The latest television advertisements to 'talk to Frank' (the Government's drug helpline), remind us all that help for drug and alcohol addiction is very much needed. Behind the scenes of charities providing front line treatment are teams of people ensuring that the right information is given to those delivering services. One of the charities who advised the government about delivering a national drugs awareness campaign is Addaction; the leading UK charity working solely in drug and alcohol treatment.

With over 50 services operating out of 40 sites across the UK, the smooth running of the organisation and the provision of information to the right people, in the right place, is imperative. Until recently, the sharing of information was not effective because of the poor IT infrastructure that Addaction had in place.

The first problem area to be identified was the connection to the Internet at each of the sites. The only way that each office could connect to the Internet was through a dial up connection, which was metered. The costs were huge. Because of this there was very little information sharing and no security (firewalls or anti-virus), making the organisation completely unprotected from attacks. This made it very difficult for the IT team to support anyone efficiently, as they would either have to visit the site or provide extensive telephone support.

However, the greatest point of pain was the client database, which Addaction uses to hold both current and historical client records. Each project would hold its own copy - which made reporting arduous, as each site had to compact and merge their copy, effectively taking it offline until the reporting information had been extracted.

The first person involved in the project, charged with identifying what was needed for Addaction, was Ian Ryder, IT consultant at charity IT specialists, appiChar. With his experience, Ian knew that the organisation needed a complete communications infrastructure in place and was familiar with a solution that would address the problems that Addaction was experiencing.

'Having previously worked with numerous charity organisations, I knew they needed a completely new way to work collaboratively - not being able to share information in a secure manner of such a delicate nature can have the most catastrophic effects', said Ian. 'I had seen intY in action before and knew it was exactly the right solution for Addaction.' After a thorough selection process and in partnership with Addaction staff, Ian selected intY's managed service, including a Virtual Private Network. This allows sites to be easily connected to each other.

The managed service alleviates Addaction's responsibility to manage all elements of the solution, from hardware and software, to upgrades, maintenance and configuration. It is delivered on the intY, ExoServer appliance, which contains an e-mail server, controlled access, a web server, a firewall, anti-virus software, a VPN, NT integration and support.

At this time, James White, joined Addaction as their first IT manager and worked with appiChar on the implementation of intY. 'I thought the plans were very good,' he says. 'Having come across this technology before, I knew it was just the job.' Initially, James oversaw a test phase on two sites and within weeks it had proved itself.

The initial rollout of intY boxes and broadband was to twelve sites, taking only six months to deploy. The next step was to roll-out the solution to the rest of the country, which was done by implementing a two-tier strategy. The team simply identified the sites, which had the greatest need and implemented the solution as budgets allowed.

James has no hesitation justifying the expenditure: 'The benefits throughout the organisation have been enormous. We can now share information effectively, using corporate e-mail, shared calendars, intranet and network file system. We have just finished installing a more streamlined and centralised version of our client database. Security has also been enhanced by using Microsoft Active Directory, which enables us to control the whole system much more effectively.'

The improved security includes firewall protection for the whole network and a fully audited system through asset management. Technical support is available via remote control directly to users' PCs, even to those working from home. This has saved Addaction much needed time and money. The organisation has also rolled out Windows 2000 servers, Exchange 2000 and e-mail, across the entire network.

The client database, which was the largest problem area, can now be updated centrally, making it a far more effective way to maintain accurate and accessible client records. Satellite sites (operating out of regional treatment centres) can now gain access to their local project's centralised database through Terminal Services across the VPN. This means that client information, and hence all the reporting statistics, are always up to date and more meaningful than they have been in the past.

Addaction intends to continue adding sites, via the VPN, which also allows staff to make use of remote working. The team is currently implementing a centralised back-up system and is looking into a customer relationship management system that can be shared across all projects. Addaction also intends to de-centralise some of the human resources and finance operations to regional administration sites, enabling them to utilise central office resources far more efficiently.