Connecting justice campaigners world-wide

A new intranet keeps staff in touch with vital in-house documents and contacts, irrespective of where they are located.

Penal Reform International (PRI) is an international non-governmental organisation working on penal and criminal justice reform worldwide. Their latest 'living publication', Making Law and Policy that Work is aimed at specialists and non-specialists faced with the responsibility of creating a policy and legislative framework for criminal justice and penal systems.

Early in 2009, the organisation decided to move from Brixton to Commercial Street on the edge of the city. The intended upheaval came at short notice because they found an ideal place much faster than they expected. Working with Co-Operative Systems, the organisation moved its workstations plus the server and the whole network 'Groundforce-style', hooking it into the new building infrastructure.

Once they were successfully settled, PRI commissioned Co-Operative Systems to put together an intranet that would be accessible to the 70 staff in the organisation, no matter how remote.

InfoBulletin talked to Marie Cacace, Information and Communications Manager, whose responsibilities include managing internal and external communications, the website and publications. "The aim of the intranet was for colleagues to be able to share information across the globe in a centralised place. Prior to the intranet, information was saved on personal and office drives which meant that documents and news which were vital to colleagues work was at risk of not being shared."

Arik Fletcher, Technical Manager at Co-Operative Systems, undertook the process of formulating a solution with Microsoft SharePoint™, scoping out the potential structure of a demo site during meetings between teams on both sides. "PRI were looking for a simple way to give their outlying offices and home workers access to internal data without the use of remote tools such as RDP or Citrix™. The system also needed to be dynamic and not require additional software, so a VPN-based solution would not have been ideal."

Over several weeks an intranet site that met the original brief was created jointly to make a base for further development employing Windows Server 2008 (by upgrading the existing Server 2003) and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, all technologies that had been used extensively at other client sites. Along the way the site design was modified to establish a custom-built staff directory based on a SharePoint Contact List.

Thus Penal Reform International now benefits from a globally accessible folder structure that can be used by members of staff in all their offices, both locally and on the move. A further advantage – much sought after by anyone overloaded with email – is that SharePoint announcement lists and discussion boards have begun to reduce inter-staff email usage.

Marie Cacace said they chose Co-Operative Systems because "they have a proven track record of successfully installing SharePoint in other organisations."

Feedback from staff on the solution and support of the intranet portal has all been very positive as Cacace can confirm: "Before the intranet, staff were unable to access organisational information from anywhere across the world, but now they can, and in a secure environment. Colleagues are now more regularly updated about activities across the organisation. Less time is spent on sending emails as information can be readily accessed. The intranet also unites colleagues from different regions across the world; they can discuss work issues, share information and comment on one another’s work more easily."

The project's success means that PRI are now looking forward to further development of the portal.

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PRI seeks to achieve penal reform by promoting international human rights instruments in relation to law enforcement and prison conditions, the eliminating discrimination in all penal measures, abolition of the death penalty and the use of non-custodial sanctions supporting the social reintegration of offenders.

http://www.penalreform.org/