Case Study - MHFA England

Local office, global email

Microsoft's online email unifies mobile staff serving mental health trainers.

MHFA England emerged recently from a cluster of regionally-supported and NHS-led developments. Forming a Community Interest Company with a central London office, it supports 20 development consultants and over 600 trainers who train people how to give initial care in cases of mental ill health among adults and young people.

Business Manager, Bernice Cole, says: "We had no physical space, no desks, computers - not even any email addresses." With a tiny core staff and two directors armed with laptops on site only part time, it was important for the outward-facing organisation to have email access from home.

Tasked with finding a solution to fit their roaming style, Cole was recommended to IT company Co-Operative Systems by CAN Mezzanine, the provider of their new shared offices. Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) was agreed to be an obvious answer, enabling them to unite behind a single mhfaengland.org address and build distribution lists to stay in touch with consultants and associates. With a familiar Outlook client available via a web browser, the result is email access 'any time, anywhere' for peripatetic employees. "The calendar is very useful. I can book things into the directors' diaries because they're not always in." With just a shared drive at the office, the organisation's setup remains appropriately simple yet versatile.

In arriving at Microsoft's BPOS solution (now rebranded as the more catchy "Office 365"), Cole had to fend off alternatives from rival 'Mr. Smoothy' salesmen, and was glad to find Co-operative Systems explained the possibilities clearly. "They weren't patronising, they weren't arrogant, they understood we actually did have a clue what was going on. Just normal and nice – quite a deciding factor for us."

MHFA England is a Community Interest Company which aims to increase mental health literacy of the whole population.