Networks > Getting A Network

Shaping Our Lives - Network Installation Case Study

By Jenny Willis, Shaping Our Lives

Case study of a network installation. From Lasa's first Circuit Rider Project.

Background

Shaping Our Lives is an independent national user controlled organisation funded mainly by the Department of Health and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It works to increase the say and involvement that health and social care service users have over their lives and in the services they use. Shaping Our Lives brings together a broad range of service users including people with physical and/or sensory impairments, people with learning difficulties, older people, users/survivors of mental health services, people living with HIV/AIDS, and other life limiting conditions and young people with experience of being ‘looked after’.

There are also strong links with organisations run by black and ethnic minority service users.Between 1996 and 2002 Shaping Our Lives was a project based at the National Institute for Social Work (NISW). It became an independent organisation (company limited by guarantee) in February 2002. Initially four staff were employed, all part time, two office based and two home based.

To start there were no premises available so we had to ‘lodge’ with another voluntary organisation. This influenced the choice of the first new Shaping Our Lives computer – it was a laptop! In addition to being useful in moving round from desk to desk it was good to be able to take it along to meetings and work at home from time to time.

In February 2003 we finally got our own office and were happy to start setting up more permanent systems.

Reasons for networking

• We were lucky to have core funding from the Department of Health which gave us enough money to set up a server based network from the beginning. We felt that if we didn’t act while we had that money it may be difficult to get the opportunity again at a later time.
• Although it seemed like an extravagant option we felt it was justifiable in order to allow our home working manager to access files in the office via a VPN (virtual private network), and also meant that we would have a solid base to build on when more people were employed.
• It was useful to be able to set up the computer filing system from the start on a shared filing system (though transferring things from the many floppy disks that had been handed over to us was tricky)
• The back up system on the server would be reliable, automatic and routine
• We were planning to develop a database that needed to be stored on the server

The process

• Like the staff of many small organisations we have to work with quite a few hats, hence the ‘Communications Officer’ becomes the ‘IT person’ amongst many other roles. It was therefore very reassuring to have access to the resources offered as part of the Circuit Rider Project in terms of advice and experience, otherwise the choices available would have seemed overwhelming
• We used contacts from the Lasa Knowledgebase and a contractor that had recently installed a network for another member organisation of the Circuit Rider Project and approached three companies for advice and quotations for setting up our system and providing ongoing support
• We made our decision as much on how well we felt we ‘got on with’ the different contractors as price, which I still feel was the right thing. Costings didn’t vary that much and it has been important that we have managed to remain on good terms with our support company even at tense moments!

Issues and lessons learned 

• It all took a lot longer than we had thought it would, even though we were a very small network.
• One of our home workers couldn’t get access to broadband and we have had to install a more expensive ISDN line to make sure she can access the network.
• BT gave us wrong information about what they needed to supply for the home worker's’s ISDN line, so when our networking company came out to set things up she couldn’t do it. We should have checked in more detail before, though it can be difficult to check things you don’t know about!
• Keep paperwork carefully (including notes of conversations) relating to orders/installation - we were dealing with BT, Demon Internet and our support company and it helped to have details of when we discussed what and with whom to prevent one party trying to blame another
• We still haven’t got a shared filing system that everyone knows their way around even though there are only three of us using it. We all have bits that we know best and other bits that we are unsure about. We are trying to rectify this.
• You need to check that the network installer has done all they promised they would. It was only when we had a Circuit Rider Project visit that we realised that the UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) promised with our system (and paid for!) hadn’t in fact been delivered
• Be aware that there always seems to be more than one way of doing things. It makes it necessary to ask around more to find out answers and check that solutions suggested to you are appropriate
• Always be nice to your support company – even if it at the same time as making a complaint about something! Like with most human relations they will be more helpful if they like working with you….
• Providing you have done your best in the decision making process don’t agonise too much about your decisions once you have made them. Everyone seems to have an opinion on how this or that should have been done, but you can’t please them all. With things always seeming to get faster and cheaper, someone once said to me that the best time to buy a computer is always tomorrow!