Advent IT

Developer collaborates with customers using hosted services for just £65 a month

Innovative software consultancy Advent IT wanted a data management system to share business information in real time. Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Cobweb provided a hosted solution based on Windows SharePoint Services and a mobile email messaging system using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. Advent IT has improved internal collaboration and uses the service to manage end-user support calls for its customers, at a cost of just £65 a month.

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Business needs

Advent IT provides data-entry and reporting solutions for organisations in the health, research, education, and commercial sectors. It comprises a team of four consultants, working from two offices in the United Kingdom. With this cost-effective business model, the company aims to provide one-to-one engagement to its customers and a collaborative work environment to its employees.

In 2004, it wanted to improve the methods of internal communication to help the team share business information easily and effectively across the two sites. Ian Brownbill, Managing Director, Advent IT, says: "We used conventional methods such as Microsoft Office Word documents sent as email attachments, but these were not sufficient because we couldn't share data in real time."

Employees also used Enterprise Single Sign-on Service to access email messages on their mobile phones, but found it difficult to use. Brownbill says: "We had to manage separate inboxes for the mobile device and the computer and because they were not synchronised, we couldn't track email messages."

The company charges its clients depending on the project's timeframe. Team members must have an up-to-date record of the time spent on each job so that they complete it within the allocated time. "But there was no system to share this data, and we ended up spending more time on a project than we were able to bill," says Brownbill.

Advent IT considered solutions such as the virtual private network (VPN) that provides access to documents stored in an online space. Brownbill says: "The VPN wasn't secure enough to store our clients' sensitive information. Secondly, it wasn't cost effective for our consultants to spend time maintaining an internal system when there was chargeable work to be done."

"We needed a collaboration environment, supporting both online data sharing and mobile e-mail. Ultimately, it had to support our core business of developing software," says Brownbill.

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Solution

In January 2005, Advent IT worked with Cobweb to develop a hosted electronic records management solution based on Windows SharePoint Services. Mark Adams, Managing Director, Cobweb, says: "We showed Advent IT how to use hosted Windows SharePoint Services to collaborate internally, as well as with its customers, without having to manage the system in-house."

"Moreover," adds Brownbill, "Cobweb data security processes are accredited ISO 2700 - an established Information Security Management System standard. This reassured us that our clients' data will be safe."

It took Cobweb just 48 hours to set up the web portal using Windows SharePoint Services, which runs on the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server operating system and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database software.

Advent IT uses the customisable lists in Windows SharePoint Services to store its financial and time utilisation data. The company has developed custom-built desktop tools to integrate with the portal so it can calculate up-to-the-minute management reports on cash flow, productivity, profitability, and corporation tax. The firm finds having this live information at its staff's fingertips is invaluable when making businesses decisions.

Customers share information with Advent IT using the portal. This ensures that the company seamlessly manages change requests, supports call logs and other service information as it would if sharing offices with its customers. This communication is an essential backbone to the excellent levels of customer service delivered by Advent IT.

In November 2005, the company asked Cobweb to host its email service for mobile phones using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. It is synchronised with employees' calendar, contacts, and e-mail messages in the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 messaging and collaboration client.

Cobweb services are available to Advent IT 99.9 per cent of the time, along with round-the-clock support. In May 2007, for example, the company stopped receiving email messages. The team at Cobweb resolved the issue within just five minutes of receiving the call from Advent IT.

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Benefits

Windows SharePoint Services and the mobile email system based on Exchange Sever have helped Advent IT collaborate internally as well as with its customers. Brownbill says: "For example, to help our customers manage support call requests from the end users of our products, any other call management solutions could have cost us thousands of pounds. Whereas, we pay just £65 per month for hosted Windows SharePoint Services and can share calls without incurring extra costs. Moreover, it takes only two hours to add new features to the portal. If we'd opted for a custom-built system, it could have taken two days."

With 99.9 per cent availability, Advent IT and its customers can access data at any time.

A quick response time from Cobweb for support calls - as little as five minutes in some cases - helps Advent IT provide attentive after-sales services to its customers.

The company can manage administrative functions more efficiently using the business intelligence features of Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, such as invoice preparation, calculation of corporation tax, dividends, and profitability.

With detailed time-utilisation reports, the company can charge its customers by the individual jobs, rather than a lump-sum for the overall project timeframe.

Mobile email synchronised with Office Outlook 2003 helps Advent IT team members securely and cost-effectively share business data, whether they are working from different offices or from home.

By May 2008, Cobweb will upgrade its infrastructure to Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. The Advent IT portal will have a richer user interface and the company will get 1 gigabyte of mailbox space instead of the 200 megabytes it has currently.

Advent IT and Cobweb are exploring further business opportunities by developing Office SharePoint Server solutions based on the Cobweb-hosted services for prospective customers.

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