Surforma renews infrastructure and implements Managed Services solution with CPCECHO

A company of the Efanor Group, Surforma was founded in 1959 as Sociedade Nacional de Estratificados, the origin of the acronym and of the Sonae Group. It is a leading producer in the high pressure decorative laminate panel sector and is active mainly in the markets of Europe, North America and South Africa, either directly or through other companies of the group.

Surforma's strategy is significantly based on innovation, which entails the regular launch of new products onto the market. According to José Saraiva, its head of IT and administrative services, "the company needed a tailored solution that would allow greater alignment with its strategy and dynamism". At the same time, however, it needed to control costs, which required the implementation of suitable solutions, the optimisation of processes and the acceleration and expansion of its digital transformation.

Complete solution

After analysing several alternatives, Surforma found a partner with a team aligned with its strategy, capable of presenting a complete solution that assertively met its objectives, CPCECHO. After the process of identifying needs and auditing the infrastructure, a complete and balanced managed services solution was implemented, along with infrastructure re-engineering, a new ERP (MS Dynamics 365 BC) and a reporting tool (MS PowerBI), together with CPECHO and CPCIT4ALL.

"In our view, this capacity for coordination and cooperation with various entities is an important asset, since it allows the evaluation and selection of the different pre-analysed solutions", says José Saraiva, adding that "the IT solution implemented is a facilitator for the launch of new products and their processes, which allows the company to reach the global market more quickly and efficiently". Surforma had access to the different internal units of CPCECHO to ensure the swift and successful implementation of the infrastructure, namely the hybrid IT units, which guaranteed all the infrastructure supporting the business, with HPE and Nutanix hardware, and Aruba for the networking area.

Internal and business benefits

With this partnership, Surforma does not need to maintain an internal technical IT team. It is thus "focused on creating value for its business, while CPCECHO manages the technical resources based on the agreed service levels", explains José Saraiva.

Article from the Digital Transformation Special | Success Stories, published in the August issue of Exame.