Groves Estate Agent

Groves is an independent firm of Estate Agents, providing a property sales and lettings service throughout the North East of England, with offices in Gosforth, Jesmond and Morpeth. Established in 1990, Groves has become one of the regions most successful property businesses, aiming to further grow its presence through quality customer service.

The majority of Groves sales and marketing activity takes place via the Internet through its highly interactive website that provides potential customers a window on potential homes to buy or let.

"The demand from house-buyers and tenants to interact online has increased massively over the past few years so our website and email capability is of the utmost importance. We can no longer simply rely on shop fronts providing details of the latest available properties. Our customers need immediate access to essential property information in order to better inform their decisions," explains Nick Rawlinson, Managing Director of Groves.

The Need For an IT System Upgrade

With a growing customer base and staff looking to communicate quickly and efficiently between the three offices, Groves needed a robust solution that would provide all staff with access to email and the web. There was also a need to enable remote access to email and documents held in any of the offices, while members of staff were on the road.

"We looked at a number of different options," says Rawlinson, "but found that they were all very complex and costly and came from vendors who have a reputation for releasing new features and updates infrequently. As we are an innovative business in a very competitive field, we need to be at the forefront of technology and make the most of the latest developments as soon as they become available."

Choosing Igaware

Groves were recommended Igaware by their IT supplier. The solution involved the installation of a single Igaware box (network appliance) in each office. A single box would deliver all of their IT requirements including; Internet and Email Security, Remote Working VPN, Email and File Serving for an affordable monthly fee that included continuous product development, updates and support.

"We initially installed an Igaware box straight onto our network in two offices," Rawlinson continued. "The simplicity of the solution meant we avoided the massive disruption of our day-to-day business and productivity that would have been the case with a more complex solution. Igaware has now been rolled out to all of our offices and the reliability and excellence of their service and support has been a key factor in helping our business grow by almost double, in the last 3 years with an increase in staff by 50%."

There is now an Igaware box in each office providing file serving and data backup, Internet security and VPN connections linking all the offices and remote workers. At the Gosforth head-office the Igaware Server also provides email serving with email security, and a web groupware interface giving staff access to email on the move.

Staff create and share documents locally on the Igaware server and access the Web to manage the company's web site and property management system. To use email, staff log-in to the web based groupware on the head-office Igaware server.

The partners undertake evaluations and prepare sales particulars, and then connect to head-office via VPN to send property details securely via email or save them directly to a server in the local office.

As part of the service the Igaware team can immediately provide a replacement box already configured; configuration files are backed-up and stored safely off-site and instantly accessible.

Igaware Services Used

• Gateway Security
  Stateful Firewalling, Intrusion Prevention, VPN
  
  
• Email Filtering
  Anti-Virus, Anti Spam, Anti-Phishing and Content Filtering
  
  
• Web Filtering
  URL Blocking and Content Filtering
  
  
• Email Serving
  Mail Server handling of POP3, IMAP, SMTP Email, Groupware and Open-Xchange
  
  
• File Serving
  Windows File Serving, Backup and File Server Anti-Virus
  
  
• Product Support
  Continuous automatic updates to the Igaware box, the operating system and all applications, including new features and security measures. Support in the event of any configuration, hardware or software issues.

The Benefits

"Everything we do within Groves is reliant on the web and email so it is essential that downtime is kept to a minimum. In the eight years since we installed our very first Igaware box, we have maintained a steady Internet presence and have been protected from potential security breaches and virus attacks."

In the event of a problem, Groves have been delighted with the support provided by Igaware. "There have been a few issues over the years but these have been remedied almost immediately following a quick phone call to the Igaware team. In fact, they often help support our IT supplier in solving IT problems meaning we get real added value!"

Tim Sexton, Managing Director of Igaware, said: "The Igaware box is just one part of our solution, it's the product support that really makes the difference. After 8 years, Groves have a solution that is up-to-date, totally secure and offers all the essential features required by any modern business. And as Groves will tell you, it's rock solid."