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, directly or through other group companies.

Surforma's strategy is significantly based on innovation, which entails the regular launch of new products on the market. According to José Saraiva, its head of IT and administrative services, "the company needed a tailored solution that would allow for greater alignment with its strategy and dynamism". At the same time, however, it needed to control costs, which required the implementation of suitable solutions, process optimisation 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 needs identification process and infrastructure audit, a complete and balanced managed services solution was implemented, infrastructure re-engineering was carried out, along with a new ERP (MS Dynamics 365 BC) and reporting tool (MS PowerBI), together with CPECHO and CPCIT4ALL. "In our view, this capacity for coordination and cooperation with various entities is an important added value, since it allows for the evaluation and selection of the different pre-analysed solutions", says José Saraiva, adding that "the IT solution implemented is an enabler for the launch of new products and their processes, which allows the company to reach the global market more quickly and efficiently, a key aspect in a highly competitive industry". Surforma had access to CPCECHO's different internal units to ensure the swift and successful implementation of the infrastructure, namely the Hybrid IT units, which guaranteed all the business support infrastructure, with HPE hardware, HPE Networking and Nutanix.

Internal and business benefits: With this partnership, Surforma does not need to maintain an internal technical IT team. It is thus able to "focus on creating value for its business, while CPCECHO manages the technical resources based on the agreed service levels", explains José Saraiva. This was important in the process of implementing the ballistic protection compact panel at the company, a product that represents a technological revolution and that has gained more relevance given the current situation of instability. The process required a series of new configurations, implemented quickly, smoothly and with a high degree of autonomy, across the internal team's various departments. "In an area of constant evolution, we have to keep up with the latest developments with improvements that are assessed and fit within the scope of managed services", José Saraiva also says.