Stable, Secure IT System for an Estate Agent

Overview

Gascoigne Halman a large estate agents located in the North-West with some 17 sites and approximately 100 PCs had invested in IT many years earlier in a bid to lever the power of technology in their business arena. Sadly as were are all too aware - technology moves forward at an alarming rate. Knowing when to move to the next step and is it worthwhile is the skill! No one can stay on the leading edge of technology all of the time - it would be far too costly to implement. www.gascoignehalman.co.uk.

Detail

This company was running Windows 98 on unbranded OEM PCs and a Line of Business (LoB) application that matched the age and stability of the Operating System (OS). This meant inefficiencies that were costly to the business in terms of downtime and system crashes. The internet and the use (and misuse) of email had moved on since Windows 98 was developed meaning it was vulnerable to viruses & spyware etc these all just contributed to an overall fragility of the systems in use. All of this was reflected in the number of support calls that were logged by users as the systems faltered.

Solutions (theirs & ours)

A phased approach to upgrading and replacing all software and hardware was presented. This involved taking each office on its merits and observing their individual working practises and then introducing the new software and hardware to their understandings and needs. Dell desktop PC were procured with 3 years on-site warranties, these PC were supplied with Microsoft Windows XP Professional for enhanced security and stability in the workplace. Also addressed was the LoB (line of Business) application - it was somewhat inflexible and not being technologically developed as was the world around it. Therefore, it was decided that it should be replaced; axon provided advice and guidance from an IT perspective in helping select this new business application by sitting in on product demonstrations and asking the possible suppliers the IT related questions that the estate agents management staff could not ask (axon effectively acted as their IT department during this phase).

The deployment and upgrade was spread over a year long period to help reduce capital costs and to also allow for a similar phased approach in 3 - 5 years as the PCs reach end of life as opposed to all PC becoming out of warranty and date at the same time.

Metric of success

The business now has stability and security through Windows XP, next business day hardware support from Dell for all their PCs, a Line of Business application that scales well to modern demands by sharing data across all sites and managed service support from Axon IT where we are their IT department. All of this a brought about a reduction in faults, user fustrations and an increase in stability, security, productivity and efficiency in their business appliations. Across the board axon have moved this company forward within the IT arena to help them lever technology to their advantage.