Case Study Mobile Working

The Client

Estyn is the office of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales based in Cardiff. It is a Crown body, originally established under the Education Act 1992, which is independent of the National Assembly for Wales but is funded by it. The Estyn mission is to achieve excellence for all learners in Wales through raising the standards and quality in education and training. Almost all education and training providers throughout Wales are subject to inspection by Estyn at least once within a six-year period. Estyn employs around 100 members of staff, of which 50+ are HMI. It has currently almost completed an 18 month “Transforming Estyn” programme which has renewed its organisation and all its IT Systems.

The Challenge

Estyns 70 staff wanting to work flexibly were located all over Wales. The project involved upgrading existing ISDN lines to BT Broadband, providing RSA Keyfob encryption devices to enable a VPN to be used for security and providing all users with Fujitsu laptops and Orange 3G dongles. Research had shown that Orange provided the best overall coverage across Wales among all the broadband suppliers.

Business Solution

Working for an Estyn project manager Westgate provided the technical resources and support required to implement the project. We also delivered desk training of users as needed throughout the project including writing a plain language guide for users on Mobile Working (and how to use the technology given to them). The main elements of our services included implementing and supporting:

• Upgrading BT ISDN lines to Broadband including configuration of routers etc
• Estyn Cisco VPN
• SecureDocs encrypted laptops
• RSA encryption Keyfobs
• 70 Fujitsu laptops
• Orange 3G dongles
• Users with technical support and training.

Outcome

The project was successfully completed in [March 2010] with 70+ users migrated to mobile working, able to work wherever and whenever they wanted. During the project many technical and operational problems were overcome by Westgate IT working with the Estyn project manager.