Solvtrack consolidates its customer applications onto a high-performance Hostbasket servers.

E-sourcing company Solvtrack develops for its customers multiple IT tools that require a powerful and high-performance server. The company entrusts the hosting of its dedicated servers, mail hosting and Sharepoint to Hostbasket. Thanks to this collaboration the Solvtrack employees are able to focus on their core activities and work more rapidly and efficiently.

'Your supply chain e-solutions, our passion'

On the pretext of 'Your supply chain e-solutions, our passion' Solvtrack develops and delivers ready-made IT solutions to its customers to manage their supply chain activities more efficiently. Solvtrack is a business unit of Solvint and embraces all e-sourcing activities of the company. Seasoned purchase experts share their experiences with impassioned IT specialists. Solvtrack has offices in Belgium (Antwerp), the Netherlands (Breda), China and a development department in Poland.

Solvtrack offers multiple tools to its customers. With the 'specification management tool', purchasers have the correct technical and functional product specifications at their disposal. Companies can reduce their spend over all suppliers and commodities with the 'spend analysis tool'. The 'e-sourcing tool' (Tencora) streamlines the whole sourcing process, while the 'invoice management tool' takes care of the correct status of all incoming provider invoices. Finally Solvtrack also offers tailored solutions for all supply chain processes. All these applications require a powerful, hig-performance server with 100% guaranteed uptime.

Mail hosting: no investment in software or hardware

Even before the foundation of Solvtrack in 2005, Solvint worked together with a hosting company for the management of its e-mail traffic. “We had to deal with a lot of spam mails in those days. That's why we explored the market looking for a new partner. And so we opted for Hostbasket to host Solvint's e-mail traffic,” says Frank Deferm, IT Manager. Hostbasket protects the Solvint mailboxes against viruses and spam ever since without any obligation for us to invest in software or hardware.

“Being a small company, we cannot afford to invest in the purchase of a server, software and the necessary licences. Moreover, we don't have any qualified people in our team to maintain a mail server. Hostbasket takes care of the investment and the maintenance. We are able to profit from Hostbasket's scale and only pay a fixed monthly fee,” he continues.

Dedicated servers: maximum performance combined with the highest level of security

Simultaneously with the foundation of Solvtrack, we opted for two Hostbasket dedicated servers - one for the internal applications of Solvint (accountancy, website, intranet) and one for the e-sourcing tool of Solvtrack. “-We needed a powerful solution to keep our customer applications up-to-date. Thanks to the reliable Hostbasket infrastructure we are able to focus on our core activities, while experts take care of server management,” says Frank Deferm.

A dedicated server is more than rented hardware: it comprises a complete range of services taking care of the proper functioning of the applications on the server. The necessary measures are taken to secure the data transmitted over the internet (SSL certificate). “We can assure our customers that our servers are housed in an ‘Al Quaeda-proof’ environment: they don't have to worry anymore. Moreover, the good reputation of Hostbasket inspires confidence,” says Frank Deferm.

Excellent support satisfies the most demanding customers

On top of the high security level, Hostbasket also provides an excellent support. Frank Deferm: “Maximum uptime is very important to us. In case of problems, one phonecall to the Hostbasket helpdesk is enough to solve the problem. A technician is availabe within the hour, even during weekends.” They can intervene rapidly because Hostbasket has its own data centre situated in Lochristi. “We have demanding customers,” he says; “Some of them have an office in the United States. When they start working there, we are still sleeping. Continue support is thus of vital importance. Thanks to Hostbasket we can guarantee this continue support to our customers.”

Solvtrack made some special arrangements with Hostbasket for the installation of updates. “Normally the server is rebooted by Hostbasket after being updated; in our case Hostbasket sends an e-mail in case of updates and we decide when the server will be rebooted which never gives any problems,” said Frank Deferm.

Future projects and sister company

Solvtrack has its single point of contact at Hostbasket for all commercial and technical questions. The company is planning to connect Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 to the mail traffic. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is the latest Customer Relationship Management software that gives a complete overview of the customers, from the first contact to the purchases and the after-sales service. “Hostbasket is the only company in Belgium to offer these services,’” says Frank Deferm. Soon there will be a third dedicated server for more stability and uptime. The company also uses Sharepoint, a Hostbasket service that enables you to exchange informations online. PMBlue, a sister company of Solvint that embraces all projects other than supply chain projects, has recently switched over to Hostbasket.

“Hostbasket is for Solvtrack an experienced and reliable partner giving us the possibility to house our IT infrastructure and software in a shared environment. In this way we are able to work more rapidly, better and more efficiently… which results in a better customer service,” concludes Frank Deferm.