Introduction
What makes Nexus different from its competitors is not only its Microsoft Gold Certified Partner accreditation, but also the considerable expertise that it has gained over the years. Our engineers are constantly at the frontline implementing systems that bring real business benefits to our clients. In this article we look at how the implementation of NETmon network monitoring solution by Nexus has brought both immediate and long term benefits to the Midas Group.

The Midas Group is one of the UK's fastest growing, independent providers of property solutions, offering a complete range of construction and property related services for every industry sector. Midas Group's central IT infrastructure is based in Exeter and it delivers business critical IT services to 480 users located in 8 regional offices and 100 construction sites around the UK. The infrastructure is supported by a team of 8 staff based at the group head office in Exeter.

NETmon
NETmon Network Monitoring solution by Nexus is a comprehensive LAN & WAN monitoring and alerting appliance that is a dedicated rack or tower based computer installed at the client's premises. The appliance is configured by Nexus to monitor any number of network attached devices, systems or services. NETmon can monitor a large number of variables including the following common options:

The NETmon appliance monitors these and many more variables and if issues are identified takes pre-defined actions. These actions can include the triggering of visual and audible warnings, sending email and SMS messages, and if appropriate, executing external programs, restarting services and rebooting local or remote computers. NETmon's Log Analyser also collects statistical information and displays graphs of monitored variables.

Implementation
The implementation of NETmon at Midas Group took less than a day. This included the physical installation and configuration of the NETmon appliance, integration with Midas Group network infrastructure and configuration of monitoring variables and alerts for over 100 devices.

Benefits
NETmon immediately identified a number of issues with the Midas Group computer network. These included a server that was running short of disk space, an over utilised processor and issues with their Citrix installation. In addition to this NETmon also identified five VPN connections that were not being used. Further investigation revealed that these were connections to completed construction sites that, due to a breakdown in company procedures, had not been terminated when the project was completed. The cost savings made by terminating contracts for these links alone has meant that NETmon has already paid for itself!

Prior to the implementation of NETmon Midas relied primarily on feedback from users to identify issues or problems with their computer systems.  This meant that the IT Team was only reacting when things had already gone wrong. David Beaton, Midas Group IT Manager explains "NETmon has enabled us to identify and in some cases rectify computer system faults before users notice. For example we identified the failure of a fax server and ongoing issues with Citrix printing. Both of these problems were addressed before they had any impact on our users."

Scott Bovey, Midas Group IT support adds "NETmon SMS based monitoring has also proved invaluable as the IT team were alerted to the failure of a DHCP server over one weekend and were able to use NETmon's remote console to investigate and rectify the problem via a remote connection from home. This meant that our systems were back up and running before the users arrived on Monday morning, rather than starting the week with systems down and an organisation full of disgruntled users".

In addition to NETmon's reactive alerts, event log monitoring tools provide an invaluable system to monitor availability and usage trends. David Beaton comments, "Being able to instantly produce a report that shows system availability with server and communication link up-time is a very powerful tool for discussions with end users and communication suppliers". 

Conclusion
The open architecture used to develop the NETmon Network Monitoring appliance has allowed Midas Group to fully integrate the solution into its existing helpdesk application. This enables real-time and historic information to be displayed to operators graphically in desktop dashboards. Midas Group support staff can now spot trends and monitor system accessibility, plus respond to problems and fix issues proactively.

Anthony Charman, Business Development Consultant at Nexus Open Systems adds "I have found that customers that use NETmon to produce real-time statistics and alerts direct to support staff desktops can provide a more focused service and maintain a motivated ICT team. Network monitoring is something that every IT department should do - but it often falls off the radar or gets re-prioritised. NETmon has helped our customers be more proactive about ICT support and ultimately provide their users with a better level of service".  David Beaton concludes by saying "NETmon has become another member of the Midas Group IT department, it works 24-7 and for a fraction of the cost. Now I have implemented NETmon I could not do without it".

If you are interested in finding out more about Nexus Technical Support Contracts or how NETmon can save you time and money contact sales@nexusos.co.uk or call 01392 205095.