High waters no obstacle to PresCare ICT strategy

"Within two hours we had a working centre at our state-of-the-art residential facility in Carina, Brisbane and staff were able to access all systems," he said. The internal ICT department was bolstered with offers of assistance from vendors Dell, Citrix and Microsoft. The companies provided Cloud storage for data backup and physical assistance to move equipment to safe areas. The organisation's network supplier, VPN Solutions, kept data and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) systems running in Rockhampton and Maryborough.

In 2010, the six-strong IT team implemented a helpdesk and network management offering, the Dell Kace box, chosen as a cheaper alternative to larger vendors. PresCare as well plans to integrate the Kace offering with its Sharepoint environment to provide real-time reporting on all aspects of helpdesk and environment across the multiple organisations it manages.

Other projects in the pipeline include the deployment of mobile devices just as the iPhone for use by staff in its community services. This would provide the ability to track real-time data on elderly patients from the field.

"Putting innovation in place, whilst a challenge, is technical in nature and can be overcome," he said. "Allaying concerns of some staff not familiar with research, ensuring all staff have been trained in general IT skills and dispelling fears about what the system will and won't do are the greater challenges."

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