In 2018, We provided an infrastructure refresh to the Countryside Education Trust, a charity that operates two sites on the National Motor Museum estate in Beaulieu. The charity’s mission is to ‘Connect People with the Countryside’, and in doing so, provide day trips, residential visits and other facilities to young people and adults.

In approaching Verstech the Chief Executive was looking to build an IT platform that supported growth, fitted in with their ability to undertake capital expenditure and was also cost effective to maintain. As well as this, the Charity wished to review its telephone systems to ensure best value for money.

We took a holistic approach and looked at both the IT Infrastructure across its sites, the existing telephone systems and the needs of the customer for the next few years. As the charity can receive a substantial grant of Microsoft Office 365 Licensing to use Entra ID and Office 365, we chose this as the most cost-effective platform. Power consumption, the carbon footprint and the mobility of users to work from multiple places were also driving factors for the charity. By moving to Entra ID, Office 365 and a range of mobile and fixed devices, we were able to deliver the charity’s requirements on budget.

In 2023 and 2024, we completed further works for the client – an additional building and WiFi Upgrade on their main site, and a move to mobile broadband on their secondary site.

New Computers & Infrastructure

Based on user’s requirements, we provided several desktops and laptops with docking stations and external screens. We also reviewed the existing switching, routing and wireless network and provided new switching (TP-Link) & routing (Netgate) equipment and added to the existing wireless network. Using Ubiquiti UniFi, we were able to provide a segregated wireless network, ensuring that residential guests were able to access the internet whilst being prevented from having access to the main business network. During discovery, we also became aware that a link between two single story buildings, separated by a roadway was required. Whilst wireless bridging had been attempted, the lack of height meant that lorries or coaches using this roadway had previously blocked the signal. As the building is in the National Park, any attempt to put up higher aerials would require full planning permission, something that was both cost and time prohibitive. We, however, became aware that internal telephone cabling existed between the two locations. Using StarTech VDSL Point to Point Modems, we were able to provide an up-to 100Mbps link between the two buildings, providing the bandwidth needed at a fraction of the cost of tunnelling under the roadway. We also provided refurbished computers and laptops, meaning the charity got the performance it needed whilst also helping it’s eco-friendly mission.

Voice Over IP

The charity had historically leased telephones over a lengthy period on ISDN circuits. This was a very normal way of providing telephone systems – the equipment, the phone lines, maintenance agreement etc are all rolled into a finance agreement, which is then paid over several years. At the end of the period, the system is replaced with a new finance agreement. The downside is of course, a lack of flexibility – the need for 10 phones has suddenly become 12 – which requires a new system, but there is still £thousands left outstanding on the old lease and can either be refinanced into a new agreement [raising monthly costs] or paid off [a big cash drain]. We also took over the business broadband on their main site, to provide Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) connectivity.

We provided, and continue to provide, our Business Telephone solution. For this client, because of the mobility need, a mixture of Yealink T42 and Yealink W52 handsets were used, to provide 12 extensions across the 2 sites. On top of this, both sites are now part of a single phone system, meaning calls can be transferred between them.

2023 – A New Building

In 2023, the charity received funds to build a new building focused solely on Climate Change at their main site – the Fort Climate Centre – part of the environmental aspect of their work. We fitted out the new building for communications, connected to their existing network and provided an AV solution with a large screen television for presentations, etc. At the same time, we upgraded their UniFI Wireless Network to WiFi 6 across their main site.

2024 – The Treehouses

In 2024, the client was notified by their existing broadband/PSTN provider that they were ceasing services – with about 2 weeks notice! The existing ADSL service on this site was poor at best, which is why we have never included this in the Voice Over IP system in the previous years. Also, this site does not have a day-to-day need for a landline telephone, but there must be one there in the case of a Health & Safety issue. Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) was not available, nor were any fibre solutions or alt-nets. Through coverage maps, we discovered that we had line of sight to a Vodafone mast around 0.5km away, and that both 4G and 5G signal on this site was excellent.

We considered the various equipment options against budgets and refitted the site using a TP-Link based Mobile Broadband solution with an external aerial available if necessary. We installed an additional Voice Over IP Extension – We also took the opportunity to provide this site with a WiFi 6 upgrade using TP-Link Omada equipment as well. The nice thing about this solution is that when the Voice Over IP Extension needs to be used, users can make direct calls across the two sites – and calls can be transferred between them as well. It also means they have excellent WiFi Connectivity on this site for other needs too.

Ongoing Support

The nature of the Office 365, Sharepoint Online & Entra ID platform means manual intervention/upgrades are few and far between. Most of our ongoing support for the charity is changes, as they want to expand what they want to do with technology. We provide ongoing timebank support to the charity; and we’ve been pleased as well to volunteer our time at several events for them. Whilst we like to say IT Support is a necessity, not a luxury, for many charities, 1st line support can be dealt with inhouse, with us providing backup if a problem is more complicated or involves the central infrastructure.