MISSION CRITICAL:

Fishermen's charity supports its members 24x7 with the help of Doherty Associates.

“As a charity with no internal IT team, we have found Doherty Associates’ IT support to be invaluable. Their staff are knowledgeable about our needs, and they understand that any problems we encounter need to be rectified quickly and efficiently. I would definitely recommend them to other charities with limited numbers of IT staff or no in-house support.”

 

The Fishermen’s Mission provides emergency and welfare support to the fishing community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This means always being available to assist the 13,000 people actively working in the UK's toughest and most dangerous industry, as well as the 50,000 retired fishermen and their dependants, many of whom face insecurity and debt.

 

With staff spread across the UK, often at isolated locations as far afield as the Falkland Islands, communication has historically always been a challenge for the Fishermen’s Mission. Setting up a reliable IT network that would provide workers with access to emails and shared documents was a key requirement when they first approached Doherty Associates.

 

Following a comprehensive review of the organisation’s requirements, and detailed discussions between the Chief Executive of the Mission and senior engineers at Doherty, a fairly simple solution was proposed.

We recommended a Microsoft Small Business Server, which offered the perfect platform for their key objectives: centralisation of email and data, and remote access. Now all staff and volunteers can utilise the same resources, whether they are based in the head office or one of the more remote sites.

We receive all sorts of requests from our clients. Whatever the problem, at Doherty Associates, our high levels of technical expertise and experience mean we are always able to help. When the Fishermen’s Mission announced that they were moving their head office from London to Hampshire, Doherty Associates were able to assist with the relocation of their IT systems.

Our provisioning team also works closely with the charity to ensure that they are able to take full advantage of our partnerships with Microsoft and HP and get the best possible prices. Doherty understands that charities need to use business-class IT systems, but that funding is often limited.

We work successfully with many charitable organisations to ensure that they get both the best possible value for money, and fit for purpose systems that enable them to serve their elected cause.