Age Cymru West Glamorgan became an Age Cymru brand partner in 2011. At the time, the charity had around 30 staff across two neighbouring sites. The sites were linked via an unstable wireless connection, which was causing reoccurring problems including slow and unreliable access to files and resources.

Age Cymru West Glamorgan was also concerned about the escalating costs and slow response times it was experiencing for their IT Support with the reactive ‘IT man in a van’ arrangement it had in place. As each call was charged individually, recurring problems were particularly costly. The charity therefore sought an affordable fixed price IT support and maintenance contract backed with a Service Level Agreement including proactive IT monitoring and guaranteed response times.

With the reassurance of our comprehensive Service Level Agreement, the first major project was to implement a fully cabled local area network (LAN) to alleviate the issues associated with the unstable wireless connection and a virtual private network (VPN) between the main site and satellite site.

Jim Lewington, Orbits IT Technical Director, explains: “At the same time, we created a centralised file storage and backup system by installing a Windows 2008 Server with Microsoft Exchange 2010 for email.

Files are now stored in a central resource, which dramatically improves the charity’s file management. Mobile and remote users can now also access their files from any PC with their own username/password combination.

“Importantly, we made sure Age Cymru West Glamorgan maximised the benefits of its charity status by using TTX, an organisation that gives software away to charities for just a small handling fee. This reduced the cost of the server software by 90%, saving hundreds of pounds.

“The Microsoft Exchange email also provides many benefits. These include ample storage for emails, shared calendars, contacts, tasks and mailboxes, as well as remote web access for emails and synchronisation across mobile devices.”

Other projects with Age Cymru West Glamorgan include supporting the charity with the necessary resources and hardware as staff numbers double, and the installation of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system in a satellite office. This phone system is run over the internet rather than through a traditional phone line, offering flexibility and convenience as well as low cost calls.

Orbits provide an excellent service. They have been a partner in our development, enabling us to maximise the use of our IT systems, advising us on new products and how best to manage our IT systems and processes. We never move on anything IT related without talking to them first. They answer our questions promptly and nothing is ever too much trouble for them.

“Orbits’ help-desk system works particularly well – they always achieve the targets in our contract and my staff are not left hanging around waiting for help. The fact that they can access our systems remotely is also great – we can just sit back and let them fix the problem. When we have needed them to come out and look at the server they are here in a flash and always with a smile, which is just what we need.

“I would recommend Orbits to any company. Their level of technical knowledge is great and most of all they listen to our needs and help us get what we want working. I’d say we have a dynamic relationship. It has grown as we have grown and we hope to work with Orbits for many years to come.”