Experian - Age Concern

The team of volunteers that designed, built and implemented this project for Age Concern is inspirational in its dedication and commitment to the project. It has combined business values with community involvement and also established good working relationships with Age Concern Nottingham, building a foundation for ongoing partnerships with the charity.

Experian was requested by Age Concern to provide the technical skills required to deliver a number of new technologies into its Nottingham offices and remote sites that met with the requirements for new services for its employees and clients.

Working with Mick Tinkler (CEO, Age Concern Nottingham) and co-ordinating a number of vendors, Experian designed, built, tested, implemented, trained and provided support for the completed solution. Age Concern’s requirements were:

• Access to Insurance Services, Age Concern England, and other Internet resources - by providing all employees with internet access.
• Improved communications access by providing all employees with virus-free internet e-mail.
• Shared information and centralised data by removal of data from insecure storage on individual PCs, floppies and CDs, thus providing all employees with a secure centralised file store.
• Reduce printing costs and use centralised shared printing. Reduce the total cost of ownership by removing expensive and unreliable Inkjet printers and photocopiers and replace with faster shared LaserJet printers.
• A central information store and knowledge base for all internal policies and procedures, FAQ’s, company news in an up-to-date format presented to each user daily.
• Reduced support costs, improved reliability, and improved security and resiliency of data held.

Age Concern supplied a capital budget for hardware costs and Experian leveraged its purchasing power to maximise the amount and quality of technology that could be purchased. Experian also provided over £5,000 worth of additional hardware free of charge, to further reduce costs.

Experian provided two technology specialists; an engineer with specialist knowledge in Windows Server and PC technology, and engineer with specialist knowledge in Networking technology. Each engineer was dedicated for the entire period of the project delivery.

The technology solutions were fully designed, built, tested, and implemented by Experian, without cost to Age Concern. The technology implemented includes three core servers, 60 new PCs delivered to the desk and a resilient network with remote site connectivity linking offices in both Beeston and Mansfield.

On-site training was provided, with on-going support and advice when required, as well as arranging long-term support for key services via approved suppliers.

So far over 180 hours has been committed to this activity by the team involved. Both engineers worked on delivery of the solution over a four-week period, along with ad-hoc support and assistance ever since the delivery of the solution over the last four months.