The Client
Dimensions is one of the country’s largest not-for-profits supporting people with learning disabilities, autism, challenging behaviours and complex needs. The organisation was founded in 1976, working from a rented office with a single telephone. Now, Dimensions have 7000 staff working across the country to support over 3,500 individuals and their families.
The Challenge
As a not-for-profit organisation with pressure on funding, it’s a priority for Dimensions to ensure available resources are directed at improving efficiency. Managers spend an excessive amount of time travelling to meetings, client conferences and training sessions. A core objective was to save time and increase the productivity of managers by reducing the amount of time they spent travelling on business. Video conferencing had been installed, creating some improvement, but still required travel to conferencing suites positioned around the UK. It was only a partial solution.
The Solution
The internal IT team searched for a product that would integrate effectively with existing systems and significantly improve communication between staff members, particularly managers, wherever they were located. The team settled on Microsoft Skype for Business and selected Modern Networks to manage the installation of all Dimensions offices across the UK and home-based staff.
Right from the start, it was obvious that Skype for Business was the right choice for the organisation and the end-users. Firstly, Skype for Business was capable of easy integration with other popular Microsoft applications. Familiarity with Microsoft products made the application easy to learn and use by Dimensions office-based staff and remote workers. The combination of voice, instant messaging, presence, video and conference calling made staff collaboration much easier. Staff can securely share files with remote colleagues and between desktop and mobile devices. Even the simple addition of hands-free headsets made staff more productive.
The Results
Dimensions gained a 70% saving on managers travel time and, critically important, major cost savings since the introduction of Skype for Business.
Steve Scown, Dimensions CEO said, “Skype for Business has proved to be one of our best investments, we’re clearly getting significant payback – even in year one!” Ray Fletcher, Head of IT for Dimensions was delighted and described the installation as a major success.
From project management and installation, through integration with the organisation’s existing IT infrastructure, to staff training, Modern Networks took care of everything.