Case Studies

Introduction

SURCO Training is a division of SURCO Limited, the wholly owned trading and publishing subsidiary of the Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors. SURCO Training has a portfolio of over 30 modules, most of which are delivered as workshops where delegates learn through active participation. SURCO Training offers a unique opportunity to civil engineering employers by helping them to develop and implement competency based training. A list of training modules can be found at www.surco.uk.com/training.php

The Problem

In the interests of our environment SURCO have been taking practical steps towards going greener by minimising waste and saving energy in their workplace. One step towards their goal was to reduce the number of discs and paper notes being distributed at training events. SURCO needed a solution that was secure, reliable and easy to use. SURCO also wanted to offer an improved service to their clients as well as reduce time spent producing material in the office.

The Solution

Chris Walkden, Training Administrator comments, "After researching various options, SecureOffice offered just what we needed. Not only does it help towards our going green campaign, it also offers a more efficient service to our clients who can simply and securely download the course information at a convenient time to themselves".

The future

Client feedback has been positive and SURCO are looking at other ways to use the portal to its full potential.

In Their Own Words

"SecureOffice provided the perfect solution for our needs and the time saving has been immense. The tutors are also very pleased now that they can arrive on site without all the heavy boxes".

Introduction

borndigital is a leading architectural illustration studio specialising in 2D and 3D visualisations of developments, as well as animated walkthrough/ flythrough sequences. Clients include property developers, architects and housing associations, among others.

The Problem

borndigital's Creative Director Carl Wenczek was looking for a solution which would allow the business to provide clients with secure access to digital illustrations and animations. Carl explains, "Working on visualisations for new developments involves strict client confidentiality … something we take very seriously. We tried a number of solutions before SecureOffice including a popular service which lets you upload large files and sends a download link to the client by email. This was fine for a short time, in fact we even subscribed to it. However, we had a few problems with file upload/downloads, didn't trust the security and found it a bit frustrating that we couldn't keep files indefinitely and give clients access to their own project repository."

The Solution

Carl knew he wanted a hosted solution which was secure, easy to use and backed by telephone support, so he began to look at what was available. "I spent days researching the ideal solution … SecureOffice was the only one which offered exactly what I wanted. At any one time we may have up to ten clients using our SecureOffice site but but each one can only access their own files. All my clients are saying what a great service it is. We've just started to use the Public Folders feature so that PR companies and designers employed by a client can securely download visualisations without the need for us to set them up as individual users, which saves us even more time. We've also integrated the SecureOffice login into our website, which makes it quick and easy for our clients to access their project files. There's so much potential with SecureOffice I'm sure we're not using half of it!"

In Their Own Words

"I spent days researching the ideal solution … SecureOffice was the only one which offered exactly what I wanted"

"All my clients are saying what a great service it is"

Introduction

Tenon Group PLC is a top ten accounting firm with 1500 staff operating through a network of 28 offices across the UK. The company provides clients with expertise in Business Services, Tax, Financial Services, Corporate Finance, Recovery, Outsourcing and Forensic Accountancy.

The Problem

Tenon's outsourcing division is a leading provider of financial outsourcing solutions to the owner managed business marketplace. The business was keen to find a more secure way to share accounts and payroll data with its clients. Shane Chant, Associate Director of Group IT explains, "Our outsourcing team were using email to send and receive accounts and payroll data to and from clients. As with any email message sent between two organisations, the contents and attachments were sent over the internet, and routed through a number of mail servers along the way. There is no guarantee messages will not be intercepted, copied or simply delayed. Some of the files can be quite large, sometimes exceeding the maximum message size imposed by Internet Service Providers. This was obviously disruptive to our outsourcing team, as they work to strictly agreed deadlines and could not afford any delays in the process."

The Solution

When Shane first heard about SecureOffice he quickly saw its potential to improve the outsourcing process, and has been satisfied with the results so far. "Now the outsourcing team can see what's happening with a client's data. The automated email alerts let staff and clients alike know when any files have been added, edited or deleted, and by whom. We've found the interface to be easy to use, and because of the way user access is controlled, a single SecureOffice site can be used with many clients." Tenon's internal IT department now also uses SecureOffice to share application and project data with software providers.

The Future

Shane comments, "Tenon has many specialist teams. Following our experience with using SecureOffice for Outsourcing and Group IT, we're now looking to adopt it more widely. We believe it can help us to not only work more securely but also improve productivity and offer a better service to clients."

In Their Own Words

"Email is not a good solution for sharing confidential or large files"

"Because of the way user access is controlled, a single SecureOffice site can be used with many clients"

Introduction

Established in 1980, Wincanton Print Company Limited is a leading UK colour lithographic printer employing 50 staff. Based in the South West, they have a nationwide customer base which includes Royal Bank of Scotland Offshore, Isle of Man Bank, Natwest Bank Offshore, Brittany Ferries, Wella UK and Hilton Hotel Group.

The Problem

Operating in a highly competitive market, Wincanton Print is always looking for ways to improve its productivity and turnaround to customers while reducing costs. Steve Clark, Studio Manager explains, "To meet customer expectations of even faster turnarounds, we we were looking for a solution which would allow us to receive digital artwork files and send PDF proofs quickly and easily. Waiting for a courier to deliver CDs of artwork and posting proofs back was cutting into our print time and costing our customers time and money. While we use ISDN, it's fair to say it is almost a dead technology which costs a fortune. No one bothers to install it these days. Our fourchannel ISDN system was costing us £350 per quarter for line rental alone. We tried FTP but found it to be just too complicated for most customers. One customer uses Creo Tokens but in our experience these can be very slow, especially if Creo's relay service is used. With email, gone are the days when ISPs gave you a 25 or 50MB message limit. These days 10MB seems to be the norm, which is too small for artwork or even larger proofs."

The Solution

Steve Clark heard about SecureOffice through a customer and decided to trial the service. SecureOffice quickly proved itself as a quick and easy to use way to share artwork and proofs with customers. Steve comments, "We are now using SecureOffice regularly with 15 or so of our more important customers. It means we can receive artwork and send back proofs the same day. In fact it's saving us two hours a day previously spent picking up artwork and dropping off proofs, as well as courier charges. Our quarterly ISDN line charges have dropped from £280 to virtually nothing … just £2.15 for the last quarter! The feedback from customers (even the less technical) has been good, with most finding SecureOffice very easy to use. If you can use a web browser, you can use SecureOffice."

The Future

Wincanton Print is keen to bring the benefits of SecureOffice to the rest of its customers as soon as possible. Steve adds, "We've recently contacted all our customers to let them know about the benefits of using SecureOffice. We're also going to halve our ISDN line rental costs by going down to two lines. In time we may get rid of ISDN altogether. "

Summary of projected savings

• £700 per year in ISDN line rental
• £1,100 per year in ISDN call charges
• 500 man-hours per year saved in picking up artwork and dropping off proofs
• Fuel and vehicle costs saved for pick ups and deliveries
• Couriers/postage for Wincanton Print and their customers

In Their Own Words

"SecureOffice is saving us two hours a day previously spent picking up artwork and dropping off proofs"

Introduction

Duncan Laing started his IT consultancy, ScotsIT, in May 2005. The business provides support services to a wide range of businesses across the central belt of Scotland, ranging from sole traders to medium sized enterprises.

The Problem

The business was seeking an easy way to ensure that client documentation, software drivers, utilities and tools were available to support engineers onsite whenever and wherever they were needed. Duncan explains, "Because we have support contracts with clients, backed by response times, we cannot afford to waste time returning to the office to pick up any needed client data, software utilities or CDs. USB sticks are fine when they're encrypted but they are easy to misplace, and not always fully compatible with every client's operating systems."

The Solution

ScotsIT initially trialled SecureOffice and liked what they saw. Duncan comments, "We found it very easy to use, and quickly set up folders to organise our client data and tools. Now it doesn't matter where I go, I can turn up at a client site empty-handed yet access all our client records, software drivers and utilities I need."

The Future

ScotsIT's positive experience with SecureOffice has made them keen to introduce its benefits to clients. Duncan concludes, "A lot of our clients need to access documents securely from outside their offices — SecureOffice is perfect for this. Also, the document versioning feature means everyone knows which version of the document is the most up-to-date. That's not something that is easy to do if you circulate a document for comments by e-mail."

In Their Own Words

"I can turn up at a client site empty-handed yet access all our client records, software drivers and utilities I need"

"SecureOffice is saving us time because we don't have to return to the office between support calls"