The Challenge
A Western-headquartered multinational ran manufacturing and office operations across Mainland China — including newly acquired, formerly Chinese-owned entities that had never operated under the group’s standards. The problems compounded each other:
- IT infrastructure and practices were inconsistent from site to site and not aligned with global compliance policies.
- There was no local IT support working in the right time zones or languages.
- The group had limited experience executing complex IT transformations inside China, where regulation, connectivity and procurement work differently.
- HQ teams had minimal on-site access — whatever the fix was, it had to be delivered without flying people in.
Acquisitions are where IT compliance gaps hide. Every audit question HQ couldn’t answer about its China sites was a risk it couldn’t size.
The Solution
PTS ran the engagement in three stages, working alongside the client’s global IT teams throughout:
- Audit first. A full IT audit across all China sites, identifying the gaps in infrastructure, compliance and security — so the transformation plan was built on evidence, not assumption.
- Standardise. Every location aligned to the group’s global technology standards: unified IT policies, a consistent security framework, and core network and server infrastructure rebuilt where it couldn’t be brought up to standard.
- Run it. Post-transformation, PTS provides ongoing managed services — local-language support, proactive monitoring of end-user systems and infrastructure, and one centrally accountable partner for China operations.
The Outcome
All China sites now operate to the group’s global standards, with the compliance and security gaps closed and documented. HQ has a single accountable partner on the ground instead of a patchwork of inherited arrangements — long-term stability, compliance and support across every site, without the client needing to set foot in-country.
Why it worked
Transformations inside China fail when they’re run from a distance by teams who haven’t done it before. PTS provided both the strategic clarity (what good looks like, mapped to the group’s standards) and the operational capability (engineers in-region, in-language) — and then stayed to run what it built.
This engagement was delivered by the PTS group’s Mainland China operation; the same regional capability backs PTS Managed Services in Singapore for clients governing China sites from a Singapore regional headquarters.
Related services: managed IT services and IT support. Related case study: IT modernisation for a US multinational.