Customer Support     
-Report a Fault
-Request Assistance
-Webmail
-internet Support
Virus Information        
-Viruses doing the rounds
-5 Steps to virus defence
..............................

Gavin Drake, Director of Communications, Lichfield Diocese

Spreading the word

How the Church of England’s Lichfield Diocese is benefiting from better information sharing across its 2,000 square mile region with Fujitsu Siemens Computers PCs and servers. Following its major £80,000 IT investment with Fujitsu Siemens Computers’ reseller Jentech Computers Limited, the Diocese now has:

· Mobile technology – notebooks and VPNs - providing Bishops, Archdeacons and other Church staff with remote working facilities and the ability to share diaries

· Powerful, reliable computing solutions in the Diocese’s £½ million Government-backed UK Online Centres that help deprived communities learn essential computer skills

· Excellent local support through Fujitsu Siemens Computer’s Business partner, Jentech Computers – ensuring non-technical staff and clergy maximise IT potential

Churches aren’t commonly thought of as being at the forefront of IT implementation, but as with all major organisations, IT plays an important role in supporting the Church of England’s activities. The Church’s infrastructure is very similar to that of local and national government. It also needs to share information across geographically diverse regions, and at all levels - both internally and to the public.

The Church of England’s Lichfield Diocese has always considered itself to be in the vanguard of technology deployment. It was among the first Dioceses to move away from paper storage in favour of using access databases for parish information – speeding up the availability of key statistical details. And when the Rt Revd Jonathan Gledhill takes over as Bishop of Lichfield later this year, he will take over one of the most technologically advanced dioceses in the country.

Using IT to streamline processes and improve delivery of information is crucial to

Lichfield Diocese. It is the Church of England’s fourth largest diocese, covering a 2,000 square mile area across Staffordshire, north Shropshire, the Black Country and small parts of Warwickshire and North Wales. As well as supporting churches in promoting worship and prayer, the Diocese is responsible for handling key administrative duties for some 388 clergy, 450 parishes, and 580 churches, including stipends – or payment to the clergy.

A strong union with Jentech

At the beginning of 2002, the Diocese found that it was experiencing massive difficulties sharing data externally because its existing Windows 95 technology was becoming increasingly outdated. The decision was taken to overhaul the existing IT infrastructure to improve working practices, help eliminate paper-based processes, and also upgrade to a Microsoft Windows 2000 platform. The Diocese was also keen to improve communication among its staff and officers who increasingly needed remote PC access when working from home, travelling across Parishes and abroad.

Gavin Drake, Director of Communications for Lichfield Diocese takes up the story: “We turned to Jentech Computers Ltd to help us achieve our IT and communications upgrade because it offered us a one-stop-shop in terms of the best hardware, services and support. Implementation and after-sales support were crucial to us since most people that work at the Diocese or are affiliated to it, aren’t overly technical. We put our complete trust in Jentech to provide us with the right solutions for our needs and ensure that we get the most from our IT investment.”

The Diocese has a major, £80,000 contract with Jentech, a Fujitsu Siemens Computers reseller, based in nearby Bridgnorth in Shropshire. Jentech has provided a broad range of Fujitsu Siemens Computers SCENIC desktops, LIFEBOOK notebooks and PRIMERGY servers – providing the technology foundation for the Diocese’s IT systems. Jentech also provides all email and Internet provision, LANs, WANs as well as VPNs to connect the Diocese’s satellite offices and mobile workers. The company is also the Diocese’s ISP and web site host, and provides total cover and support.

Gavin Drake again: “With Jentech we have all the benefits of in-house IT cover on a remote basis, so it’s far more cost-effective for us. This means that we gain the highest levels of competence at strategic and operational levels, so we maximise our IT potential.”

Supporting mobility

The Diocese supports a wide range of church staff from admin and accounts workers to a housing officer, social responsibility officer and even a missionary, through to Bishops and Archdeacons. Each has different IT needs, so Jentech has worked closely with them to ensure they have the IT solution that best suits their role - whether they’re based in the Diocese’s head office in Lichfield; in one of its remote rural parishes; or working from home or at a conference – or a combination of all of these.

Key members of staff, such as the Bishop, his area bishops and Archdeacons and officers work from home, and often need to work away from their offices– be it in another parish or while travelling. Each are equipped with a Fujitsu Siemens Computers LIFEBOOK notebook that can hook up to the Diocese’s VPN. This provides a link between Jentech and the remote worker, so it can carry out remote diagnostics, and ensures that that the user is linked to the Diocese’s head office in Lichfield and its satellite offices. Better levels of communication and connectivity have allowed senior church figures and their PAs to share diaries over the internet and improve scheduling for these extremely busy people.

“Bishops and Archdeacons have the same professional needs of any senior executive,” Gavin Drake adds. “They work from home and travel a lot, so have to have flexible and powerful IT facilities supporting them. Like any other senior manager, our Bishops can’t afford to be offline when they’re working from home. If they do experience any problems, they just have to contact Jentech and it will be sorted – they handle all IT issues, right down to a faulty phone line.”

Reaching out to the community

In July 2002, the Diocese received £½ million funding from the Government and its own Church Urban Fund to establish five UK Online community IT centers through its new Mercian Trust charity. The centres provide free or low cost Internet access to deprived communities, along with IT training to ensure local people gain the computer skills they need to get employment, find a new job, or new interest.

Gavin Drake again: “The Diocese worked closely with Jentech to get the centres up and running and the support we get from Jentech to keep our centres operating well is second to none. Jentech proved that it would go the extra mile for us when one of our centres was burgled and all our equipment – amounting to around £25,000 - was taken. The burglary happened on a Saturday and by the Monday Jentech had installed and configured replacement equipment. This meant that we could rapidly get back to normal and there was no down-time in terms of the service our centre provides to the community.”

Future steps – extending wireless technology

Alan Vincent, MD of Jentech explains why the Fujitsu Siemens Computers technology is the right technical fit for the IT centres: “The company’s technology is powerful, reliable and scalable, providing the best possible platform for this important community service, which is set to grow in the near future. Indeed, we are currently working closely with the Diocese to link the IT centres together through the VPN. This will give them greater interchanges of information and fewer duplications.”

As Gavin Drake concludes, Lichfield Diocese is keen to move forwards with new technology: “Lichfield Cathedral has just installed wireless technology and the Diocese is exploring ways of linking up networks with its neighbour in order to support each other’s projects. With Jentech, we have an excellent IT partner that will help us exploit new ways of working – and communicating - through IT.”