Benefits of the Vialtus solution include:
- Online shop facility and main RNLI website remain available with 99.97 per cent uptime, allowing visitors to purchase charity items securely and quickly over their web connection.
- Robust, resilient and reliable solution enables staff at the organisation to work effectively and productively without having to worry about the IT system behind the website.
ABOUT THE RNLI
Founded in 1824, the RNLI is a charity that exists to save lives at sea. It provides a 24-hour search and rescue service up to 100 nautical miles out from the coast of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It also provides a beach rescue service on 59 beaches in the South and West of England and operates a lifeboat service on the tidal River Thames. The RNLI, with 4,500 volunteer crews, operate lifeboats at 223 strategically placed lifeboat stations around our coast and the Institution relies almost entirely on voluntary contributions and legacies for its income. Over the past ten years, the requirement for lifeboat services has increased by nearly 50 per cent, keeping the RNLI, its employees and volunteers increasingly busy. In 2004, it rescued 7,507 people, saving 433 lives – an average of more than one life saved per day.
PADDLING TO PROFIT
As a charity, the RNLI relies on voluntary donations, legacies and cash raised through the sale of items in its shops for its income. It also needs to operate a water-tight online sales offering that allows people to shop safely whilst surfing the RNLI website, www.rnli.org.uk. “Our website attracts visitors from across the world, who kindly donate money or buy merchandise by logging on to www.rnli.org.uk,” comments Dan Sumner, Web Team Leader at the RNLI. “As an organisation synonymous with being there when people need us, we have to ensure that all communication with us - either face to face, on the phone or online - is at a consistently high level to protect our reputation.” As the online shop plays a vital role in its revenues and communications strategy, the RNLI needs to ensure it remains accessible at all times, with optimum uptime and easy purchasing facility. The servers the legacy external hosting supplier was using were growing older and performance was not consistent. Therefore, the charity needed to use a managed hosting product that would guarantee reliability and security.
TECHNOLOGY AT THE HELM
“Our IT infrastructure team has been working with Vialtus Solutions for some years now and so, as we’ve developed a good relationship with the team there, we were pleased to understand how their hosting bid addressed our needs, which ultimately led to us placing our hosting requirements with them,” comments Sumner. Vialtus Solutions, provides integrated communications solutions to mid-market companies and large organisations. With a focus on using IP based solutions to solve complex business communications problems, Vialtus helps organisations to enhance business performance, enable mobile working and keep data secure. Sumner explains, “We were impressed with the fact that Vialtus Solutions understood how we operate; many of their customers are large, blue-chip organisations, rather than charities whose business objectives are not the same. The Vialtus team was able to demonstrate how we can benefit from their business-class solutions to help us achieve our goals.”
Vialtus Solutions provides the RNLI with a complete website hosting service for both the main RNLI website and its online shop. A dedicated server solution, housed in Vialtus’ London data centre at Harbour Exchange ensures maximum uptime, speed and reliability. With the added benefit of using the data centre to host the charity’s data, the server is fully resilient to any damaging factors, such as power cuts and fluctuations in temperature or humidity levels. The server remains stable, performing consistently and safely. “Although our IT Web team is highly professional, it is small, so if we have any maintenance problems it can take up valuable time, effort and personnel,” comments Sumner. “We just don’t have the resources to spend days on end eliminating viruses or ensuring our security measures remain resilient, which is why we chose a managed solution". “Vialtus Solutions has the necessary skills and expertise to provide a fully managed hosting service and provide technical support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Bringing together the expertise and power of the Vialtus solution meant that we would realise significant cost benefits in a short space of time.” Dan Sumner, Web Team Leader at the RNLI.
PROFESSIONAL PARTNERSHIP
Since implementing a managed hosting solution from Vialtus, the RNLI has been able to deliver a more consistent, secure online shopping experience for its customers. Using a managed service ensures the charity’s data is hosted safely, with guaranteed performance and continuous availability. In addition, the use of a dedicated server means that the RNLI does not have to share its bandwidth or storage with other users. This allows the organisation to customise its server’s specification and accessories, exploiting its processing and network resource. Attempted security attacks are met head on by Vialtus’ team of experts, who work round the clock to ensure the RNLI’s Cisco firewalls and other security measures are constantly configured to keep out harmful viruses and hackers. Sumner adds “We have developed an excellent relationship with the Vialtus team and any queries or problems are dealt with quickly, without quibbles or aggravation. They’re always willing to go the extra mile to ensure we’re happy.”
THE FUTURE
The RNLI is planning a major redevelopment of its website to freshen up its image and offer more interactive options to visitors. Sumner comments, “As an organisation that relies on the support of members of the public, we need to ensure we grow our presence both physically and virtually. That means offering a modern, up to date website that will help to bring in vital funds allowing us to continue saving lives at sea.” Dan Sumner, Web Team Leader at the RNLI “We have an ambitious target of increasing the amount of traffic to the website five fold in the next 12 months. We will continue to work in partnership with Vialtus Solutions to make the necessary changes and really push forward with our strategy for this area of our business.” To find out more about the RNLI visit www.rnli.org.uk.