Salvation Army UK & Ireland Upgrades Intranet for Greater Insight and Collaboration
bluesource implementation of new SharePoint platform enables better communication with stakeholders and reduces internal resource costs
London, UK – 18 October 2011 - Data and messaging infrastructure specialists, bluesource Information Ltd, today announced the completion of a new intranet system for The Salvation Army UK & Ireland Territory. The project, which includes a re-design, update and consolidation onto the latest Microsoft SharePoint platform, enables The Salvation Army UK & Ireland Territory to effectively access and manage content, make better informed business decisions, and support collaboration with third party organisations. In addition to significantly increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of content processes, the new platform will also reduce operational and technology maintenance costs.
With masses of data residing in multiple, disparate systems, The Salvation Army’s UK Territory was struggling with data duplication, publishing inefficiencies and inconsistencies, a cumbersome manual process for updating and editing, as well as a dated appearance. Originally created in 1999, the intranet system had grown organically, and was administered via FrontPage with content hosted in older versions of SharePoint.
Phil Durbin, Head of Corporate Systems at The Salvation Army UK and Ireland Territory explains, “Expanding business operations, involving more services, partners and stakeholders, highlighted the various limitations of our old, inefficient intranet. We were data rich but information poor and needed to extract better intelligence from our data. Unfortunately our intranet was now no longer fit for our purposes and a technology refresh was required. We felt that working with a third party Microsoft technology expert to update the old SharePoint platform would improve the management, communication, access, control and consolidation of information right across our organisation.”
bluesource designed a completely revised intranet architecture, which was migrated onto the new Microsoft SharePoint platform. bluesource is one of just 50 top tier Microsoft consulting partners with Microsoft Gold Level Competency in Unified Communication, Portals and Collaboration. The new intranet was designed to replace the outdated older systems, add further integration around third party applications to act as a gateway for information within the organisation, as well as create an extensible platform capable of supporting both current and future content requirements. The Salvation Army UK & Ireland Territory has also retained bluesource to provide on-going telephone support on a break/fix basis for SharePoint, as well as an agreed level of ad-hoc consultancy to assist with issues around the infrastructure components of the SharePoint system.
“The new intranet is proving to be an excellent communications tool, as well as providing an environment where our internal and external knowledge and expertise can be shared to create new opportunities,” added Durbin. “The highly efficient platform is also delivering associated operations and resource cost savings. bluesource offered a high level of SharePoint technology expertise, support and advice to ensure that the platform was delivered as smoothly as possible and that our staff were well trained to utilise its benefits.”
About The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a worldwide Christian church and registered charity, working in 124 countries, demonstrating Christian principles through practical support; offering unconditional friendship, and very practical help to people of all ages, backgrounds and needs. Founded in East London by William Booth in 1865, The Salvation Army is one of the largest, most diverse providers of social services in the UK. A visionary social reformer ahead of his time, William Booth believed that charity demeaned the individual and people should be offered a ‘hand up' and not ‘hand outs' to get them back on their feet.
Today, The Salvation Army extends a helping hand to those who are homeless, friendless and in need. We passionately believe that no one is beyond hope, however great their problems. That disadvantaged people are given respect and access to the practical, social and spiritual support they need to realise their God-given potential and recover their personal dignity. In the UK and Ireland, The Salvation Army has approximately 50,000 members, 4,000 employees and 1,500 Salvation Army officers (full-time ministers). www.salvationarmy.org
About bluesource
Formed in 2001, bluesource is regarded as a global authority on data and messaging infrastructure for mid-sized and enterprise organisations. Headquartered in London, bluesource has expertise in Microsoft and Symantec technologies – offering design, implementation, software support and managed services.
bluesource is a Top 50 Microsoft Gold Partner and is part of its Early Adopter program. bluesource is also fully accredited to deliver support for MessageLabs, Blackberry and Good Technology. bluesource has operations in UK, North America and Singapore and assists over 400 clients including; L’Oreal, JPMC, Standard Bank, WWF, GL Noble Denton, Dalkia and Veolia Water. http://www.bluesource.co.uk