IT Support Made Easier for Adult & Community Learning in Ilfracombe, Devon

When the Ilfracombe centre of the Devon County Council Adult & Community Learning Team needed help improving the IT & Computer learning facilities available, they turned to the specialists at VPW Systems in Devon to transform IT Systems for the benefit of the community.

The facilities in Ilfracombe are just one of several across the region, and are used extensively to help adults in the local communities develop and learn new skills, helping them gain qualifications to aid employment for the benefit of all. As you might expect, training that involves using computer systems is commonplace to reflect the modern workplace, and the centre has a number of computer systems available in regular use.

Like any training centre, the computers are put under considerable daily use, need to meet lots of requirements on any given day, used from everything from Accountancy Training to Internet & E-Mail courses, so it’s vital the systems can handle numerous tasks, working reliably – particularly during examinations and assessments. The team at the Adult & Community Learning centre were struggling with the ever increasing demands on the systems and turned to local specialists VPW Systems for help.

The team at VPW are passionate about helping customers improve IT – it’s part of the “Making IT Easier” mission, so when asked to help the Ilfracombe Branch of the Devon County Council Adult & Community Learning improve the reliability and robustness of IT, they naturally wanted to help them.

To make sure the council received good value for money in the limited budgets available, VPW first carried out an IT Audit of the current systems and services, evaluating where the pain points were in the existing setup as well as identifying those systems that were already sufficient and needed no further investment. From this a plan was identified to help the centre improve the facilities.

Making IT easier…

Having agreed the plan of works, VPW coordinated and carried out the works, including improvements to Broadband Connectivity, Networks and Software systems, scheduled to avoid disruption to existing training commitments. The schedule was tight and inflexible as IT services have to be operational the next day for active learning – getting changes right first time was critical.

The outcome…

Interestingly during the initial discussions, the centre were a little concerned that our IT Healthcheck service might be like those they’d experienced previously where a company comes in, runs Windows Update, does a Disk Defrag and leaves. VPW explained how the approach is different with them, and they look instead to look at the real world issues, tackling those head-on to make sure systems operate as they should. The centre also took advantage of the on-going and proactive (but low cost) Pre-Paid support services offered so that any future issues or problems can be tackled with ease.

Sandra Coates, the Centre Manager shared thoughts on the problems before VPW made IT easier for them, saying: “One of the main areas of trouble was dissatisfied learners and tutors who were becoming frustrated by system problems and reliability glitches.”

After the works had completed by VPW, a further review was conducted, and when Sandra was asked for her views, she said: “Everything has been working fine at Ilfracombe since the works – running very smoothly with nothing to report (and we haven’t had very upset tutors/learners) so we are very pleased with everything that was done.”

This is just one example of the benefit of choosing a strong, local IT specialist with a proven track record in helping customers make IT easier, fixing the real problems that frustrate and hinder progress for small businesses – at a time when budgets and finances are even tighter than usual for a small business, it’s vital that IT spend is wise, accurate and makes a genuine difference to small businesses and organisations like the Devon Adult & Community Learning Centre. By helping them make IT easier, the local community in Ilfracombe will directly benefit from harnessing the training and learning facilities available, helping improve the skills and capabilities of the local workforce, ultimately boosting the local economy for everyone’s mutual benefit.

https://www.vpwsys.net/blog/ilfracombe-devon-acl-managed-it-support/

About VPW Systems (UK) Ltd

What will make your life easier? That’s the first thing VPW will always ask. Because we do IT
differently – it’s all about you, your business and what you want to achieve. There’s less
process and paperwork, and more honesty and getting things done.
We’re local and down-to-earth, so just give us a ring if you need a hand with anything – be it
a bit of advice, a reminder about how something works, or a niggle that needs fixing. Finally,
you’ll get more results for less, because we make the most of your existing kit and help you
achieve more with it