Broadband Helps Business Grow

BROADBAND HELPS BUSINESS GROW

The availability of broadband in the central North Island has given Wanganui-based chartered accountants Peach Cornwall a major boost.

Practice Manager John Taylor says the company has reduced operational costs and increased growth since adopting broadband technology last November.

The company linked its Wanganui head office to its Ohakune and Taumarunui branches with a Telecom-managed Private Office network, creating a virtual private office.

“The need to communicate between three offices was placing a huge strain on head office resources,” Mr Taylor says.

“We were triplicating a lot of processes, such as running three local area networks (LANs) and paying the wages of three different administrators, which was holding back growth.

“We had investigated linking our sites in the past with communications technology but it was always cost prohibitive. The arrival of broadband, in particular Telecom’s IP [Internet Protocol] network, in the last few years has brought prices down considerably, making networking a viable option.

“The pricing was such that we quickly recovered the cost of installation through increased efficiencies and are now taking on extra staff through growth.”

The Private Office network, which uses Telecom’s secure private network rather than the public Internet, facilitates the sharing of databases and easy transfer of emails and documents. It is designed for businesses with offices in different locations.

“The network makes it easy to shift work around between offices to manage temporary activity hotspots,” Mr Taylor says. “That cuts down on travel for senior staff, which leads to big savings in travel costs and time.

“Where the work is done means nothing to the client. They get exactly the same result, in a more timely fashion.

“But it makes a huge difference internally. It’s had a big impact on the way we run our business and it’s had a big impact on staff wellbeing.”

The network is managed by Telecom, which reduces internal maintenance costs. It also enables thin-client technology, which means the firm’s information database and software can be administered from its Wanganui server and accessed from anywhere in the organization via “dumb terminals”

ENDS

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