Case Studies
Select from the list below to read some examples of our solutions.
- Manchester Ship Canal – Runcorn, Cheshire
Creation and installation of software to control the flow of goods into and out of the docks whilst conforming to legislation. - Driving Edge Limited – Garston, Liverpool
Creation, implementation and maintenance of software and hardware to run the company´s recruitment operations. - Henry Smith (Construction) – Winsford, Cheshire
Networked corporate environment allowing for communication and updates between multiple locations and suppliers simultaneously. - Harris Balcombe – Nationwide
Networking of multiple offices and remote/home workers to provide a seamless environment and communication links. - Levy & McRae – Glasgow & International
Large firm of solicitors in a fully networked environment with partners working internationally who need to be in touch with people and systems back at Head Office. - Black Firs School – Congleton, Cheshire
Local school with a strong technology focus featuring the use of multi-media and needing robust internet access controls. - Nuclear Technology – Nationwide
Helpdesk support to remote sites via VPNs (Virtual Private Networks).
Manchester Ship Canal, Runcorn, Cheshire
Runcorn Docks is part of the Manchester Ship Canal Company. The docks are used to unload ships containing a variety of products from glass and pottery to raw materials in bulk for the fertiliser industry.
Ships are unloaded into stock or onto lorries for transport direct to customers. A weighbridge determines the quantity of material from vehicle weights.
P&L were asked to deliver a stock control solution that managed stock movements both to and from vessels and customers in a multi-user system. A specific requirement was an interface to the weighbridge control panel to extract weight and time information to conform to Weights and Measures legislation.
The software was originally developed using Clipper, an xBase compiler, on a Novell Netware LAN in 1991. In 2001 the site updated to Windows 2000 Server with P&L rewriting the Clipper software in Visual Basic.
Driving Edge Limited, Garston, Liverpool
Driving Edge is an employment agency providing contract warehouse, stacker–truck and HGV personnel to major distribution companies. The company operates from a centralised HQ in Runcorn but has personnel nationwide and operates 24/7. In 1999 it decided to automate all its recruitment procedures including placing advertisements, organising interviews, allocating successful candidates, equipment tracking (overalls, boots etc.) and other peripheral functions. P&L have been supporting Driving Edge Limited ever since.
A feature of the system is the use of the Post Office database for matching postcodes to grid references to determine the distance from a candidate´s residence to the place of work. This enables the company database of prospective candidates, currently in excess of 75,000 records, to be searched by postcode to find those nearest to the recruiting workplace. P&L delivered a complete solution with bespoke operations software, corporate email, internet, fax, remote access, mirrored servers for critical application management and remote offsite back-up systems.
Henry Smith (Construction), Winsford, Cheshire
Henry Smith is a structural steel design and build company for major building projects such as supermarkets, distribution centres etc.
In 1995 Henry Smith had one PC in the entire company. Now they have more than 20 workstations on Novell and Windows 2000 Server for CNC, Steelwork Design, Structural Calculations, accounts and general purpose use.
Many of the projects require continual update and refinement with other companies from architects to steel beam suppliers. This is achieved almost exclusively via email.
Henry Smith (Construction) have been customers of P&L for 14 years.
Harris Balcombe – Manchester, London, Glasgow, Leeds
The Balcombe Group is the largest independent company of Insurance Loss Assessors in the UK. They have branches in Manchester, Glasgow and London plus a small number of regional offices. P&L have maintained, supported and developed the Group´s IT since 1993.
Each site now utilises a Windows W2K network with corporate email and internet across the Group.
Recent developments include a bespoke distributed database so the regional offices can maintain individual databases but still share details with the other sites. This enables queries on the database to be made at any of the regional offices.
Levy & McRae, Glasgow & International
Although Levy & McRae are 236 miles from P&L´s headquarters, we are able to give excellent support using a VPN connection that allows us to remotely access all the workstations, printers and routers from our offices. Current facilities include a server, 45 workstations, corporate email, fax and internet.
Two particular requirements were the management of 24 separate databases, each of which are on separate CD-ROM´s and the delivery of reliable, timely and cost-effective email. P&L successfully delivered both these requirements. Email is delivered on-demand without incurring unnecessary additional costs and everyone in the practice can use the same versions of the databases maintaining consistency across users.
The company operates internationally and staff can collect email from almost anywhere in the world using a database of internet access numbers.
Black Firs School, Congleton, Cheshire
Black Firs decided to develop their IT from a solid base so opted for a server-based network initially, rather than beginning with a small peer-to-peer network and changing later.
The pupils´ use of the internet is a controlled environment using products like SurfControl for content filtering and the Mdaemon mail-server that incorporates antispam. This both significantly reduces call charges and gives staff and parents alike the confidence in knowing that the material being accessed is appropriate.
Black Firs have been using P&L for more than 9 years and recent developments include;
- A multi-media suite incorporating an internet camera which allows parents to remotely view activities within the school, for example the recent chicken hatching.
- Laptops routed via a wireless network to provide flexibility for teachers as they move around the school and a dedicated server allowing students to use the internet to see their own work from home, whilst ensuring that the security of the network is not compromised.
Nuclear Technology, Nationwide
Nuclear power stations run on very few staff. In each station there are a few individual PCs which are networked together. They are also located in remote sites.
P&L have implemented a maintenance solution that uses a remote helpdesk and a Virtual Private Network. If an operator calls with a problem the solution is fixed remotely by P&L being able to see (from the helpdesk) what the operator sees and can then either guide the operator in what they need to do or alternatively provide a fix over the network.
