Formica

The client

Formica Group is an internationally leading provider of surfacing solutions for both commercial and residential customers. With over 100 years of experience, Formica is the largest manufacturer of High Pressure Laminate (HPL) and contain a global network of manufacturing, distribution and sales operations.

Formica’s website is a brochure for their products and a critical sales channel for showcasing the brand and product to architects, property companies, builders and individuals worldwide. Users are able to search the online catalogue, view inspiration and find where to buy Formica products. It is therefore an essential load generating tool for Formica, upon which their revenue and reputation rests.

The challenge

Formica was in a position where they wanted to own the and control their own estate for their website, rather than being tied to a development partner. They also needed an Azure cloud expert to help use the web project as a springboard for wider cloud adoption across the business.  

Formica is a global business, with global needs:

• They required numerous Microsoft Azure PaaS environments to be supported across the USA,  Europe, South East Asia and China.
• Needed an expert who knew not only Azure but had deep knowledge of Sitecore and best practice DevOps.
• Needed a team who could respond to issues in any timezone at a moments notice.

The solution

Just After Midnight worked in partnership with Formica’s agency to deploy a managed hosting solution that would be highly available and respond to scale.

In total, 7 environments were deployed to cover everything from management, delivery, DevOps and product stores were provisioned and optimised.

Formica also made use of our 24/7 application support team to ensure that even when their agency was sleeping, they would have someone looking after their best interests.

Results

• Our managed hosting solution has been deployed successfully and is exceeding performance expectations across the board
• Our unique 24/7 support means that the 30 minute SLA is consistently met and beaten, meaning that no timezone need wait for issues to be resolved

In addition to this, we are now helping Formica define their future cloud strategy as they explore what the Microsoft Azure platform can do for the wider business.