North Ark

Case studies

Real work. Real outcomes.

Anonymised project summaries from infrastructure migrations, custom software builds, production launches, and automation engagements.

BuildAutomate

Events business — custom operations CRM

Growing events company, 25 staff

A fast-growing events company was losing enquiries between intake and delivery. Staff maintained shadow spreadsheets because their off-the-shelf CRM didn't match how they sold packages, scheduled crews, or billed clients.

  • Lead capture: Single pipeline — no more shadow spreadsheets
  • Admin time: Estimated 8–12 hrs/week saved on status chasing
  • Adoption: Team live on day one — built around their process
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Build

Service business — custom CRM from enquiry to invoice

Multi-site service operator, 40 staff

A service-based business had outgrown HubSpot and spreadsheets. Technicians, schedulers, and finance each used different tools — jobs fell through the cracks and invoicing ran weeks late.

  • Handoffs: Enquiry to invoice in one system
  • Re-keying: Eliminated duplicate data entry into finance
  • Visibility: MD dashboard — jobs, revenue, bottlenecks
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EngineerConsult

VMware to Azure Local — hybrid infrastructure modernisation

Professional services firm, 60 staff

A firm facing VMware renewal pressure needed to modernise without a six-figure consultancy quote. On-prem workloads, remote access requirements, and strict uptime expectations during migration.

  • Renewal cost: Avoided six-figure VMware renewal trajectory
  • Downtime: Zero unplanned outage during migration
  • Documentation: Full runbooks — internal team can operate
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Engineer

Citrix to Azure Virtual Desktop — remote workforce rebuild

Multi-office business, 80 staff

Remote staff struggled with Citrix performance and VPN instability. Citrix renewal quote forced a decision — migrate to AVD or pay premium prices for another three years of pain.

  • Logon time: Reduced average session start by ~60%
  • Helpdesk tickets: Desktop-related tickets dropped sharply post-cutover
  • Licensing: Predictable Azure consumption vs Citrix renewal shock
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ShipSecure

AI-built prototype to production — launch in three weeks

SaaS founder, pre-revenue

A founder had a working prototype built in Cursor — demo-ready but nowhere near production. Exposed API keys in repo, no CI/CD, Supabase RLS untested, and a launch date already promised to early customers.

  • Time to live: Production in 3 weeks from audit start
  • Security: Critical RLS and auth issues closed pre-launch
  • Enterprise pilot: Passed customer security questionnaire
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EngineerConsult

Cloud cost optimisation — 35% reduction without downtime

E-commerce operations, 30 staff

Azure bill had doubled in 12 months with no clear owner. Over-provisioned VMs, orphaned resources, and no tagging strategy — leadership wanted savings without risking production stability.

  • Cost reduction: ~35% monthly Azure spend reduction
  • Downtime: Zero production impact during changes
  • Visibility: Cost per workload — tagged and reportable
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Automate

Workflow automation — 15 hours/week back for ops team

Agency, 18 staff

An agency ops team spent half their week on manual data entry — copying client briefs between Slack, Google Sheets, project tools, and Xero. Zapier workflows broke silently every few weeks.

  • Time saved: ~15 hours/week across ops team
  • Reliability: Documented workflows with error handling
  • Reporting: Friday report automated — 4 hrs → 20 min
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Engineer

Datacentre & network build — greenfield infrastructure

Regional business, 120 staff

A growing logistics operator needed new datacentre and network infrastructure — core switching, firewall architecture, server room design, and hybrid cloud connectivity. No internal network engineering capacity.

  • Uptime: Redundant core — no single switch failure point
  • Security: Segmented zones with logged firewall policy
  • Hybrid: Azure workloads connected with documented path
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