Overview

Property Plus are a real-estate company based in London. They currently have a staff of 4 permanent employees within their office, and a further 2 sales staff working from laptops who are occasionally in the office.

Challenges

Property Plus first approached us when the hard drive on one of their desktop PC failed. With no backups of email or documents on that PC, disruption was severe. During consulting, a number of other problems also came to light, as follows:

• Intermittent network/shared folder connection problems
• Slow internet when emailing large documents, as they regularly do
• Internet download/upload quota being exceeded, mainly due to large files emailed
• No central contacts database, with each individuals contacts stored in their own outlook on their pc
• No way to view peoples calendars
• Sales reps unable to access any company information when away from the office
• Wasted paper printing documents just to fax, and receiving paper faxes that are then scanned to file and thrown out
• No formal backup system or disaster recovery plan
• No central file storage, with shared folders created ad-hoc on various pc's
• No easy way to disseminate information to all staff members
• Some shared folders need to be secured so the occasional temp staff they have in cannot access them
• Various anti-virus programs in varying subscription states across all computers

Solution

Dezon determined that Property Plus would best be served by a cost effective single server solution, namely Microsoft Small Business Server 2003. Within the one package it can achieve all of their goals, and when combined with a business grade fast Ethernet switch provides a stable network platform for all the server's services. We addressed each of Property Plus’ goals with features of SBS2003, as follows:

• A smooth running network with clear locations for shared data
• Critical data (primarily email and working documents) for each user backed up
• A central contacts database accessible by all Outlook users
• Reduce the wasted paper in the office and streamline sending/receiving of faxes
• Ability to secure certain folders/files to restrict access to temporary staff
• One-stop-shop security software
• An easy way to get information out to all staff, such as a kind of notice board or similar
• Remote access to the office network for sales staff and those working from home

Results

With all the IT goals below achieved and downtown of the network close to zero, Property Plus improved month on month performance in all aspects of the business.

• A smooth running network with clear locations for shared data
• Critical data (primarily email and working documents) for each user backed up
• A central contacts database accessible by all Outlook users
• Ability to view and add to the calendars of staff, particularly the sales reps
• One-stop-shop security software for all computers so individual PC's don't need to be tracked when their virus subscription expires
• Reduce the wasted paper in the office and streamline sending/receiving of faxes
• Ability to secure certain folders/files to restrict access to temporary staff
• An easy way to get information out to all staff, such as a kind of notice board or similar
• Remote access to the office network for sales staff and those working from home

Testimonials

“Dezon was professional, knowledgeable, and reasonably priced. I highly recommend using them for any of your computer needs.”
Michael Campbell