London School of English
Doherty’s IT solutions
Doherty upgraded the existing system to the Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional platform which is capable of implementing a new booking system and accommodating future growth.
This also helped to centralise key IT administration and minimise client PC downtime.
The new system improved links between the two schools, allowing staff to interact more efficiently. The traveling time for staff and technicians has been greatly reduced allowing technical staff to troubleshoot and respond to problems more quickly. Also, the links are far more cost effective for the school than before.
Doherty also installed a Virtual Private Network to help staff working away from the schools. This enables them to log onto their systems remotely from home, a client’s site or within a hotel and has increased productivity considerably. Staff on the move are now able to catch up on work between meetings and respond to email requests quickly, rather than facing a backlog when returning to work. Most importantly, the risk of staff missing important communications while traveling has been greatly reduced.
Students, many of whom are business professionals, now enjoy high-speed internet access at any time, enabling them to keep in touch with their offices and continue working for their employers during their stay at the school.
As e-mail security was an issue, Doherty installed a Mimecast message solution which ensured all emails went to a managed email provider before reaching LSE. This service is highly cost-effective and has dramatically reduced the volume of junk and spam mail as well as providing protection from virus attack.
Overall, Doherty’s solution has reaped considerable time and cost savings. Staff are also far better informed about the business and more productive. Most important of all from LSE’s perspective, it has improved efficiency and enhanced LSE’s record for excellent standards of service to all their students.
IT solutions to support future growth
As LSE’s business continues to grow, the school is keen to increase its range and delivery of services. One application being considered is a multimedia server to provide streaming audio and video resources to students.