Dairygold Cooperative Society

Dairygold Cooperative Society, one of Ireland’s largest agricultural-retail businesses, operates across the south of the country with annual revenues exceeding €1 billion. Their critical retail and operational systems run 24/7/365, supporting both branch trading and integrated external facilities, such as eCommerce and mill-processing operations.

Prior to engaging Klipboard, Dairygold hosted its Agri Trading ERP environment through a third-party partner. However, they faced persistent issues, especially performance degradation during peak usage. Neither Dairygold nor its Agri Trading ERP vendor could effectively troubleshoot problems occurring in the “grey area” between application and infrastructure, including database tuning and system-level optimisation.

It became clear that a more reliable, secure and scalable platform was needed to support their day-to-day operations - prompting Dairygold to approach the Klipboard Managed Services team for support.

Step 1: Funded proof of concept (POC)

Phase one involved Klipboard working with Dairygold and their ERP vendor to deploy a tailored Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) environment for controlled testing, enabling users to run transactions, print and stress-test the system. The environment was optimised to prevent “logon storm” issues, and multiple high-load scenarios were executed.

The POC showed clear performance improvements, better visibility into system behaviour, strong user feedback and alignment across teams - validating the move to Azure and setting the stage for full migration.

Step 2: End-to-end Azure migration project

With Microsoft funding secured, Klipboard delivered a complete Azure environment over approximately 10 weeks. This included site visits, Azure Virtual Machines, storage, backup, security, networking and a Windows 11 AVD RemoteApp setup. Integration with Dairygold’s eCommerce and mill-processing systems were also established, followed by thorough UAT based on the POC model.

Working with Liam and the Klipboard Managed Services team has been an excellent experience from beginning to end. From the initial planning stages and proof of concept through to final delivery, the team demonstrated exceptional technical expertise and a strong commitment to understanding the requirements of one of our most critical systems. Since go-live, their support has been consistently responsive, reliable, and proactively managed. We look forward to strengthening this partnership in the years ahead.

Ger Hayes, Group IT Manager @ Dairygold

The results!

• Significantly improved performance and stability across all trading branches
• Greater visibility and insight into database-level behaviour and system tuning
• Strengthened collaboration between Dairygold’s IT team, ERP, and Klipboard
• Reduced operational risk thanks to a resilient Azure architecture
• Streamlined user experience through AVD and Windows 11 RemoteApp delivery
• Around-the-clock continuity for critical downstream systems

“Following the success of the project, Dairygold entered a Managed Services contract with Klipboard to support and optimise their Azure and AVD environment. I’m incredibly proud to have been part of this project and to see how the Dairygold team are already benefiting. I look forward to continuing to strengthen the relationship.” - Liam Freeman, Infrastructure Director at Klipboard.

The Klipboard Managed Services team were extremely proud to enable Dairygold to and transform their Agri Trading ERP environment into a modern, resilient and high-performing Azure platform. Through collaborative proof-of-concept testing, carefully executed engineering and a seamless migration, Dairygold now benefits from a stable foundation for continued growth and operational excellence!

If you would like to find out more about Klipboard Managed Services, get in touch here.