Esteem’s Solution For Connexions To Improve Support For Teenagers
20 August 2004
Esteem Systems, one of the UK’s leading IT services providers, has been awarded a three year contract worth over £600k with the Connexions Partnership of Berkshire, Luton and Bedfordshire to deliver and manage a highly available, secure infrastructure solution designed to improve services to teenagers across the region.
The Connexions Partnership is part of a central government initiative to provide confidential advice, support and information to 13-19 year olds. The service is designed to give young people the best start in life and ease the transition into adulthood. As well as providing each teenager with a Personal Advisor, the service also offers practical support and advice to assist with decisions about personal development, careers and relationships.
Initially, Esteem will supply the rapidly expanding Berkshire, Bedfordshire and Luton Connexions Partnership with a new, scaleable IT infrastructure solution to connect their various sites and meet the mobile access requirements of a growing numbers of users. The Connexions Partnership’s 270 remote users will be able to access applications and data securely, from anywhere via a Citrix Secure Gateway portal. This facility will improve the efficiency of employees, speed up response times and improve service delivery levels as employees will be working in real time regardless of location.
The new, centrally managed IT infrastructure will be based on Citrix, Microsoft and RSA technology to give high availability, high security and remote user access. The solution will provide Connexions with a completely new way of working and deliver the flexibility and scalability required for the development of the partnership in the future.
Once in place, Esteem will manage the Citrix based system on a 24x7x365 basis from its secure operating centre. As part of the managed service, Esteem will monitor servers to ensure performance and availability is maintained; remotely implement changes to the system as soon as issues are detected and proactively recommend and deploy enhancements, updates and patches. By outsourcing the management of its Citrix system to Esteem, Connexions will benefit from advanced server performance and resilience without having to invest in expensive management systems or additional in-house expertise.
Martin Reed, Data Warehouse Manager of Connexions Bedfordshire & Luton, commented: “We have opted to outsource our IT system to Esteem because it will enable us to have a secure and effective service with minimal management on our part. We will have immediate access to technical expertise but our own staff will be free to concentrate on the service we provide. The availability of our systems at any time will enable us to improve our interaction with service users by speeding up our response times.”
Alastair Kitching, Director of Esteem, said: “This project has involved a great deal of work and expertise from Esteem. Connexions began with a pilot of our proposed solution to test both our capabilities and the technology. The next stage of the contract will see the full deployment of the solution across the organisation and will demonstrate how a combination of technologies can deliver and support a truly modern working environment.”
If you require any further information, please contact our Press Officer on 01937 861000 or e-mail on press@esteem.co.uk
