IMS and Broadband
IMS (Information Management Solutions Ltd.) has been utilising broadband at the earliest opportunity since October 2000. The company has deployed both ADSL and cable modems, the choice being primarily an issue of availability rather than technology.
To summarise, Managing Director, Rob Edmonds:
“Reasonably priced broadband has given IMS the ability to provide better services to customers, whilst reducing business costs.”
“ADSL is in use in our offices in Leamington Spa and connects our company network to the Internet. We use this connection to support Internet browsing, to host our Internet mail server and a Web server. Some employees’ homes are equipped with the technology, and this is used for Internet browsing and for connection back to our offices.
The main advantage of broadband to IMS is that we have been able to improve service to our customers. We have also achieved a reduction in telecom costs, by approximately 50% against peak usage, and been able to work together as a team more effectively.
Our clients are located throughout the UK and across the world. Broadband technology allows us to connect to our client’s networks using Virtual Private Networking (VPN) and perform as effectively if we were in our client’s offices. This means that the number of visits to our clients is reduced, increasing productivity and lowering project costs. We can do this cost effectively from both home and office and where, for example, we used to visit a client once a week, we have gained 10% productivity instead of 4 hours of travel time.
Prior to broadband we used ISDN and analogue modems; however, the speed and reliability was such that travel became inevitable. In addition, pure telecom costs were higher, even using the best tariffs we could get and often we had to dial long distance or internationally.
As we are able to deploy broadband to more employees – and there are still areas with no availability – we are able to keep down the size and cost of our offices by encouraging home working although, to avoid the potential isolation that this brings, we ensure regular phone contact and a mix of home and office time.
Security is a key issue for us. To ensure proper security, we have deployed a hardware firewall in our offices, while each PC is equipped with a software firewall. A look at the intrusion logs on these very quickly convinced us of the absolute necessity of using such devices with a broadband connection. The “always-on’ technology offers a great advantage, but also creates a static target for those who have malicious intentions.
As a technology company, it is important for us to be able to demonstrate our abilities to potential customers. Broadband technology has enabled us to establish a permanent Internet presence, entirely under our control, for us to demonstrate the type of solutions we can offer. Before broadband, this would have required an expensive lease-line connection to an Internet Service Provider or the use of a third party hosting site. By utilising the ADSL connection to our office both for inbound and outbound Internet services we can provide the demonstration web site at very little extra cost.”
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