Mencap is the UK’s leading learning disability charity working with people with a learning disability and their families and carers. As an individual membership organisation, with a local network of more than 800 affi liated groups, Mencap fights for equal rights, campaigns for greater opportunities and challenges attitudes and prejudice whilst providing advice and support to meet people’s needs throughout their lives.

Effective IT management is a constant challenge
Managing the IT infrastructure of a thriving charitable organisation is a constant challenge. Providing the very best technology to help staff achieve their goals whilst maintaining a tight control on budgets was the challenge facing Chris Champion, IT Operations Manager of Mencap and his team.

“With an IT user base of 4,000 people across 150 different sites, we are continuously looking at how to improve the way we manage and maintain our IT infrastructure,” said Chris. “We have a variety of needs across the organisation, from small offices and home offices with people using dial-up connections through to power users in our finance department and head office requiring quite sophisticated computing support.”

Chris and his team provide an IT service to the various Mencap business units around the country and although the department
can recommend IT best practice it is the ultimate decision of the business unit heads to decide if they should adopt it.

About Mencap Applications accessed: Microsoft Office with specific financial and HR applications Number of thin client users: 400 to date IGEL model: IGEL-2100 LX Smart & IGEL-2510 XP Smart Terminal services OS: Citrix Network used: Blade servers connected to application servers with storage area network

IGEL “Shone out” in benchmark
“We moved to a server based computing environment five years ago but we were still using PCs on the desktop,” said Chris. “We saw the potential cost savings of moving to thin clients and carried out a benchmark test to assess what was on the market.” Mencap provided a specification to thin client suppliers and compared the models. “The IGEL unit shone out,” said Chris. “In terms of performance and value it was way ahead on our testing criteria.” The next step was to provide the business units with IGELs to convince them of the benefits. “People immediately saw performance improvements along with the cost savings and accepted them straight away,” said Chris.

Mencap estimate that they make an immediate purchase saving of £150-£200 on each IGEL unit they install compared to a high specification PC. “In addition, thin clients have no moving parts, so are more reliable, longer lasting and can be managed and upgraded simply from one central location. All information is also stored centrally rather than at the desktop on hard disks or  USB sticks. “It is simply more secure, cost effective and easier to manage,” explained Chris.

To date, Mencap has rolled out 400 IGEL units with plans to roll-out 200 more over the coming months. “The rest will be transitioned as fast as we can upgrade the IT infrastructure,” said Chris.