The original Microsoft article on NTES Limited implementation of SBS for the Chambers of Commerce Ireland can be found here

Customer Story: Chambers of Commerce Ireland

Posted: 01 May, 2005

Solution Overview

Customer Profile
The Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) represents 59 member chambers throughout Ireland. Employing 20 staff, it is responsible for over 12,000 businesses nationwide.

Business Situation
The CCI undertook a drive to double its membership by 2007. It had outgrown its existing IT system and needed a system to help drive and accommodated the projected membership growth.

Solution
NTES were chosen to advise on a cost effective solution to support the CCI’s business requirements. Small Business Server 2003 was implemented and configured to suit the CCI’s needs.

Benefits
• Access to information 
• Remote working 
• Increased collaboration 
• Security protection 
• Improved IT management

"The great benefit of SBS is that there is minimum technical support required, and most of it can be carried out remotely"

Nick Whittome Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) NTES    

Software and Services
• Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 (SBS 2003) 
• Microsoft Office 
• Microsoft SharePoint

Scenario
Substantial growth in a short space of time and ambitious plans and targets meant the CCI needed to re-evaluate it's IT requirements.By installing SBS 2003 the staff can now access files from remote locations and work from home freeing up space internally and providing for flexible working practices. Further, the business is benefitting from cost reductions in travels for meetings and IT support and also tighter security.

The Chambers of Commerce of Ireland is using the information sharing, security and remote working capabilities of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 to enable it to successfully pursue its growth strategy
 
Company Overview
The Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) represents 59 member chambers throughout Ireland. Employing 20 staff, it is responsible for over 12,000 businesses nationwide and plays a key role in lobbying its members’ interests with government.

The CCI relies heavily on technology to communicate and collaborate with its members throughout Ireland. Hence, information sharing, data protection and security are key to its operation.

Business Challenge
The CCI recently undertook a programme to boost its membership. Its objective was to double chamber membership by 2007.

In order to achieve these growth projections, the CCI, which had outgrown its existing IT system, had to act quickly to re-evaluate its IT requirements.

The CCI needed to:

• Engage an IT provider that understood the needs of a small business 
• Increase its ability to communicate with the chamber network spread throughout Ireland 
• Enable remote access to email and data  
• Enable collaboration on documents and projects  
• Enable quick access to and sharing of information
• Reliably store and back-up data
• Overcome the constraints of limited office space.

Solution
“We had grown substantially in a short space of time and had ambitious plans and targets,” says Conor Brennan, deputy chief executive and head of chamber development. “We knew we needed to find an IT system that suited our growing requirements.”

Like most small companies, it does not employ a full-time IT manager and relies on external IT support. However, on a tight budget, with limited technology know-how and in a competitive and pressurised environment, the CCI has to ensure that IT supports business requirements.

It turned to NTES and Nick Whittome, an IT provider and member of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Programme. The MVP award recognises individuals that provide invaluable expertise and support for Microsoft products. NTES recommended Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 as the most cost-effective solution to meet CCI’s IT needs.

It was a relatively quick and easy process to reconfigure SBS to suit the needs of the CCI,” says Nick Whittome from NTES. “We installed software upgrades and sat down with the office manager to show how to back-up files and receive updates for anti-virus software and patches. This is as simple as ticking boxes. We also ensured there was a solid system for backing-up all data in place to. The great benefit of SBS is that there is minimum technical support required, and most of it can be carried out remotely.”

Business Benefits
Access to information

The CCI utilises a series of shared files that are stored centrally and in real-time to give quick and easy access to its vast store of information.

“People intuitively now know where to find information,” says Brennan. “Two of our staff work regionally and previously documents had to be emailed to them. Now they can access files from remote locations that are stored and backed up on our server. Remote access and access to shared information has rapidly improved our communications flow, responsiveness and ability to resolve issues quickly.”

There is now a folder on the CCI network for every chamber in Ireland allowing meeting agendas and reports in relation to individual chambers to be filed and quickly made available to the relevant CCI staff.

“Prior to this, vital information was distributed via email and telephone, and wasn’t available in one central location. This impacted the CCI’s ability to be aware of local issues,” says Brennan. “We now are vastly better at harvesting information from chambers around Ireland.”

For an organisation with members located throughout Ireland, the ability to access information on the move is critical. The MS SBS has empowered us to do this effectively. 

Connor Brennan
Deputy Chief Executive and Head of Chamber Development (CCI)
 
Remote Working

“At the moment we have pretty major space problems,” says Brennan. “However with the implementation of Small Business Server 2003 and its remote access capabilities, we now have eight employees set-up to work from home with full access to the network and email.

Importantly for CCI staff, being out of the office does not mean being out of the loop.

“The ability to dial in and access email and documents saves a huge amount of time and effort,” outlines Brennan. “This means that people can work from home just as effectively when they are not in the office. This has helped us free up space internally and offer flexible working practices.”

Increased Collaboration

It is important for staff members and representatives, no matter where they are located, to be able to work on projects. SBS’s collaboration capabilities through SharePoint means documents and files can now be viewed, edited and shared among users.

“Using Microsoft Word and SharePoint we can track changes to documents, which is essential when collaborating with a group of people,” says Brennan. “At the end I can look at all the comments and changes, and then decide if to incorporate them. On a shared drive it saves time and confusion emailing documents back and forth.”

SBS also adds value to the CCI’s weekly meetings.

“We use teleconferencing every week to help collaboration,” says Brennan. “As part of this we can view documents on the shared drive so all participants regardless of their location can access and view the appropriate documents.”

This saves time, is a more efficient use of human resources and means that little is lost by not having people attend a meeting in person as they can view and amend all the same information regardless of where they are when the meeting is taking place. A shared calendar system also allows staff to view other members’ schedules and book meetings that suit everyone’s availability.

Security Protection

The CCI may be a small company but it produces a huge amount of information. Securing this data is absolutely vital.

Using the security features on SBS, a strong password policy was established, while Exchange Service Pack 1 and MS Intelligent Message Filter were used to help eradicate spam. Windows Small Business Server 2003 also includes an internal firewall. This ensures that all information is fully secure.

The CCI also uses SBS to back-up all data on its server every evening ensuring all data is secure. This involves the updating of thousands of files critical to the operation of the CCI.

Improved IT Management

“When we began to work with NTES, we knew we had an IT partner who understood our business needs,” says Brennan. “We now can run our IT system more effectively, safe in the knowledge if we need expert advice it is there for us.”

The ease of management of SBS has significant cost implications. If CCI needs IT support, NTES is able to fix the issue by using the remote management functionality built into SBS. This results in significant time and cost savings for CCI because they are not paying for an on-site visit by a technician.

Future Plan

The ability for employees to securely access data and email while out of the office and to collaborate remotely on projects has become a highly prized ability CCI wants to exploit to the full.

“For an organisation with members located throughout Ireland, the ability to access information on the move is critical. The MS SBS has empowered us to do this effectively.”