record
in performing the services of IT Director / CIO for several national £1M -
£20M turnover organisations in the manufacturing, financial services,
hospitality, outsourcing and bioscience.
Mike operates a zero commission policy meaning that we do not accept
financial incentives from any supplier of IT products or IT services. For our
clients, this means that everything related to our consultancy services can
be trusted to be 100% independent and completely impartial.

5. NXD is the No.1 Provider of Non-Execs to UK SMEs
 Wanting to grow their business to the
next level
 Concerned that their business is
getting too big to manage
 Frustrated with persistent and
damaging issues
 Facing new types of challenges in the
future
 Preparing their business for succession
or sale
 Needing a high quality, independent
sounding board
NXD non-executives have substantial
commercial experience that enables them
to act as a seasoned sounding board. They
also have the commercial acumen to help
you improve your financial performance.
Non-exec services include:
 Vision, strategy, planning
 Fund raising
 Succession planning, acquisition & exit
 Geographical and product expansion.
 Leadership coaching
NXD non-executives operate across the
full range of industry sectors including:
Automotive
Business Services
Charities & Not For Profit
Energy & Chemicals
Financial Services
Government/Public Sector
Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals
Industrial Manufacturing
ICT/Technology
Leisure & Tourism
Media/Advertising/PR
Property & Construction
Retail & Consumer Goods
Transport and Logistics
Utilities
NXD is a network that provides non-executive services to SMEs.
Challenges that the NXD non-executives work with business owners to address
include:

6. NXD Ltd
www.NXD.co
+44 8450 038213
succeed@nxd.co