All organisations rely on the ability of its most important assets – its people - to communicate and work together providing services to its customers and delivering results. The more efficient and flexible the surrounding ICT eco-system is to support people and processes the more can be achieved. a&o focus on these issues. We believe that aligning ICT with your business needs and those of your customers is critical to success - ensuring relevancy of solutions, enabling organisational optimisation and delivering the flexibility to support virtualisation of people and processes – working - without boundaries.

The county of Cheshire boasts a history dating back over 2,000 years. its landscapes reflect the gentle pastures of the English Midlands and Welsh Marches, as well as the rugged hills of England’s North Country. It is against this backdrop that the County Council is tasked with servicing the needs of the local community, businesses and environment in equal measure.

Consistent with central Government initiatives, its attention is focussed on the effective use of IT systems and ‘eGovernment’ methods; with the aim of continually improving the quality and accessibility of services available to the community.

The creation of a high-speed communications infrastructure linking all county services was seen as essential for achieving this vision.

EC Harris is a leading international Capital Project and Facilities Consultancy with approaching 1,800 employees worldwide. Through innovative application of traditional professional skills, developed processes and information, they deliver all aspects of a capital project and its ongoing operation.

Faced with rapid expansion of their business, the flow of communication throughout the organisation was being constrained by the existing IT infrastructure...

Reebok International Ltd., headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts in the US, is a leading worldwide designer, marketer and distributor of sports, fitness and casual footwear, apparel and equipment. The global retailer, which turned over $3.8 billion in 2004, was acquired by sports brand icon Adidas in January 2006. It has 45 direct retail stores in Europe, distributed across 10 countries - the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic.

Sport and fitness have never been higher on consumer’s agenda than today, thanks to the recent media hype surrounding world-class events such as the Winter Olympics, the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup 2006 in Germany - not to mention the western world’s obsession with diet and exercise. To capitalise on this, Reebok has an aggressive expansion plan that will see the company open more stores across its key markets.

Trafford Council provides services for some 220,000 residents and visitors to a borough comprising a mixture of inner-city, suburban and rural communities. Home to the world-famous Manchester United football club, the area has also seen significant developments in retail, cultural and housing schemes in recent years.

Like many local authorities, Trafford has been tasked by Government mandate to deliver all council services electronically by 2005. In addition, initiatives such as the National Grid for Learning (NGFL) and several local projects required them to review the suitability of their present IT infrastructure.

A network is an enabler – not just for today's applications but those of the future. It provides the core infrastructure on which so much other enabling technology depends. And that translates into the ability to achieve your business or organisational goals. It's essential that the technology platform you choose is capable of supporting not just where you are today, but future developments for many years to come.

That means it is a long-term investment. It's essential to consider the whole-life costs and that means selecting a platform that is reliable – to reduce downtime and support costs – and capable of expansion.

In the case of Hertfordshire County Council, a reliable network is essential to allowing it to serve its citizens effectively.

The need for, and benefits of, mobility in the delivery of healthcare services in today’s NHS environment are clear to see. Clinical staff spend a large proportion of their time on their feet working in teams providing care and ensuring the safety of patients. Having the ability to access patient records, consult medical information and efficiently contact staff from any location within a healthcare community is mission critical. This need for mobility in healthcare operations is evident in the fact that hospitals are longstanding users of paging and cordless PBX technologies (eg DECT).