The The Nut and Dried Fruit Association is a membership organisation, representing companies or individuals involved in the UK nut and dried fruit industry.

The Task
We were given the task of creating an online identity that should be flexible and simple to maintain by the organization's secretariat. At the same time The Nut and Dried Fruit Association have some ambitious goals for its members and therefore wanted an opportunity to interact with members only.

The Solution
Our solution is based on a "in depth review" of the requirements and features required on the website, along with a review of how the "Members Section" would be implemented while we ensured the solution was still easy to maintain.

Some of the features built into the finished website:
•  Companies apply for membership directly through a form which the organisation only has to approve / reject.
•  Members can maintain their information online.
•  There are special member news (hidden from non logged in users).
•  Overview of arbitration panels and people appointed by the organization.
•  Calendar of upcoming meetings and exhibitions.
•  A News Calendar where The Nut Association can provide information about relevant news.

The elements include a function to add images / photos that system automatically divides in the sizes and decides how they should be shown.  The next stage will be to added a gallery, newsletter and social media integration.

The site is of course fully responsive, images optimised along with added features to make it optimized for search engines (SEO). The site is built in Drupal, the world's best CMS, and expanded with extra security around the special member pages.  By default, Drupal is already one of the most secure systems, but the member information is secured further.

The overall solution is set up with to be easy to use and features are added logically, so it is easy for both members and the webmaster to maintain and expand the content.

View the website at at https://www.ndfta.co.uk/

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BizWiseIT - Serviced Office IT Set Up & Support Project 2015

In September 2014 we found out that the serviced office building we were based in had been sold and was going to be turned into residential flats.  Along with 20 other businesses, we needed to find new office accommodation.

After viewing potential office accommodation around the Crawley area, an opportunity came up to be part of, and set up our own new serviced office complex in association with a property owner and an investor.  Southpoint Office at Lowfield Heath, Gatwick was identified as a suitable location and 10 of the displaced businesses signed up to come along with us, in addition to the current office centre manager.

"Our new office was custom designed and new partitioning was installed for each business to meet their size and requirements."

BizWiseIT were tasked with managing, designing and laying out a plan for the IT infrastructure for the building and the client rooms. All the current network points were checked and relabelled. New Cat5e cables were installed in some of the client rooms.

We then progressed to set up the IT infrastructure for the offices.  Initially six ADSL lines were installed, then in May 2015 the 100/100 leased line was installed. For each business, we set up and configured the routers and network switches for 15 Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs), giving each business secure internet access along with passing through the network Public Fixed IP numbers if required by a business.

Each business/office was then tested for Network Security to confirm that no business could see or access another business network or LAN. The Fluent-Group was chosen to supply and install the telephone VOIP system for all the clients.

The moving in date was 17, March 2015, which proved a busy day!  Not only did we move in, we fully set up and configured four of our current clients IT systems (computers, servers, routers etc.) into the new office, while also making sure all the business had correct documentation and internet access in each room.

Full building and client IT/network documentation and records have been produced for reference and change as new tenants leave or arrive.

We also maintain the buildings email system and have designed the buildings logo that can be seen above and is used on all paper work/communications.

The client base and services offered has continued to grow,in 2018 the leased line was increased to 500/500 so we configured and installed new router/firewall and network switch along with the entire network/internet feed for each client in the building.

BizWiseIT continues to fully manage and maintain the IT comms room and IT infrastructure for SouthPoint Serviced Office, Crawley on a daily basis.

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Update and Management of TensCare's IT systems

We were recommended to TensCare in Epsom by their new office manager who we had previously worked with. Their IT support was non-existent, there was no structure, no documentation or back up of any of the client data. Once their server had been down for two weeks!

TensCare are Europe’s largest distributor of TENS machines, export to over 40 countries worldwide through retail pharmacies, hospitals and online.

IT Support

We started by taking a full audit of the network and computers. We found that the server had not been backing up the data for weeks. PC security updates were very out of date and they had been given poor advice about keeping Windows XP running. We spent a weekend on site where we optimised and checked every computer. We installed new i3/i5 Windows 10 PCs to replace ageing XP PCs.

We have progressed with their IT support and replaced their aging Windows Server with a Synology Rack Mounted NAS (Network Attached Storage); installed multiple new PCs and Laptops; configured business-grade data back up to a second NAS, along with cloud back-up directly from the main Synology NAS.

We also installed cloud-managed Bit Defender anti-virus, set up virtual PCs so that remote staff (in China, Canada, New Zealand & USA) can access the network in their UK/Epsom office and set up dedicated Sage data PCs.

This has all improved the running of their business; staff don’t now need to wait weeks for IT support and we now maintain and manage all their IT systems on a weekly and monthly basis.

MS Office/ Hosted Exchange

In 2018 we migrated their aging MS Exchange Email system over to MS Office 365 Exchange and Business software and upgraded all their PCs to Office365 versions of Word/Excel/PPoint & Outlook. It took 3 days to export and import all their messages/calendars/contacts over and reset back up signatures and email settings. The project went really well and has greatly increased their working efficiency, for example it has totally reduced their spam email as each person was getting up to 70% of all messages each day being spam.

IT Upgrades and expansion

More recently we have implemented multiple back up and redundancy systems for data protect, installed CCTV and re-located their Coms Room.

When the Covid Pandemic of 2020 struck, we quickly purchased and configured 25+ Lenovo ThinkPad laptops to allow the staff to work from home while still being able to access the NAS and all their data in the Epsom office and the office PCs.

In 2021 they were award The Queens Award for Enterprise. We continue to work for TensCare who are expanding and ensure they have the most up to date systems.  

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