INTRODUCTION
Improve is the Sector Skills Council for Food and Drink Manufacturing and Processing across the UK and part of the Skills for Business Network, sponsored by the Department for Learning and Skills. Improve was established in July 2004 as the recognised authority on skill development in the UK Food and Drink Industry.
SICL has worked alongside Improve since its inception providing technical and project management skills that form the basis of Improve Ltd’s IT function.
BACKGROUND
The ‘Skills for Business’ network aims to boost the productivity and profitability of the UK. This is being achieved by identifying and tackling skills gaps and shortages on a sector by sector basis. In short, Improve Ltd ensure the right people with the right skills in the right place at the right time.
Improve Ltd engaged SICL in 2004 to design and implement a network solution for its new premises because of the specialist knowledge SICL possessed in the Sector Skills Council industry, having previously worked with Sector Skills Council on other projects. SICL’s appreciation of the business model and experience of how Sector Skills Councils evolve and develop were a key factor in the decision to select SICL to design and implemented a new network. The solution included File and Print and Mail servers with storage and backup facilities, wired and wireless networking capabilities and a secure remote access system.
Having invested in their IT systems Improve Ltd initially employed a full time IT Manager, anticipating that it would need an increase in the skills to get the most from its investment. After a short period of time the IT Manager left the company and Improve Ltd engaged SICL to discuss how SICL could assist with the skill gaps.
SOLUTION
With SICL’s experience of Sector Skills Councils it was able to propose a ‘Managed’ Support Contract to meet Improve Ltd’s ongoing support needs.
Whilst containing all elements of the typical support contract such as a dedicated Help Desk for incident logging and Service Level Agreement (SLA) with guaranteed response times SICL also provides several First Line support services within the contract. These services included a Technical on-site presence for half a day per week to deal with any day to day IT issues that were not urgent and could not be solved remotely and ensure core systems were healthy. SICL also provides remote monitoring services ensuring, should there be any issues within the network, these issues are highlighted and resolved as soon as possible to minimise the impact on the network. SICL also provides a knowledge base that allows Improve Ltd to develop business continuity plans, expansion plans and corporate Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) as part of the contract. In short, SICL provides Improve Ltd with its IT Department. The advantage of this type of support contract to Improve Ltd was that it allowed them to tap into a larger pool of resources, skill sets and experience that would have been extremely costly to employ on a full-time basis. SICL’s Technical team provides Improve Ltd with the skills it needs, when it needs them, without the worry of sickness or holiday cover. This proved to be a much more cost effective option.
RESULTS
Improve Ltd have continued to grow and develop as a business and with the continual support of SICL Improve Ltd is certain that its IT function is in safe hands.