Belvoir
Belvoir Lettings “let” Cobweb Solutions take care of it's
communication needs
Belvoir Letting Agents has turned to Cobweb Solutions for a
robust and scalable messaging and collaboration solution to manage
the growing communication requirements of its residential lettings
business.
Cobweb's Microsoft Hosted Exchange service enables staff within
Belvoir offices and franchisees to have 24*7 access to email,
diary, address books and documents through desktop PCs, laptops and
mobile devices. A total of 200 managers and staff currently benefit
from the service, including 20 staff situated in Belvoir's central
office in Grantham, Lincolnshire.
Belvoir is the UK's leading property management franchise
offering specialist services in residential lettings, properties to
let, buy-to-let and property rental for tenants and landlords.
The company has 88 offices located throughout England, Ireland
and Scotland
The Challenge
Belvoir required a flexible infrastructure that could
accommodate its business expansion plans. The organisation has
grown considerably since its inception 10 years ago with turnover
up by 30%-50% each year. This growth is set to continue with 12 to
14 new office openings planned in 2006. In addition, the company
has just launched the first of its specialist student lettings
divisions in Nottingham called 'Student Living.'
Prior to the implementation of Cobweb's Microsoft Hosted
Exchange Service, Belvoir's communication systems were fragmented.
The company was using a central Lotus Notes server that was
supported by an outsourced provider.
However, this offering did not cater for the entire business as
many of the franchises relied on a rudimentary email forwarding
system. Messages generated via the website were redirected to
individual email accounts, such as Hotmail or AOL. This approach
left the IT department unable to track messages if there was a
problem with delivery or provide central virus and spam
protection.
“Cobweb's efficient backup, anti-spam and
anti-virus protection means I no longer have to deal with these
issues and can concentrate on other IT projects.”
The Solution
Moving the entire business to a Lotus Domino server was not an
option for Belvoir. Even though this approach would have achieved
much-needed consistency within the organisation, a solution with
more flexibility and additional features was required. Already
happy to use an outsourced provider to handle its communications
and messaging needs, Belvoir decided to source an entirely new,
fully managed solution.
After visiting Cobweb's state-of-the-art data centres in London
and Fareham, as well as meeting the support staff, Belvoir chose
Cobweb's Microsoft Exchange Hosted service to meet its
communications needs
As well as providing Belvoir offices and franchises with
essential IT business tools, such as 24*7 access to email, diary
and address books, Cobweb's Microsoft Exchange Hosted service
facilitates document sharing and the dissemination of important
business information.
“The solution had the flexibility we
required and I was impressed with Cobweb's sound knowledge and
professionalism.”
Public Folders set up by Belvoir are proving to be an invaluable
resource to staff, as they can be accessed from any office
throughout the UK. Now, instead of issuing an email when a new
newspaper ad template is created, it is saved in a Public Folder
and all staff can access it. This feature also allows discussion
forums to take place between the different offices.
A total of 200 Belvoir staff currently use Cobweb's Microsoft
Hosted Exchange solution. This is expected to increase to almost
500 mailboxes when all franchise staff are migrated to the
service.
Cobweb's Microsoft Exchange Hosted service also supports mobile
working allowing staff to access emails and key customer
information when out of the office through mobile devices such as
Windows Mobile powered SmartPhones and PDAs, Enterprise BlackBerry
devices or any web browser.
Andrew Goddard, Head of IT at Belvoir Letting Agents says,
“Our previous communications system was
becoming increasingly hard to control so I opted to outsource the
entire system to a new provider.The deciding factors in selecting
Cobweb's Microsoft Exchange Hosted service were that it adhered to
best practice principles, such as ISO9001 and ISO27001.
The solution had the flexibility we required
and I was impressed with Cobweb's sound knowledge and
professionalism. From a technical perspective, Cobweb's efficient
backup, anti-spam and anti-virus protection means I no longer have
to deal with these issues and can concentrate on other IT
projects.”
Michael Frisby, Business Development Director at Cobweb
Solutions commented,“We are delighted to
have met Belvoir's communications needs.We have provided the
company with an efficient messaging and collaboration service with
the ability to share information and best practice between its
numerous lettings offices.
Our Control Panel self-care portal allows
Belvoir to add new users at any time and keep control of the common
administration tasks. This means that as the company continues to
grow and open new franchise operations, they will seamlessly
benefit from our Microsoft Hosted Exchange service.”
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