PCYC is an initiative of Qld Police to ‘build communities through youth development’ and operate sporting and recreational facilities around Queensland including a number of indigenous communities. Each Branch is managed by a serving Police Officer to promote a good relationship between the community and the Police Service. They also operate Before and After School Care at many schools and centres around the State.
PCYC approached us in 2005 to assist with issues with their server at their State Office supplied by a third party. These were resolved primarily by appropriate configuration of Windows SBS Server and subsequently stabilised their network. We continued to provide support for their network and the provision of hardware and software as required.
In 2007 we were contracted to investigate and make recommendations in relation to a State Wide Network to improve communication between their 50 branches and State Office. We undertook a review by interviewing Branch managers at a number of sites as well as holding workshops with State Office Management and looking at the future direction of the organisation. Previously all IT equipment was purchased locally however there were no standards or appropriate infrastructure in place.
Our recommendations featured the establishment of a Data Centre to host email and other corporate information and the establishment of a wide area network linking all Branches. The concept was a partially distributed network with a local server at each site linked to the Data Centre over a private network. We commenced the installation of the Data Centre in 2008 with the first pilot branches installed in late 2008. As part of the State wide rollout we also developed a desktop/notebook SOE (Standard Operating Environment) to ensure that the operating system and standard desktop applications were consistent across the whole organisation. The rollout to the 50 branches was completed by mid 2009.
The PCYC network now consists of some 700 devices backed by a managed services agreement to provide onsite and remote support to all staff and Branches.
