Zed One To Implement Centralised IT Strategy To Improve Security and Productivity.
Chase Buchanan is the leading estate agents in Richmond Borough. With 10 offices they have twice been awarded the best independent estate agency by the GPEA. Properties listed with them enjoy a wide ranging marketing campaign including their own unique ‘Folio’ magazine which is delivered monthly to over 30,000 local homes and businesses.
They have dedicated departments for residential sales, lettings, property management, tenancy progression, land and new homes and financial services. With additional areas of expertise including: buy-to-let investments, portfolio management, valuations, surveying, conveyancing, insurance, relocation and overseas homes.
In 2008 the company was suffering recurring problems with its IT as Kirsty McQuillan of Chase Buchanan explained. “We had no networking capabilities as all our employees were using standalone PCs in each of the branches. This gave us no control over what the computers were being used for as well as worries over the security of the data they held. Additionally, if a computer failed the employee would be unable to work for a few days until it was fixed.”Centralised data and applications.
Having worked with Zed One before, Kirsty approached them for advice. “The great thing about Zed One is that they analyse your requirements and then come up with a number of alternative solutions based on your budget,” said Kirsty. “That way you are involved in the decision, rather than having it presented to you as a fait accompli as you are with some IT companies.” Zed One proposed centralising all of Chase Buchanan’s data and applications to one server hosted at their data centre. Their 65 staff could then access the applications and data they needed via thin client devices and Microsoft Terminal Server. As well as providing greater security and manageability it would also enable employees to move between the different branches and log into their desktop and work on their data and applications irrespective of which device they used.Proactive solutions.
“We now have much greater control over our IT assets and the data they hold,” said Kirsty. “Now we can monitor how our computers are being used and prevent any time wasting and inappropriate use.”
Since the implementation of the new solution in 2008 Zed One have continued to support the system on a daily basis as well as helping Chase Buchanan cope with changing requirements as Kirsty explained. “Zed One staff are very approachable and proactive. They have identified a number of problems before they became real issues with us and came up with solutions.
