Odyssey House

Managed Network Solution

‘’mcrIT have made my job as CEO easier. The staff are happier, the clients are happier, and we have a very reliable system and a great partnership”

Julie Babineau, CEO, Odyssey House

Oddyssey House Managed Network CS 550x367_

About Odyssey House

Odyssey House is dedicated to the provision of a diverse range of services to adults with alcohol and drug dependencies. Over the past 40 years Odyssey House has helped more than 35,000 people turn their lives around.

Odyssey House offers both Community and residential rehabilitation services.

The situation

Odyssey House have two 24X7 residential rehabilitation centres with medical facilities and staff who depend on the ability to securely access patient data, a central office in Redfern and the remaining community program locations across greater Sydney.

Odyssey House CEO, Julie Babineau’s vision from the start was the One Odyssey project – this involved uniting 2 disparate Odyssey House organisations and standardising systems across all sites.

Their existing network was not secure or scalable, and it was clear that it would struggle to support the needs of their growing business. New sites needed to be set up quickly and remote users needed to be able to connect securely to collaborate between sites. Internet connectivity, bandwidth and speed were a concern and as a result some sites were experiencing outages. Complaints included inability to reliably access e-mails and reports, with some staff travelling between sites before the client data was transferred across the sites, causing frustration in delays, risk of data inaccuracy and double-handling. Remote locations had Internet and Telephony outages for days during wet weather.

Odyssey House turned to mcrIT to build the secure network the business required.

The mcrIT Solution

After an initial health check of Odyssey House’s infrastructure, the mcrIT team recommended an upgrade to their Network and Telephony.
A total refresh of the network was implemented, leveraging 4G backup for remote locations with unstable Internet services, which provided additional flexibility for Community Services staff.

Cisco Meraki was deployed across all locations and legacy ADSL was replaced with Business nbn. As Odyssey’s locations are diverse, and client health and data requires consistent performance, mcrIT also implemented 4G backup at each of the locations. This provides assurance of internet access to the 24×7 services Odyssey provides to its clients, and resilience in providing these services in adverse weather conditions.
As part of this offering, mcrIT Managed Network services provides peace of mind through continuous remote management and monitoring and 24X 7 local helpdesk.

The outcomes

The Odyssey House teams now have excellent connectivity and security for all of their applications and data, wherever they reside.
Cisco Meraki provides a single pane of glass to manage Odyssey House’s network. All endpoints, devices, security and firewalls can be configured from a single interface in the cloud. This is especially useful with more employees working remotely, and was a crucial function in the businesses’ geographical expansion.

Most importantly, this implementation supported the One Odyssey strategy in standardising systems across all sites.

The positive effects were immediate – users noticed an improvement in system performance, outages and downtime were significantly reduced, and new sites could be added very quickly. Documents can now be edited and shared by teams across multiple sites in real time, which has significantly improved their service to their clients.

“mcrIT have helped us to deliver our mission by building a secure and flexible IT foundation that our staff and clients can rely on. If you’re an NFP looking for an IT Managed Services partner, I’d highly recommend mcrIT.”

Julie Babineau, CEO, Odyssey House