Damovo Meraki as a Service: Schleich’s Success Story

The Challenge

To operate its global IT infrastructure, Schleich had previously relied on multiple service providers in order to ensure around-the-clock support – taking into account time zones, languages and other logistical factors.

“Our IT landscape was initially very fragmented and hub-and-spoke in design. Each location had its own network, connected to a central node in Schwäbisch Gmünd. This created a single point of failure,” explains Michael Haldmaier, Team Lead IT Infrastructure and Services at Schleich. “If the central node experienced a fault, all locations were affected. That’s what we wanted to change.”

Schleich therefore transitioned its on-premises IT landscape to a cloud-based environment and introduced Cisco Meraki as its networking solution. While this reduced infrastructure dependencies, managing the global network, replacing hardware, deploying updates systematically, and tracking incidents remained a significant challenge.

Objectives

Schleich was seeking a service provider with both in-depth Cisco Meraki expertise and the capability to provide global support. The aim was to delegate the operational management of the Meraki environment to an external partner – bridging the gap between a self-managed platform and an organisation that preferred not to manage it internally.

Haldmaier: “Key factors in our decision included the provider’s ability to enhance the Meraki platform with value-added services and the flexibility to work with existing hardware. We also needed a partner that would suit our profile as a mid-sized company with German roots and international reach – someone who treats collaboration as a partnership. Damovo ticked all these boxes.”

The Solution

Damovo developed a bespoke end-to-end solution for Schleich, combining software, hardware, devices, licences and managed services built around the Cisco Meraki platform. The ICT service provider supports Schleich with comprehensive managed services to operate its Meraki-based network infrastructure. Under the Damovo Meraki as a Service (DMaaS) offering, Damovo provides extensive 24/7 services and a portfolio of clearly defined service modules.

Damovo manages all of Schleich’s more than 400 Cisco Meraki assets – including routers, switches, endpoints and ports. Through its own cloud-based ITSM platform, ServicePlaza, Damovo oversees all IT service management processes related to the Meraki environment: from provisioning, administration, updates and replacements to configuration changes and proactive incident and event management.

Whether it’s integrating a new printer or connecting a new site to the network – Schleich can now handle smaller tasks internally while entrusting larger projects to Damovo entirely.

When Schleich opens a new location, Damovo takes care of the procurement, cabling and installation of the necessary hardware, sets up and configures the network, and delivers and installs replacement components on site when required.

Standard Meraki firmware updates are implemented in controlled stages according to defined rules. All changes and incidents in the live environment are fully documented within the ServicePlaza portal. With Damovo’s support, Schleich has already been able to automate numerous processes and implement standardised network operations across multiple locations.

With its guiding principle “Big enough to deliver, small enough to care”, Damovo meets Schleich’s expectations for collaborative, tailored consultation, flexible technology deployment and reliable global support. As a certified Cisco Gold Partner, Damovo draws on many years of experience in implementing customer-specific solutions based on Cisco’s modern technology portfolio – including Cisco Meraki.