Alzheimer’s Australia and Datacom work in partnership to deliver a nationwide solution

The Challenge

Following a competitive tender in 2010, Alzheimer’s Australia engaged Datacom’s nationwide multi-disciplinary IT expertise, setting a number of strategic objectives.

As Robert Trigg, National ICT Manager, from Alzheimer’s Australia explained, “We initiated a major project to update the national website and enable distributed content management across our nationwide organisation. At the same time, a project to implement a single system to collect and manage client information was commenced to improve our effectiveness in delivering support.”

Datacom’s goal was therefore clear: To create a nationwide solution that would provide cost savings and enable AA to focus on their community and support services, instead of wasting time and funding dealing with the shortcomings of their existing IT infrastructure and web presence.

“Datacom assisted Alzheimer’s Australia with these projects by designing, provisioning and implementing the infrastructure required to support our website and client management system in such a way that all states and territories could work together to access and manage information,” Mr Trigg said.

The Solution

The core IT infrastructure solution developed by Datacom established a shared support function to maintain national systems and processes. This comprised servers, storage area network and server virtualisation software, including backup and recovery capabilities, plus equipment hosting at a secure Datacom data centre.

Within this, Datacom delivered a nationwide technology platform for AA’s new client management system. The holistic IT solution also included a new unified email system to aid internal and marketing communications, as well as a new website content management system, giving the national organisation a much more dynamic and effective web presence.

With the infrastructure solution fully operational and the migration of states and territories to the centralised infrastructure nearly complete, the cost-effective solution is expected to reduce overall information and communication technology operating costs across the board.

Moreover, since implementation, website monitoring has indicated an increase in web visits and an increase in donations.

“Datacom managed this project effectively to meet project budgets and timelines and delivered a quality solution,” explained Mr Trigg. “They took a partnership-style approach in delivering services and were proactive in identifying opportunities for improving project outcomes and realising savings.”

“In addition they proved to be very flexible in accommodating changing requirements,” Mr Trigg concluded. “They made the effort to understand our business and worked with us to deliver a solution within our limited funding resources. The experience has been very positive.”