Western Area Youth Services Inc. (WAYS) is an accredited children’s mental health centre that supports children, youth and their families throughout southwestern Ontario.

Since 1969, over 5,000 youth have lived in their group homes and thousands more have benefited from a variety of community programs.

Currently, WAYS has 13 facilities, a staff of over 200, a consolidated management team and a single board of directors. In the years ahead, they will continue to adapt and grow in response to the needs of the communities they serve.

Building Business on an Unstable Foundation

In November 2005, WAYS acquired Community Homes Limited, an organization serving youth in London, Chatham, Sarnia and Forest. With this acquisition WAYS doubled in size overnight. While Community Homes Limited was known for their service and programs, they unfortunately had not been keeping up with technology in their organization. E-mail was only used by supervisors, client records were not kept electronically and overall, their systems were very outdated.

WAYS needed to put the mechanics in place to bring their recent acquisition up to their own technology standards. They also needed a plan for adding them to their wide area network. The small IT company that had previously provided support to WAYS did not have the staffing or expertise to meet their needs.

“During the Christmas season in 2005, the small, one man IT company we had been using went away for the holiday and we had network issues. There was no one to help us,” recalls Barb Flannigan, Business Administrator for WAYS. “Our server was down and with no support available it stayed that way for several days. It was not a good experience.” WAYS needed a reliable service provider with the expertise and staffing to look after their immediate and future needs. They needed someone who could ensure that they had the hardware and software in place to support, protect and maintain their network.

P.C. Consulting Brings Sure Footing

WAYS was referred to P.C. Consulting and turned to them for help. P.C. Consulting provided a comprehensive plan that would transition the two organizations into one fully functioning operation. They provided WAYS with systems support, server and workstation installations and project implementations such as building a VPN environment and a new Blackberry solution. This included full project management, purchasing the hardware and software, server installation, setting up the hand-held units and basic training for employees on how to use the system. They also made a few improvements to WAYS’ current network to help increase the efficiency of each employee’s workday. “We upgraded their router and network devices to allow for faster data transfer,” states Catherine Barr, Manager of Systems Support Services for P.C. Consulting. “We also continue to provide WAYS with ongoing systems advice and options to ensure their environment remains up-to-date and prepared for future growth.”

Making the Most of Every Minute

Currently there are approximately 150 users at WAYS with access to the computer network. P.C. Consulting is in the process of adding the final remote locations in Chatham, Forest and Sarnia. By early summer all 214 employees will have network access, which will enable the agency to establish an intranet for centralizing company information.

P.C. Consulting helps WAYS by providing a wealth of systems knowledge at their fingertips. “All it takes is an email or phone call and we’re there for them,” explains Barr. “I know how frustrating it can be when an employee can’t do their job because their computer isn’t working right or a server has issues. We want to make sure that we take care of any problems quickly so that the WAYS staff can get back to what’s important, taking care of their people. The staff at Western Area Youth Services is always accommodating and we enjoy working with them. There is a strong trust between us and that makes it easy and enjoyable to work with them.”

“P.C. Consulting constantly goes above and beyond the call. They will often contact me after an issue or problem has been solved to ensure that everything is still OK,” says Flannigan. “They are on a first name basis with the staff at all of our locations. They’re part of the WAYS team and they not only meet our current needs, but they also anticipate and plan for our future needs.”

WAYS does not have the funding to support a full time IT person. By contracting P.C. Consulting to meet their IT needs, WAYS is able to have up-to-date computer expertise and support at a cost that is affordable. “We would be spending 45 to 50 thousand dollars a year plus training costs if we didn’t have P.C. Consulting,” states Flannigan. “We are thrilled to have someone we can trust and count on to help us with our IT needs now and into the future.”