Case Studies

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SWATuk Case Study:
Background
SWAT UK is a leading provider of accountancy related services, including provision of training, consultancy and publications to the accountancy market. They have several offices throughout the UK and provide services to their customers via membership subscriptions and on an adhoc basis, each year they run several hundred courses at various venues throughout the UK.

SWATuk previously used a number of legacy software applications to manage the various facets of their business, including: course bookings, customer contact, sales, marketing, website content, employee expenses, invoicing and job costing. The company realised that their current fragmented IT infrastructure needed centralising, and as part of that process their software and database architecture needed to be completely overhauled.
Solution

Phase One of the project was to design and implement a single, standardised and robust network infrastructure throughout the SWATuk domain.

The focus in this project was  the implementation of new servers, a new distributed Windows network, upgrades to the routers, firewalls and remote access capability, desktop operating systems and desktop applications.

• Exchange Server was used to provide shared address books, contacts and calendaring across the whole of SWAT UK. All email for SWAT UK staff will be unified under the single SWAT UK domain of www.swat.co.uk.
• All desktop operating systems were standardised around Windows XP Professional.
• We  enhanced the File and print services provided by an Active Directory domain running MS Windows 2003 server.
• We included network storage and backup facilities to local and remote users with the use of Network Attached Storage (NAS). This  allows local and remote users to safeguard their vital data.
• MS Office Professional 2000 will continue to be the standard office suite but Outlook 2003 will be used for maximum integration and operability with MS Exchange 2003.
• For remote users we enhanced the existing VPN capability to allow access to the network resources and CRM application at the Plymouth office. For mobile users wanting to access the CRM application there is a very thin client that may be used on PDAs and smartphones.
• Security and integrity of data are paramount so a review of anti-virus, anti-spam and network security was conducted to keep the systems safe and protected from external as well as internal threats.
• Blackberry Server, to enable SWAT UK management to retrieve emails from a mobile device on the move.

The systems that were covered by this project are mission critical to SWAT UK: course databases, customer and prospect data, order data and messaging. In recognition of this our solution includes enterprise backup, redundancy and disaster recovery features. We  trained and advised SWAT UK staff on the use and regular maintenance of these key systems.

As part of our security audit we  also reviewed and advised as necessary on the company’s acceptable use policy (AUP) for ICT systems and means for enforcement.

Phase Two of the solution was to centralise their data, and integrate their current systems to improve the information flow and management throughout the company. Any "off-the-shelf" package was not going to meet SWAT' UK’s very specific requirements without a large amount of customisation work, and a far more flexible alternative in this instance is a fully bespoke database application. Because of SWAT UK's numerous sites and mobile employees any solution would have to be accessible from a number of locations and via different devices, on that basis it was decided that the new application should be a web application running within SWAT UK’s network, and that remote sites and users would connect via secure VPN connections. Creating the application in this manner also means that there is no software on each client computer so support issues are kept to a minimum, and roll-out is simple.
The final application was produced using ASP.NET and SQL Server, and is hosted at SWAT UK’'s head office, it was developed using n-tier architecture, so will provide an open platform for future expansion and development. It addresses every facet of SWAT UK’'s business model, including:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Membership Administration
• Course Booking & Administration
• Staff Diary Management
• Product Catalogue
• Ordering
• Invoicing
• Services Management
• Project/Job costing
• Staff Expenses
• Sales Leads & Marketing Campaigns
• Tasks, Activities & Attachments
• Reporting

The CRM system was completed and a final version released in April 2007 after a 12 month development cycle.

Phase Three of the solution was to integrate the CRM (phase two) into the SWAT website, this would enable SWAT members to view membership information, book courses & purchase products over the internet, thus providing website users a much better experience and SWAT UK with a fully integrated business solution.

With the project now complete AG Technology continue to provide support and maintenance and having already completed a number of revisions and changes we look forward to a long term ongoing relationship with SWAT UK in future.

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