Astroscale
Scaled-up IT infrastructure to facilitate rapid team expansion
Project Overview
Following expansion into the UK, rapid growth and the challenges associated with IT support teams operating on different time zones, Astroscale found that it needed local IT support. SP1 were chosen as a result of our deep understanding of Astroscale’s needs to scale-up the IT infrastructure to facilitate the rapid team expansion at Harwell Campus.
Their Challenge
In 2017, to develop their business case for end of-life servicing and mission operations, Astroscale expanded its global presence and established an office in the UK’s space hub, Harwell.
The site, initially requiring relatively modest IT needs, was fully managed by the local Office Manager with additional support coming from Astroscale’s global IT team located in Singapore and Japan.
Astroscale’s presence in the UK grew steadily over the next few years and in March 2020 the number of employees stood at 25. However, just over a year later, this increased to over 50 employees, with several open vacancies waiting to be filled.
This growth rate, plus the challenges associated with IT support teams operating on different time zones, made it clear that local help was needed.
UK Operations Director, Sharon Parker-Lines, realised that Astroscale would need to rapidly develop its IT to keep pace with the speed and scale of its own rate of growth. Any changes to the company’s IT would also need to keep up with the demand on the teams managing mission-critical satellite operations in space.
Our Solution
Following a vendor comparison investigation conducted by Astroscale’s own internal IT department, SP1 IT Solutions were chosen to become the exclusive IT partner for Astroscale’s UK site at Harwell. SP1 IT Solutions was chosen as we had worked to develop insight into the business and had a deep understanding of Astroscale’s needs. We were well-aware of the need to scale-up the IT infrastructure to facilitate the rapid team expansion at Harwell Campus. SP1 IT Solutions was also noted during the process to have good staff engagement and was found to be more personable when compared to the other vendors.
“They are highly accessible and make you feel like you are the only company they are delivering for” – Sharon Parker-Lines
Being UK based, and always available, SP1 IT Solutions was available to assist hands-on with the group’s Global Transformation Programme from Google to Office 365. The team delivered third party training, became the site IT administrator, and completed advisory work with Japan to help to optimise the roll-out. During the launch of Astroscale’s first satellite in March, the founder of SP1 IT Solutions, Stefano Pratesi, was also up at 5am with the rest of the global team to watch the launch.
SP1 IT Solutions now provide and manage the entire office and IT architecture. As Sharon said, “It feels like they work for us, they are one of the team.”
Key services provided include:
• Unlimited phone and remote support
• Virus protection
• Hardware roll-out and support
• Office 365 support
• Mobile device support
• System support
Key benefits
• Fast and accurate identification of business needs across all the company’s IT
• Ability to support complex IT infrastructure for the space industry
• Provision of always-on IT support for hardware and software for all users
• Acting as a trusted partner, supporting the IT strategy as the business grows, and offering advice and recommendations for key leadership decisions on IT
• Able to implement comprehensive backup and control centres, with 24-hour onsite support as required
“When an issue occurred with some internal files during the office 365 migration, SP1 IT Solutions sent a software engineer in over the weekend to write the code to fix it. The complexity was completely taken care of.” – Sharon Parker-Lines