The Sofia Group functions as a formidable holding company spanning multiple industries, including gardening, plumbing, and bedding, through its extensive network of franchises. Renowned brands like Le Roi Merlin, Jardiland, and Literie Valentin find their place within the group’s diverse portfolio. These enterprises are strategically situated across the Grand Ouest, Normandy, and Paris regions.

At the forefront of spearheading the integration of NinjaOne within Sofia is Vincent Ramirez, the dedicated Systems and Networks Administrator.

The Challenge

Operating within the franchise sector as a prominent holding company, Sofia found itself grappling with the imperative to enhance the efficiency and coherence of its IT operations, a necessity magnified by its widespread subsidiaries and locations across France. The existing setup entailed collaboration with a service provider leveraging an alternative RMM solutionN-Able RMM. This arrangement assigned individual accounts to technicians, yet challenges persisted concerning permissions management and access to platform functionalities.

Compelled by the brisk expansion of the Sofia Group – marked by the acquisition of four companies at the onset of 2023 – the IT teams recognized an acute need for heightened precision in wielding their tools. This requirement was driven by the quest to remotely oversee the IT aspects of diverse sites with greater precision and efficiency.

“We were looking for a more modern and intuitive solution. The interface of our priorN-Able RMM seemed stagnant and not up to date.”

The Solution

Prior to stumbling upon NinjaOne, the Sofia Group encountered substantial hurdles in configuring, upkeeping, and overseeing their extensive array of workstations and servers. The attributes of N-Able RMMtheir prior RMM had ceased to suffice for their perpetually shifting requisites.

In addition, the previous IT service provider was inadequately equipped to furnish the requisite aid for pivotal functions, including patch management and software deployment. To exemplify, prior to the NinjaOne adoption, the incorporation of servers into the console posed a challenge, and the task of patching servers had to be undertaken manually.

“Sometimes we had to manually check the status of servers one by one. We couldn’t afford to waste this time. So, we really needed to solve this problem.”

Presently, Vincent possesses the capability to automate patch deployment and conveniently schedule reboots for both servers and workstations, all within a unified and centralized platform.

The integration of NinjaOne was a seamless endeavor. The agent was deployed via Microsoft Intune, and subsequently, the agent from N-Able RMMthe prior RMM provider was replaced utilizing NinjaOne’s functionality. This transition for the 500 workstations was effectively executed within a span of approximately one month.

Managing IT in a Rapidly Growing Company

The Sofia Group is actively in a phase of expansion, having successfully acquired four new companies in the early months of 2023. With NinjaOne’s robust capabilities, they have harnessed the power of automation to efficiently deploy software throughout the estates of these newly acquired enterprises. Moreover, NinjaOne empowers them to swiftly pinpoint non-compliant software and promptly execute scripts for their removal, ensuring a streamlined and compliant IT environment.

“With NinjaOne, we have an intuitive and centralized solution that prepares us perfectly for the ambitious growth goals of the management.”