Johnsonville

Johnsonville Sausage lights up managed services from Logicalis to keep sausage sizzling around the world.

Wisconsin-based Johnsonville Sausage is the No. 1 national brand of brats, Italian sausages, smoked-cooked links and fresh breakfast sausage links. Its products are available today in 27 countries, including France, Canada, Mexico, Japan, China and the United States.

To keep grills fired up around the world, Johnsonville relies on a sophisticated IT infrastructure. “There’s a lot of technology in our environment,” says Johnsonville Coach of Operations and Networks Dan Allensworth.

When Johnsonville extended its back office management systems throughout its entire operation, the company looked for a way it could provide IT management, without taxing current resources.

Johnsonville’s technology systems are constantly being used throughout the entire organization, from the front office, to the handheld labeling devices on the shop floor. Making sure its infrastructure was operating efficiently, the network storage system was working, backups were happening and all systems were running smoothly was the IT team’s responsibility.

Around the Clock
“In the last couple of years, we went from a centralized, everything-is-done-here-during-the-day shop, to an around-the-clock organization,” Allensworth recalls. The expansion of our applications definitely provided business value; however, it also increased system management responsibilities.”

Allensworth had been working with Logicalis, who delivered and installed the servers for Johnsonville’s IT applications, for many years. After doing some research and visiting the Logicalis Managed Services Operation Center, Allensworth decided to give managed services from Logicalis a trial run.

“It was excellent,” Allensworth says. “They were proactive about managing our IT environment. They would know exactly when something needed attention and could start focusing on it immediately.”

Logicalis now provides IT support throughout Johnsonville, including the tape library, the storage area network, the computer network, all critical servers and e-mail. When Johnsonville upgraded to a new e-mail environment, Logicalis conducted the training.

“Logicalis exceeded our expectations. They really extend beyond what you would think of when you think ‘managed services,’” Allensworth says.

In the Loop
”The real advantage with Logicalis Managed Services is their communications. They always keep us in the loop and informed – we never feel as if we have given the keys away to a different driver,” says Allensworth. “We are still in control of our IT environment. We still do maintenance and support, but much less than before. Now we have time to focus on our core activities and add new business functionality, or work with plants on changes or additions needed.”