Site MapCatholic Diocese of Christchurch
Technology lays the foundation for delivery of social services in the community
A leadership and administrative arm of the Catholic Church, the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch (CDC) was established in 1887 and covers Canterbury, most of Westland in the South Island and the Chatham Islands.
The Diocese has 45 parishes with a Catholic population of 62,715. Its pastoral priorities include youth activities and social responsibilities, catholic education, marriage and family life and evangelisation.
The CDC provides administration for the Bishop and Diocesan agencies including the Catholic Education Office that oversee all the Catholic schools and youth groups.
While each of these departments conducts separate activities, collaboration between them is important, and therefore a reliable and consistent ICT framework was required.
Smart, cost-effective approach critical
The CDC's existing ICT platform lacked centralised management and relied on manual and reactive system administration. Limited integration required high levels of management for optimal performance, resulting in an increased risk to business continuity.
"We are an expenditure driven organisation rather than a profit driven organisation so our focus is on trying to minimise the costs to deliver our services," says Janice Rennell, Finance Manager.
"With Datasouth we looked at the best way of achieving what we need. In most respects we are just like another business in terms of how we go about things, but we are very mindful of keeping the costs down. We were initially looking at a simple server upgrade but with Datasouth's advice saw that a bigger investment now would save us money in the longer term."
Critical functions were being hosted on a platform with many single points of failure and such an inflexible infrastructure meant that growth could only be accommodated by significantly increasing the organisation's existing hardware footprint.
CDC required core infrastructure that aligned with the delivery of its pastoral plan, including the requirement for greater collaboration and sharing of resources between the ministry and parishes.
The organisation worked closely with Datasouth to identify the features they required in an ICT platform that would allow them to enhance productivity and the delivery of services throughout their community.
They wanted a robust and highly available solution that would provide a secure foundation for future growth, whilst being accessible from multiple diocesan offices.
Integrated solution enhances productivity
A fully integrated Microsoft solution – from server to desktop – was implemented to improve communication and collaboration both internally and in the community and the existing investment in Dynamics GP was retained.
"Datasouth listened to our needs and came up with a solution to solve these issues," says Janice.
As part of the solution, all users were upgraded to the Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 platform, which Janice says has enhanced productivity and had a positive impact on the way the organisation works.
System availability has been improved, whilst reactive system management costs significantly decreased. Secure remote access was also made available so that staff could work efficiently from multiple locations.
"Our departments are in separate buildings so the solution has allowed us to work together a lot easier by sharing ideas and information. For example we have a number of vehicles, as well as meeting rooms and equipment that we can simply book out, so at any time we know what is available and what is not".
The deployment brought about increased peace of mind for CDC says Janice, "Datasouth ensured we were using the latest technology so that we minimised risks as much as possible. They recommended what we needed and how we should go about it."
A platform for improved collaboration
CDC is really pleased with the solution that has positioned them perfectly for future growth, reducing business disconnection and enhancing communications to the wider Catholic community.
"Datasouth has been fantastic, they are always available and if we have any queries they are very quick to respond. We have a very good relationship with Datasouth and appreciate that they speak in plain English to us without the technical jargon", says Janice.
With individual parishes running their own systems not connected to CDC, Janice says there is a possibility in future they could connect up to the main network with designated secure areas, to further improve collaboration".
Their enhanced technology platform has put CDC in an ideal position to move to a Microsoft SharePoint solution to support their intranet and business intelligence requirements. The organisation is currently working through a SharePoint implementation which will act as the communication, collaboration and document management platform for the organisation.
"SharePoint will allow us to more effectively share resources throughout the organisation and it will help us with version control. At the moment each individual sends files around the organisation and various people edit them, while no one really knows which versions are the latest".
Benefits of SharePoint are expected to significantly enhance the organisation's productivity even further. Janice says the intranet will be a really good way of ensuring everyone is aware of what is going on within the organisation. "We'll have a bulletin board of announcements and upcoming events and overall we think it will be great for staff morale".
