When the box doesn’t fit

2021. What an interesting year.

With the world turned upside down by a pandemic that seemingly had its sights set on causing as much disruption and confusion as possible, TCM began the year with a focus on steadying ships, reaching out to Customers with a simple message:

How can we help?

With many NonStop users relying heavily on small teams (sometimes of 1!) to support their critical systems, TCM anticipated this vulnerability may be exposed when having to contend with a virus that could decimate even the most robust workforce. Thus, TCM started to roll out a short-notice, quick-fire backup resourcing service, left to run in the background, but ready to jump in and assist if ever key people became unavailable.

The service was well received and continues to generate interest from NonStop customers around the world. We intend to continue to offer this option to NonStop users for the foreseeable future as the benefits of on-demand, highly skilled NonStop support services are clearly visible.

D Craig – Managing Director, TCM

Upon reflection however, the backup resource service was not the only headline theme that would categorise TCM’s year. No, 2021 ended up being a little different to what was anticipated, indeed the other theme for 2021 was exactly that: different. TCM encountered so many ventures that were unlike anything worked on before, stepping further and further away from a standard NonStop support solution. So often this called for pause, taking time to look past the noise to evaluate the core of the issue before seeing the value TCM could offer by means of a solution. Thus, the year opened the door to a new range of unique, complex, challenging and ultimately very interesting projects.

From bespoke, cross-platform backup solutions to application migrations with a twist, off-host data replication implementations, hosted NonStop solutions, fraud protection services (watch this space), automated lodgement processes and more, – so many of this year’s tasks all shared the same underlying component: they did not fit neatly into a pre-defined box. In fact, sometimes the problems encountered had only a tenuous link to NonStop and instead existed across a wide range of disciplines, departments and technologies.

As we answered the ‘how can we help?’ calls, it became apparent that so often there are issues our customers suffer, without the time or space to properly plan and execute a resolution – and once NonStop gets introduced into the fray it becomes impossible to know where to start.

D Craig – Managing Director, TCM

However, by starting with the NonStop, even in situations where the NonStop’s involvement was minor, TCM found it was possible to remove certain blind-spots that otherwise hindered progress. Once removed, the solution would often fall into place thanks to the coordinated efforts of TCM experts and customer resources from across the business. TCM would lead the effort to design and implement the solution, managing the requirement through to completion. NonStop or not, TCM’s skill and experience in critical environments, paired with a proven problem resolution methodology paved the way.

We found we are quite adept at problem solving, and that this skill extends beyond just NonStop, even into situations where it is not clear exactly where the problem lies, or more crucially, whose responsibility it is to solve it.

D Craig – Managing Director, TCM

In other words, if the problem does not fit neatly into a box – TCM will build you one to suit.

If you are looking for assistance with a problem that just doesn’t seem to go away, even if only remotely related to NonStop, reach out to TCM today.

nonstop@tcm.uk.com   www.tcm.uk.com