From Alfragide to Paris: DataRoad audits the network and systems of the France Affiches group at two locations

Founded in 1984 by Angelina Fontana, France Affiches is one of the independent houses of large-format printing in France. It produces advertising posters, point-of-sale material, signage and decoration, in offset and digital, for agencies, advertisers and media buying groups.

Its head office is in Antony, in the Paris region. The group operates three production sites: Antony; Alcalá de Henares, in Spain; and Vialonga, on the outskirts of Lisbon, in operation since 1995.

DataRoad does not audit remotely. Some realities can only be seen in person: equipment that appears in no documentation, connections made in a hurry that became permanent, the difference between what the diagram says and what is actually plugged into the switch.

Being on site also changes the quality of the recommendations. A suggestion taken from a spreadsheet is an informed guess. After seeing the rack, understanding the workflow and talking to the people who use the infrastructure every day, it becomes a defensible decision, with a cost and a priority.

In large-format printing, this has very concrete consequences. Production files are heavy and move across the network all day, the machines do not wait for a server, and a missed deadline cannot be recovered the next day.

A complete IT audit answers three questions, with evidence: what exists, what state it is in and what risk it poses to those who depend on it every day.

On the network

• Real topology The one that actually exists, not the one on paper.
• Active equipment Condition and end-of-support date.
• Segmentation Separation between production and office.
• Connections To the internet and between sites.
• Firewall Rules opened years ago that nobody ever closed.
• Wi-Fi Coverage and saturation.
• Cabling The physical foundation of everything else (enterprise networks and structured cabling).

On the systems

• Servers and virtualisation Space, performance and overdue updates (server and virtualisation management).
• Licensing What is in use and what is paid for.
• Accounts Excessive privileges and accounts of people who have already left.
• Workstations Level of protection.
• Backups Not just whether they run, but whether they restore, which is the only question that matters.

What you are left with

A written, prioritised picture: what is an immediate risk, what is technical debt to plan for, and what is working well and needs no investment. The consulting starts from there and turns the picture into decisions with a cost and an order, rather than a shopping list.

A significant share of DataRoad's clients are international organisations: embassies and public bodies, hotel groups, clinics and foreign companies operating in Portugal. That work brings habits that apply here: speaking to head office in head office's language, having a single accountable point of contact and putting response times in writing.

France Affiches adds a new direction. Instead of supporting a foreign group's operation in Portugal, DataRoad goes to Paris to work with the parent company.

DataRoad - IT Services and Consulting is a premium MSP with its head office in Alfragide and support across the whole of Portugal. Its core model is IT Unlimited, a fixed monthly fee with hours included rather than counted, in three plans: Essential, with remote and telephone support; Premium, with unlimited on-site support; and Premium 365, which adds nights, weekends and public holidays.

• Preventive maintenance and user support Remote and on-site, with 24/7 monitoring on the Premium 365 plan (managed helpdesk and support).
• Servers and virtualisation Ongoing management.
• Networks Structured cabling and enterprise Wi-Fi (business wireless networks).
• Managed cybersecurity Firewalls, EDR and continuous protection (cybersecurity for businesses; managed firewalls).
• Microsoft 365 and cloud Microsoft 365 and cloud services management.
• Backups, telephony and video surveillance Managed and tested backups, phone systems and CCTV.
• A complete IT department IT outsourcing in Portugal.
• Consulting and audit For those who need to understand what they have before deciding.

DataRoad works only under contract and directly with the end client, never as a subcontractor. That is 11 years in the market, 232 clients and the Top 5% PME distinction, awarded by scoring.pt. The service model is described in IT Unlimited, managed services for a fixed monthly fee, and the experience with public bodies in IT for the public sector.

• 24 public contracts with RTP, Instituto Superior Técnico, the Lisbon Faculty of Medicine and SSAP
• Embassies, international organisations and prestigious companies that choose DataRoad in Portugal
• The DataRoad website in five languages for international companies
• Six hotels in Restauradores and Rossio with IT infrastructure installed and maintained by DataRoad

More in success stories and news and projects.

If your operation has more than one location, in Portugal or another European country, and you want to know exactly what exists at each one, request a no-obligation audit proposal.

More than 10 workstations · support contract · remote, on-site and telephone support. Call +351 211 459 950* or write to sales@dataroad.pt.

*Call to a Portuguese landline.