Success Story : Fior Ateliers

Many thanks to Olivier Abreu, Partner at Fior Ateliers, for agreeing to discuss their IT project, carried out in collaboration with Rcarré.

Through his testimony, discover how Fior Ateliers took advantage of our support to meet its IT challenges, in a collaboration based on trust and responsiveness.

Can you tell us more about yourself ?

“I joined Constructions Métalliques Guy Gardula & Associés in 2011, then in 2017 I became a partner, and in 2024, Fior Ateliers and Guy Gardula & Associés joined forces by merging into a single entity and relocating to our current site in Bascharage. We are a company of around 80 people, specialising in metalwork, ironwork and, more generally, metal construction.”

What was your initial requirement that prompted your company to approach us ?

“We have been working with Rcarré for over 15 years. So it was obvious to us that we would work with your teams on our latest major project involving the physical relocation and merger of Fior Ateliers and Guy Gardula & Associés.

The project was a big one, given that it involved two different companies, each with its own server-side IT system, but also with different data hierarchies and their own ERPs. Merging two companies in legal terms is fairly simple, but doing so in IT terms is very complex and requires lengthy analysis and preparation before you can even get started.”

Can you explain what has been done ?

The physical relocation, merger of companies, and transition took almost a year in total. The Rcarré ‘s teams and our own teams worked together step by step to ensure that the project went as smoothly as possible.

The teams first drew up an action plan for the physical relocation of IT equipment and the migration of data and emails, as well as the standardisation of access rights for different users. Each step was therefore clearly defined in advance, without any time constraints. Our initial priority was to ensure that the merger was quick and did not cause any lengthy IT downtime, so that we could continue to operate as normal. Once the action plan was in place, we knew how to proceed and in what order.

After the legal merger and once the physical move was complete, we focused on the IT merger. The teams at Rcarré took the best of the existing systems from both companies and combined them into a single, high-performance system tailored to our needs.

During the physical move, Team Rcarré rearranged the server rack, redesigned the network, adapting its capacity to accommodate all workstations, and implemented the rules and settings necessary to secure the internal network in order to protect our IT infrastructure, which plays a crucial role in our daily operations.

They then completely redesigned the access management system for each user to ensure security, standardised the folder hierarchy, and deployed the various software programmes installed on all users’ workstations.

Finally, the last step concerned internal and external communication, such as the migration and consolidation of our email system, as C.M. Guy Gardula & Associés users had to migrate to Fior Ateliers emails, as well as the telephony system. A key point was the configuration of the old C.M. Guy Gardula & Associés email addresses, which had to remain active so that they could be used to forward messages to the new addresses. The same was done with the telephone lines. The aim was to ensure that there was no loss of communication with our customers and external partners.

Did the project go well and are you satisfied with our services ?

“Overall, the project went very well. There were obviously some unforeseen issues, particularly with email migration, but the teams were able to respond quickly.

In addition, as already mentioned, the preparatory work had been carried out ahead of the merger and relocation, which greatly facilitated and shortened the IT consolidation process. The Rcarré teams also carried out the necessary tests on my own workstation beforehand to validate the process to be implemented before rolling it out to the other accounts.

So yes, we are very satisfied with the work that has been done. There was virtually no interruption to business and the action plan went ahead as planned. The objective has therefore been achieved.”

Why did you choose Rcarré ?

“We have trusted Rcarré for many years, especially our contact persons, who have become like members of our own team. Loyalty and trust are essential in a relationship with a partner, and what I appreciate most about Rcarré is its human touch and the communication that goes with it. Choosing Rcarré for such an important project seemed obvious.“

Learn more about Fior Ateliers: www.fior.lu / Facebook