POSITIVE ENERGY: 

London-based IT support from Canada to the Sahara. First Calgary signs up Doherty for all its fixed and mobile IT support needs.

“Doherty are always the first people I call. When stuff breaks, you fix it. It’s an important job and you’ve got a very happy customer.”

Anna Symonds, London Team Assistant, First Calgary Petroleums Ltd.

First Calgary Petroleums Ltd (FCP) is an oil and gas company based in Calgary, Canada. With operations in Algeria and a central London office, international communication and file sharing across time zones is critical to their business. As telephone signal in the Sahara is limited, reliable electronic systems are vital.

FCP needed a London-based IT support supplier to advise and collaborate with their corporate IT team 4,000 miles away in Calgary, then implement decisions made. They were therefore looking for a reliable and flexible partner, who could work at a fast pace using state-of-the-art technologies.

Unfortunately, FCP’s first supplier failed to deliver. Response to user issues was slow and systems were unreliable. With members of staff only stopping off in London for a few hours en route to Africa or Canada, any delays were unacceptable.

FCP therefore chose a bronze support contract with Doherty Associates. As Jack Scown, FCP’s Director of IT comments, “Doherty responded wonderfully to our needs in the UK. The transition to working with Doherty was smooth and uneventful, and the ongoing relationship that we have forged delivers the support to our users that we expect and the good value that we demand.”

The most useful aspect of their contract is unlimited telephone and remote support with guaranteed response times. Doherty’s helpdesk engineers are friendly, knowledgeable and willing to help with any problem, large or small.

As Anna remarks, “Whenever we ring up, any of Doherty’s helpdesk guys can help. I often feel a bit stupid having to ask certain things, but they are not at all patronising. Mostly, we speak to one particular engineer who has been assigned to us. He seems to understand all our systems in the way that any permanent employee of our company would. He always knows what needs to be done. For a while, I used to see him in our office and think he was one of our guys – which I guess he is!”

If a problem cannot be resolved remotely or over the phone within a few minutes, a case is opened in Doherty’s call logging system. The user is then continually updated by our engineers until it is resolved.

By using Doherty as their outsourced London IT provider, FCP enjoys access to a complete London IT team for a fraction of the cost of one employee. Via their dedicated account manager, FCP can consult our experts to ensure that an IT strategy planned in Canada is fit for London.

“We see Doherty as an extension of our own IT team, not as a third party supplier. We’ve only got Calgary at certain times of the day, but we’ve got Doherty 24/7.”

Anna Symonds