JCS Nuclear Solutions (JCS) is an award-winning family-owned SME in Bury, Greater Manchester. For 50 years, they have engineered radiation sensing and shielding technology for companies such as Sellafield, AWE, and Rolls-Royce.

AT-A-GLANCE

• Industry: Nuclear Instrumentation Design & Manufacture
• Scale (Size): SME
• Legacy Replacements: IT provider transition to fully managed IT + labdesk's M365 Accelerator + Cyber Essentials Plus management + Cyber awareness training
• Primary ROI: "An extension of our team rather than an external supplier" — Oliver Caunt, Managing Director of JCS Nuclear Solutions

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PARTNER JOURNEY

• The Challenge: Systems were fragmented in an SME supplying some of the most heavily-regulated customers in the country.
• The Solution: labdesk installed their M365 Accelerator as a fully managed IT partner, on the strength of shared customers and a sector labdesk already understood.
• The Result: JCS halved the management time lost to IT issues and moved Cyber Essentials Plus from a semi-managed process onto a live managed footing.

INTRODUCTION

JCS Nuclear Solutions has been designing and manufacturing radiation sensing and shielding technology since 1975. Fifty years on, the business Oliver Caunt runs from Bury supplies Sellafield, AWE, Rolls-Royce, the MoD, CERN, and the NHS. Serving customers with an exceptionally low threshold for non-compliance.

By the time labdesk met Oliver, JCS had already put Microsoft 365 in place, moved into SharePoint, and pushed a full digital transformation through the disruption of COVID. Modernising their systems, processes and habits, all at once.

That work left JCS with a capable estate and modern working systems. It also left them with more to look after internally with a previous IT provider.

CHALLENGES

• Managing many different systems for a single estate: Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Flowlens CRM, Podio and Titan QMS were each earning their place working alongside the others.
• Delivering across a boundary: Podio held projects together internally, but customers JCS delivered major work to were using Microsoft alternately. 
• Coordinating Manually: Meeting notes, Gantt plans, documents, and follow-ups were compiled and circulated manually on most projects.
• Committing efficiently: Cyber Essentials Plus responsibility was shared partly with the entire team, all with other commitments.

Project delivery was where Oliver felt the most friction for JCS.

CONSEQUENCES

Without a change, JCS faced several risks:

• Senior time absorbed by IT rather than customers, builds and new work
• Project coordination handled by hand on every major delivery
• A compliance standard maintained by people whose day job is manufacturing
• Customers who expect proof of security, not assurances
  
  

SOLUTIONS

Enter labdesk. With a contract renewal approaching, Oliver already knew where to look. He had met labdesk's directors, Mike and James, at events around Birchwood Park, where a good number of JCS's own customers are based.

Before committing, he did what any careful MD does, and asked someone already living with the decision to move IT providers.

"We knew that you were a presence and that was actually quite reassuring. And I think we share a couple of customers as well. So it was a bit of a no-brainer really when we said, okay, we want to move."

OLIVER CAUNT, MANAGING DIRECTOR, JCS NUCLEAR SOLUTIONS

JCS leveraged labdesk to:

• Take over the Microsoft environment and consolidate licensing into one managed service
• Install labdesk's Microsoft 365 Accelerator to tighten security configuration and open up more of the 365 estate JCS already paid for
• Move Cyber Essentials Plus from a semi-managed process onto a live managed footing
• Introduce cyber awareness training across the team through Usecure
• Deploy Planner inside Teams, connecting internal and external channels for major customer projects
• Give the team a ticketing route into a human support team they know by name

The transition itself was carefully designed to be a seamless process inside JCS.

"The migration from one platform to another, taking over all the Microsoft licences, that worked really, really well... the great thing for us is we gave you guys permission to handle all of that on our behalf, and it was just taken care of."

OLIVER CAUNT, MANAGING DIRECTOR, JCS NUCLEAR SOLUTIONS

And the problem Oliver raised at the start finally got the answer it deserved. labdesk integrated Microsoft Planner inside Teams. Deploying efficient channels for the people inside JCS and the customers they build for. JCS had everyone working in the same place, on the same plan.

THE RESULTS

• 50% reduction in management time lost to IT issues, mainly time spent waiting on fixes
  
  

   

  "The ticket system that you guys have in terms of support, that was a game-changer for us. We were suddenly confident that if there's an issue, you can raise a ticket and someone within a small team, so we get to know you all, was in touch really quickly." 

  OLIVER CAUNT, MANAGING DIRECTOR, JCS NUCLEAR SOLUTIONS

   

• Zero downtime during the migration
• Value Beyond Results: Moving project delivery into Teams and Planner is expected to save JCS 2-3 days a month in compiling meeting notes, Gantt plans and follow-ups. Oliver is now in conversation with labdesk about Copilot planning and training, to bring secure and compliant AI to the data his team handles every week.

Get Started

See what a managed IT partnership looks like on a 30-minute call:

• Stop waiting on fixes — a support team you know by name, not a ticket queue.
• See what's exposed before it's a problem— from an annual scramble to a live managed process.
• Get more from the licences you already pay for — before anyone sells you another one.

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