Helvar's IT environment was divided in a corporate restructuring – this is how it was achieved with Enfo .

Helvar is a company specializing in intelligent lighting solutions. At the beginning of 2024, it started a corporate restructuring to separate its factory into a new company called Helvar Components. Enfo helped Helvar to differentiate the IT environments of the companies as part of this arrangement.

Helvar and Enfo had cooperated for a long time. Years ago, they carried out a large-scale IT transformation renewing a big part of Helvar's basic IT environment. This was a good starting point for the separation project.

“The earlier reform set the basis for the separation of IT environments. Enfo already had a good understanding of the environment we operate in. We were assigned a professional project manager and team, and got started quickly,” says Helvar's IT Services & Operations Lead Petteri Boström.

Careful planning for smooth transition

Helvar and Enfo started planning the project together. A clear objective guided their work: Helvar Components' own domain and new e-mail addresses had to be available as soon as the company was founded. In addition, the e-mails sent to the transferring employees’ addresses at Helvar had to be re-routed to their new addresses at Components as of the transfer date.

”These goals were achieved. Enfo quickly set up the initial IT environment for the new company, and we could plan the transfer of personnel, workstations and servers. This required a lot of work. At the same time, we had to make decisions about new login methods and devices, for example,” Boström describes.

Enfo provided Helvar with all the necessary know-how during the project, from IT architecture to local support on transfer day. The transition did not cause disruptions to the business or services, but there were some interruptions for the transferring personnel.

“Enfo's local support fixed the situations quickly, and the effects on the personnel remained minimal,” says Boström.

Be prepared for changes along the way

In a large-scale project, there will inevitably be situations where you need to change plans. Often, this requires balancing between different implementation methods – one option may save efforts for the employees, while the other may cut costs. The choices are reflected in the project budget.

At Helvar, some challenges arose from the need to renew equipment, which was discovered during the project. The domain environment also required changes and local support at the UK office. In addition, there were some overlapping license costs, as the licenses had been acquired with an annual contract before knowing about the corporate restructuring.

”You cannot avoid surprises in this kind of project, and the result is that our original budget was slightly exceeded. However, we are satisfied with the cost level and Enfo's ability to react. Enfo was very much on top of the situation, acted quickly and offered us local support as needed,” Boström praises.

The project expanded also in part because it offered Helvar the opportunity to do important development work. For example, logins were transferred to the cloud during the project.

”Enfo's experts don't just do things for the sake of doing them, but they think about the needs of the future. They offer excellent help for taking IT and business to the direction customer wants to, and they are able to bring and put into practice technical solutions that support the customer,” describes Boström.

Communication and interaction are key

Communication and interaction played an important role in implementing the change. Information was passed smoothly both within the project team and between the project management and the team. By monitoring things at the floor level, small problems were caught before they escalated.

It is crucial to keep own personnel up-to-date as the change goes forward. Otherwise, uncertainty is likely to cause questions and challenges.

”Enfo was very clear about what is happening in the project. It's the company's responsibility to make the same thing clear to the staff – even for those who don't have a technical background,” reflects Boström.

From Enfo's point of view, the cooperation between Helvar and Enfo is characterized by openness. “In our opinion, both parties communicate directly and openly about issues related to cooperation, which has great importance for advancing and achieving things. This definitely played a role in this project as well, and we want to continue the same way,” says Enfo’s Key Account Manager Marko Nieminen on behalf of Enfo’s entire team.

The new service agreements meet the needs of both companies

Helvar and Enfo renewed their service agreement during the project – Enfo will continue to be Helvar's IT partner in all basic IT services. Helvar Components and Enfo, on the other hand, made a separate agreement, which takes into account the needs of a smaller company.

For Helvar, the new agreement enables the development of the IT environment in a way that business requirements can be met quickly, agilely and cost-effectively. For Helvar Components, the contract brings continuity: Enfo knows the company's IT environment and services, which will continue as before.

A long partnership and a good cooperative relationship are valuable to Helvar and Enfo on both sides.

”Enfo wants to help its customers with large projects that they face as their business develops and their operating environment changes. Our cooperation with Enfo has always been characterized by a good mood, which I’m sure will continue in the new agreement period as well,” sums up Boström.