C & S Builders Merchants - Case Study
The Challenge
C & S Builders Merchants is a London based builders merchants, employing over twenty people. C & S currently have three branches based in Walthamstow, Leyton and Stamford Hill. C & S provides a huge range of materials and products for the building trade including plumbing, roofing, electrical and timber supplies.
The company computer systems were becoming out of date and needed to be upgraded, as they were becoming inefficient. They were also failing to support the company’s changing needs. The network in particular was holding back progress.
C & S accounts personnel are located at Stamford Hill where they use Sage Line 50 running on Windows 95. Prior to our installation C & S placed account orders in a paper book system, each client has there own book which is then passed onto the accounts department at the Stamford Hill branch at the end of the month for invoicing.
C & S also required each branch to have there own secure e-mail address and Broadband Internet access, to enable the branches to communicate with each other more effectively.
The Solution
The company upgraded all office PCs to run Microsoft Windows XP Professional. These were connected to a new server at the Walthamstow branch running Microsoft Small Business Server. This meant that all computers at Walthamstow could access the web and e-mail via a secure connection. To make the most of this, the company upgraded to a high speed Broadband web connection. A network version of Sage Line 50 was implemented and also installed on the main server.
Broadband connections were then installed at Stamford Hill and Leyton branches and secure VPN connections were set up between all branches. This meant that the other two branches could access information on the main server at any time.Sophos Antivirus was also installed to safeguard the new system against any potential viral threats.
The Benefits
C & S’s systems have been completely overhauled. Small Business Server. shares the new internet connection giving company members access to e-mail, the internet and company files, both within the office and remotely. Should the worst happen to any of the companies systems, the back up solution helps keep vital files safe. Small Business Server allows work to be backed up both locally on the server and also remotely to keep company data safe.
C & S can now access Sage Line 50, at all branches removing the need to pass the account books to the accounts office at Stamford hill, a accounts employee now visits each individual branch to input data into Sage which is linked live to the Server.
By doing this inturn has increased the invoicing efficiently allowing invoices to be created on time and not at the end of the month. C & S have also removed the need to create temporary books, for when they are being processed by the accounts department.
C & S Builders website www.csbuildersmerchants.co.uk
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