ICT Support Service For Voluntary Groups in Rural Areas

ICT Support Service
for Voluntary Groups in Rural Areas
Evaluation report on a pilot project

October 2003 - March 2004
A partnership between CVS Northamptonshire and
Northamptonshire ACRE, funded by the Northamptonshire
Connecting Communities Partnership.
Report by Karen Cropper March 2004
CVS Northamptonshire ACRE ACRE

13 Hazelwood Rd Hunsbury Hill Centre King's Cliffe Resource Centre
Northampton Harksome Hill King's Cliffe, Church Walk
NN1 1LG Northampton NN4 9QX Peterborough PE8 6XD
Tel (01604) 624121 Tel (01604) 765888 Tel (01780) 470125
Contents
1 Executive Summary.......................................................................... 5
2 Introduction ....................................................................................... 6
2.1 Aims of the project........................................................................................ 6
2.2 Funding of the project................................................................................... 6
3 Background ....................................................................................... 6
3.1 Evidence of Need ......................................................................................... 6
3.2 Circuit Riders................................................................................................ 7
3.3 Other related projects and services in Northamptonshire............................. 7
4 Pilot ICT Support Service for Voluntary Groups in Rural

Areas .................................................................................................. 8
4.1 Setting up the project ................................................................................... 8
4.2 Marketing...................................................................................................... 8
4.3 Direct service to voluntary sector organisations ........................................... 9
4.4 Co-ordination................................................................................................ 9
4.5 Monitoring..................................................................................................... 9
5 Experiences and Case Studies........................................................ 9

5.1 General Comments ...................................................................................... 9
5.2 Case Study – Small organisations.............................................................. 11
5.3 Case Study – Medium sized organisations ................................................ 11
5.4 Case Study – Village Hall........................................................................... 12
5.5 Case Study – Parish Church ...................................................................... 13
5.6 Case Study – Parish Council...................................................................... 13
5.7 Case Study – Mobile Training Unit ............................................................. 14
5.8 Case Study – Village Website Group ......................................................... 14
5.9 Common Themes....................................................................................... 14
6 Lessons learnt from the pilot project ........................................... 15

6.1 What didn’
t work......................................................................................... 15
6.2 What did work?........................................................................................... 15
7 Cost of this pilot project................................................................. 16
8 Future work...................................................................................... 16
KC 06/04/04 Final Draft Page 2 of 45

8.1 Discussions at the Steering Group – “How would this service be different
from a commercial IT Support contract?”................................................... 16
8.1.1 Setting minimum standards.......................................................... 16
8.1.2 Discount Offers ............................................................................ 17
8.1.3 Marketing ..................................................................................... 17
8.1.4 What might it cost?....................................................................... 17
8.1.5 Location and Travelling Costs...................................................... 17
8.1.6 Publicising what training is available ............................................ 18
8.1.7 Breakdown recovery model.......................................................... 18
8.2 Other Consultation ..................................................................................... 18

8.3 Additional services that a circuit rider/ICT Support project can offer .......... 19
8.4 Funding Bid for 2004/05 ............................................................................. 20
8.4.1 Project title: ICT Information and Training Co-ordination Project . 20
9 Conclusion....................................................................................... 20
10 References and Useful Reading.................................................... 21

10.1 References ............................................................................................. 21
10.2 Other Useful Reading ............................................................................. 21
11 Acknowledgements ........................................................................ 22
12 Appendix A- A History of Open Source Software ....................... 23
13 Appendix B – Newsfile articles and inserts ................................. 25

13.1 October 2003 Article ............................................................................... 25
13.2 December 2003/January 2004 Article..................................................... 25
13.3 Insert October 2003, November 2003 and Dec 2003/Jan 2004.............. 26
13.4 Insert February 2004............................................................................... 27
13.5 Article March 2004.................................................................................. 28
13.6 Article April 2004..................................................................................... 29
14 Appendix C – Standard documents used – questionnaire

and record forms ............................................................................ 30
15 Appendix D – Summary of Outputs .............................................. 38
16 Appendix E – Useful Facilities and Sources of Information ...... 39

16.1 The IT Centre Ltd.................................................................................... 39

16.2 Council for Ethnic Minority Communities (CEMC)................................... 39
16.3 Northampton Volunteering Centre .......................................................... 39
16.4 Northamptonshire Libraries Service........................................................ 40
16.5 ITrain....................................................................................................... 40
16.6 Age Concern........................................................................................... 40
16.7 Northamptonshire community portal ....................................................... 40
16.8 Morfett Consultancy Ltd .......................................................................... 41
16.9 IT For Charities ....................................................................................... 41
16.10 London Advice Services Alliance (lasa) .................................................. 41
17 Appendix F – Service Providers.................................................... 41

17.1 Hardware repair and maintenance contractors ....................................... 41
17.2 Discounted software providers................................................................ 42
17.3 Equipment Hire ....................................................................................... 42
18 Appendix G – Jargon Buster ......................................................... 43
19 Appendix H – Second Hand Hardware Suppliers........................ 44

1 Executive Summary
This report details the experience of the pilot ICT Support Service for voluntary and
community organisations in rural areas of Northamptonshire. The project was run
jointly by CVS Northamptonshire and Northamptonshire ACRE. It was funded by a
grant from the Northamptonshire Connecting Communities Partnership (SRB6), and
lasted 6 months, from October 2003 to March 2004.
The ICT support needs of the rural voluntary sector are wide-ranging and varied, but
essentially the same as would be encountered in any under-resourced small to
medium sized business. The key factors in meeting the needs of the rural
community are the difficulty in marketing the service and the extra cost of travel to
reach the groups. As with small business, many of the issues raised are about lack
of time, problems with organisational structures and lack of general understanding
about how prioritising IT and training could relieve some of the time pressures in the
long term.
Key findings are given below:

82% of organisations in the pilot group did not have a budget for IT equipment,
maintenance or training.
The organisations predominantly had old equipment and outdated operating
systems (Win 98 or earlier).
Where they had more than one PC, the machines frequently had different
operating systems and software on them, which makes file-sharing and
networking more difficult.
There was often a lack of understanding of viruses and the need to update
protection regularly.
A number of cases demonstrated how problems occur when people from
outside install systems in an organisation and then go away without the
organisation having anyone who is IT literate enough to know how to maintain
them (eg websites or databases)
There are a number of opportunities – making use of safe fast internet access,
networking, using second hand equipment and working creatively with free
open source software – which these organisation are not in a position to take
advantage of.
There is a tendency to underestimate the complexity, and therefore the time
and cost required to deal with ITC related problems.
This pilot Northamptonshire ICT support service can be considered a success, in that
it provided useful lessons and experiences for developing a larger scale long-term
service. There is clearly a demand for such a service and the pilot was only able to
scratch the surface. It is hoped that future funding bids will be successful and it will
be possible to build on the experience of this pilot, develop the good ideas that have
come from it, and enable the local voluntary sector in both urban and rural areas to
make informed and effective use of ICT to support their activities.

2 Introduction
2.1 Aims of the project
The project was a pilot for an ICT support service for Northamptonshire voluntary
groups based in rural areas. The original target was to work with approximately 30
organisations of varying circumstances (size, location, level of ICT use and
knowledge), This was revised to 20 organisations in January 2004 in the light of the
difficulties in reaching sufficient numbers of groups, and the intensive support needs
of the organisations already contacted.
The project was based on workers providing consultancy/advice/training on a one-to-

one basis through several visits to each organisation. The aim was to assist the
organisations to develop an ICT Strategy identifying their needs for hardware,
software, training, email/Internet, own website, data protection, virus protection,
maintenance contracts, staff responsibilities, policies, etc. The intention was that the
workers would also be able to provide one-to-one training where required.
2.2 Funding of the project

The project was funded by the Northamptonshire Connecting Communities
Partnership (SRB 6). An expression of interest was submitted in July 2003 and the
full application was submitted in August 2003. Notification that the bid was
successful was sent 19th September 2003.
The original application was for the project was £17,500, plus a requirement of
raising contribution in kind to the value of £2,080.
3 Background
3.1 Evidence of Need
The "Mapping the rural voluntary sector" (2002) 1 study comparing East
Northamptonshire and Teesdale found that:
Only half (52.6%) of organisations use word processing and/or spreadsheet
software
Slightly more that one organisation in four (26.3%) uses the Internet and
almost one in five (19.3%) has a website
Only 5% of organisations have an ICT budget.
Jackson Quigg Associates conducted a survey of the "Northamptonshire Voluntary

and Community Sector" (August 2002) 2. For the question, "Which (if any) of the
following training needs has your organisation identified?" 50% identified the need for
training on how IT can help your organisation, 38% identified need for basic IT skills
training, yet 71% of organisations had no training budget.
The Northamptonshire Connecting Communities Partnership report on "The

Fundraising Experiences of Voluntary and Community Organisations in
Northamptonshire" (Dec 2002) 3 found that "organisations do not at present use the
best methods of finding out about funding opportunities..." and, " A high number [of
organisations] are disinterested in an email funding bulletin, and have concerns

about the value of a funding website. This may be because they lack experience and
training and have low confidence regarding the use of ICT".
CVS carried out its own research project with a sample of members who had
previously responded that they did not want to receive information from CVS by
email. The results report (March 2003) 4 showed that 85% indicated they would like
to receive training 'in-house' on their own computers and software rather than going
on a course.
3.2 Circuit Riders

Many small and medium sized voluntary organisations face challenges in getting the
best Information and Communication Technology (ICT) support. The circuit rider
movement is a new concept designed to meet some of these challenges. The
definition of a circuit rider is 'a mobile grassroots ICT worker supporting a case load
of organisations each too small to have their own IT staff'. The term comes from an
old American model for medical care where one doctor would cover a circuit of
outlying communities on a horse. The modern equivalent is an itinerant ICT fixer,
going from place to place sorting out problems. The idea is that the circuit rider is
rooted in the voluntary sector, they understand organisations’values and structures,
and can give realistic advice about technology in non-technical language. In America
the circuit rider movement is also linked with the promotion of open source code (see
section Appendix A for a history of open source code).
The advantages of Circuit Riding are seen as:
Recognised nationally with resources available for IT Professionals to support

each other
The Circuit Rider provides consistent impartial advice over time and sees it
through
Not linked to one supplier
The pilot project was inspired by this model and aimed to see if it was possible to set
up a service along these lines in Northamptonshire.
More information about circuit riders is available on the Internet – see

www.lasa.org.uk.
3.3 Other related projects and services in Northamptonshire

ITrain provide free training, available for anyone who works or volunteers in a
Northamptonshire based organisation with up to 250 employees and covers IT
applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, Email and PowerPoint,
although other packages may be available. (see Appendix E).
Teamwork Kettering, Corby and Wellingborough, are shortly planning to start a

hardware recycling business with funding from the Northamptonshire Partnership.
Teamwork has three industrial working environments for supported employment for
people with a range of disabilities and extra support needs.
There are increased opportunities for recycling because of the European Directive for
the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of waste electrical and electronic

equipment (WEEE) (2002/96/EC 27 January 2003 - is driven by the concerns about
the mercury, cadmium, lead, chromium VI, PBB and PBDE content that on disposal
poses risks to health or environment). Companies will have to pay more for disposal
of this type of equipment and will be more willing to donate it.
Teamwork are aiming to recycle 200 computers per month by the end of the first
year. They have an arrangement with Recycle-IT based in Luton, who have already
established ways of working and markets for older PCs for the developing countries
and local markets for newer PCs. They will be starting the business with equipment
and training from Recycle-IT and Recycle-IT will pay them for machines that they
have cleaned up and are ready to be sold on.
Northamptonshire community portal, www.connect2northamptonshire.com, is being

launched at the end of March. This is a community portal for promoting local
community services and activities. Local community or voluntary (not-for-profit)
organisations will be able to put information on the portal for free - their own web
pages, etc.
Other services available are given in Appendix E.
4 Pilot ICT Support Service for Voluntary Groups in Rural Areas

4.1 Setting up the project
This project was delivered by partnership between CVS Northamptonshire and
Northamptonshire ACRE.
A Steering Group met four times during the six-month period of the project. The
following people were members of the Steering Group:
Mary Hopkins, director, CVS
David Quayle, chief executive, ACRE
Karen Cropper, self employed contractor working for CVS
Rob Stead, self employed contractor working for CVS
Penny Mould, manager, King’ s Cliffe Resource Centre, ACRE
Overall the project was co-ordinated by Karen Cropper. The direct service delivery
was mostly by Rob Stead and Mary Creswell (King’ s Cliffe Resource Centre) with
additional support from Karen Cropper, Penny Mould and 2 other contractors at the
end of the project for one-off pieces of work.
4.2 Marketing
Articles and inserts were placed in CVS’
s Newsfile magazine, which is sent out
monthly to 400-450 voluntary sector organisations in the county (see Appendix B for
examples).
Direct marketing of leaflets and fliers about the service were sent out to
approximately 80 organisations that were selected from various lists, particularly
targeting those organisations that were based in rural areas.
Information was also passed on by telephone and email to local development

workers in the local authorities and other support agencies for promotion.

Summary of marketing:
October 2003 Newsfile – Page 8 article plus insert
November 2003 Newsfile – insert (same insert as October)
11th November 2003 Letter promoting project to 78 Organisations
Nov 2003 emails to various organisations promoting project.
December 2003/January 2004 Newsfile – Page 6 article and insert (same
insert as October)
26th January - email promoting Desktop Publishing Workshops to 11
organisations
29th January 2004 - letter promoting Desktop Publishing Workshops to 63
organisations
February 2004 Newsfile – insert promoting workshop sessions
March 2004 Newsfile – Page 12 article
April 2003 Newsfile (produced in March 2004) – article about need for virus
protection and free software available.
4.3 Direct service to voluntary sector organisations

All the marketing had a single point of contact at CVS by telephone or email to
register interest in the project. Details of enquiries were filled out on a standard form
and emailed to the project co-ordinator, who then assessed whether the organisation
was eligible to take part in the project, and if required rang back to find out more
information. The details were then passed on to the appropriate project worker.
4.4 Co-ordination
The project workers aimed to meet roughly on a monthly basis. In all there were six
co-ordination meetings during the period of the project. These meetings were
informal and very useful for reviewing progress and exchanging ideas about how
best to help each organisation to build its ICT capacity
4.5 Monitoring
The funding body required monthly monitoring of finances and achievements. This
was a very time-consuming process, especially within such a short-term project. The
monitoring related to: project spend, leverage raised, organisations worked with,
number of training weeks (1 training week = 1 person trained for 30 hours) and
number of capacity building initiatives.
5 Experiences and Case Studies

5.1 General Comments
Eleven of the organisations that received a service from this pilot project provided
detailed answers to a questionnaire. The key findings are given in this section.
82% (9/11) of organisations in the pilot group did not have a budget for IT equipment,
maintenance or training. One organisation used the stationery budget for any
expenses relating to IT. Two of the organisations that did not have a budget had
made grant applications to include this – one was pending, the other was
unsuccessful.

The organisations predominantly had old equipment and old operating systems (Win
98 or earlier). Where they had more than one PC, frequently the machines had
different operating systems and software on them, which makes file-sharing and
networking more difficult.
Organisations involved in the pilot had accounts with the following Internet Service
Providers:
Freeserve (4) – dial-up - www.freeserve.co.uk, also do broadband
Tiscali (1) – dial-up - www.tiscali.co.uk, also do broadband
BT Connect (1) – dial up - www.btconnect.com, also do broadband
UK Online (1) – dial-up - www.ukonline.net also do broadband
Netscalibur – broadband - http://www.netscalibur.co.uk/ (1)
Pipex (1) - broadband - www.pipex.net
ZenADSL (1) – broadband - www.zenadsl.co.uk
100% (11/11) of organisations that had Internet used Microsoft Internet Explorer as
their browser.
73% (8/11) of organisations that had Internet access use a dial-up modem through
an ordinary telephone line.
27% (3/11) of organisations that had Internet access have broadband.
100% (11/11) of organisations that had email use Microsoft Outlook Express as their
email software.
27% (3/11) of organisations either did not have virus protection software or were not
aware that it needed to be updated regularly and that the system needed to be set up
to scan regularly.
27% (3/11) of organisations were infected with viruses.
It is not only the virus definitions that need updating. All software, including
Windows, needs to be updated regularly so that it doesn’ t include the vulnerabilities
that the viruses exploit. None of the organisations visited had installed the critical
updates made available from Microsoft, for example.
50% (3/6) of organisations that had more than one computer had them networked
and were able to share files. (One of these, though, was so concerned about viruses
that email was only available on one PC not connected to the network, however all
PC’ s could access the Internet.). 50% (3/6) organisations with more than one PC did
not have them networked and in one instance they only had one printer and had to
transfer files by floppy disc between machines in order to print.
36% (4/11) of organisations had a website (includes one group that was a village
group specifically for a village website - we helped them to set it up).
100% (4/4) of organisations with a website had it set up by a person who was either
a volunteer or no longer with the organisation (one of these now has trained staff who

can update the website, another is the group just starting out, the other two face the
difficulty of being reliant on volunteer support which may not always be available).
40% (2/5) of organisations that had scanners did not know how to use them.
The following case studies are presented to illustrate the range of issues
encountered on the project.
5.2 Case Study – Small organisations

Several organisations that only had one PC contacted the project. In these cases
often the voluntary organisation had either only one worker or several workers who
were home-based. These workers are using the PC as a tool to do part of their job
often about communicating with clients and colleagues – for example email, letters,
leaflets, newsletters, posters.
Comments
The difficulty is, if the organisation consists of one person and one PC, when there is
a problem, there isn’ t a spare machine to use and there is only one person there to
sort it out. A circuit rider project could make life easier for a lot of voluntary sector
organisations that are essentially lone or home-workers by having a helpline and a
call out service to fix issues when they arise, but more importantly providing an
information/awareness raising service that promotes good practice such as health
and safety on setting up the work space, tips about using the PC efficiently, advice
about virus protection and updating software. Commercial hardware suppliers have
a range of warranty services including helplines and on-site or return to base repair.
A local circuit rider project would have the advantage of being more aware of the
background and the opportunity for the individuals to get to know the people who are
helping rather than dealing with face-less contacts in a national office. On the softer
side such a service could provide the feeling of security of a support network.
5.3 Case Study – Medium sized organisations

The project was contacted by six organisations that were office-based and had two or
more PCs. All of these organisations had more ICT needs than could be met by this
pilot project, but we were able to tackle one issue with each organisation. Examples
were:
Setting up a network with a file server to allow file and printer sharing.
Setting up a broadband Internet and email service through a network so that
everyone had personal email and access to the Internet, with the protection of
a firewall.
Solving email set up problems, training staff so that they could to do this
themselves and could remove viruses and update virus protection software.
Training staff and volunteers on how to use their computers more efficiently,
cleaning up old files, organising files and emails into folders, defragging the
hard drive, using the software they already have in a better way.
Training a volunteer, improving Access 2000 knowledge and skills so that an
essential database could be improved to better suit its use.
Training staff in FrontPage 2000 so that they were able to update information
on their website.

We had hoped when the project started that we would be able to work with
organisations of this size to develop an ICT Strategy with them to address their
current and future needs, but the experience was that it was more important to sort
out specific issues and there was not sufficient time in the project to do more in depth
work on developing a longer-term strategy for ICT.
Comments
Organisations of this size would definitely benefit from longer-term work with a circuit
rider project. There isn’ t a simple one-off fix but needs to be on-going development
starting form assessing their business and how their use of technology fits in with
this, fixing initial obvious faults and problems and then working towards a more
sustainable strategy of routine maintenance that prevent these problems occurring in
the future. From experience elsewhere, it takes at least nine months for people to
get used to and embrace networking.
5.4 Case Study – Village Hall

The initial contact from this organisation was in response to the first promotional
material sent out with Newsfile. The request was for assistance in upgrading two
PCs from Windows 95 to 98.
When the consultant visited the organisation, it was found that the two PCs
concerned were old and had been donated. They did not have a high enough
specification to run Windows 98. The village hall was newly refurbished with
excellent facilities and the contact had ambitions to provide public access to the
Internet and the use of PCs for word-processing, as a service/resource available at
the village hall for the local community and particularly for the younger people.
The project was able to supply two newer second hand PCs plus two legal Windows
98 licences, but because of time was not able to take this organisation to the point of
being able to offer the service they desire.
Comments
This case was an example of where what seemed to be a simple request (upgrading
software) was actually much more involved. If there had been more time and
resources then more could have been done to assist and advise. This is also an
example of not just hardware and software, but a project that requires more thought
than simply setting up some second-hand PCs. The Village Hall will have to consider
organisation issues if they are to offer such a service to young people- for example:
Who will open and lock up the hall?
Will there be restricted times when the facility is open/available?
Will there be anyone there to show people how to use the equipment?
If there is no-one there, what will the insurance implications be (for the building
and personal safety, not necessarily the equipment)?
How will misuse and abuse of equipment be prevented?
This village is able to get broadband, so it would be good to have the speed of
access that broadband offers, but there will be an associated cost. By the time the
organisational issues can be sorted out the second-hand equipment provided, even
though better than what they had, will not really be robust enough for public use.

There is a role for an organisation to provide advice to village halls that have a similar
interest. Advice on the things they need to think about and what equipment and
other facilities they would need (this could be a guidance note/pack or pages on a
website). Organisations in this position would also welcome help with setting up their
organisational structures, applying for funds and technical assistance in buying,
setting up and maintaining equipment.
5.5 Case Study – Parish Church

In many rural parishes the church is a key community resource and focal point. The
vicar contacted us because he was having some problems with his PC. His modem
and answer-machine seemed to be in conflict and his sound card had stopped
working. Initially these problems seemed to be hardware issues, but when he was
visited it turned out that viruses caused the hardware problems.
Scanning the system and removing the viruses and then installing virus protection
software cured the problems. Training on the importance of regularly updating the
software to recognise the latest viruses and regularly running a virus scan on the
system will hopefully provide a long-term benefit.
Comments
The issue of virus protection and the problems caused by virus infection is becoming
more and more apparent as the use of email is increased. The problem of potential
infection is not just for the individual, but can affect any sized organisation.
Protection against viruses comes not only from regularly updating virus protection
software, but also updating all software in order to close vulnerabilities, for example
by installing critical updates issued by Microsoft.
Essentially this case is another example of issues faced by lone or home workers (as
outlined in section 5.2, but has been mentioned separately here since it is also an
example of where a what appears to be a hardware problem turns out to be
something else and could be prevented by awareness raising and information.
5.6 Case Study – Parish Council

Several district councils have provided PCs to Parish Clerks, so that they can
communicate with the district council and their local community electronically. The
hardware and software is provided and installed by the district council, but training
appears not necessarily to have been available or taken up in all instances by the
recipients of these PCs.
The project was contacted to assist with basic use of email and the Internet, in
particular to train on how to open and save attachments and how to add documents
(eg parish council minutes) to an email to circulate them to parish councillors. One-
to-one training was given focusing on the specific difficulties that had been requested
but also giving a little extra in relation to organising emails into folders and how to
empty the deleted items folder.
Comments
The actual training did not take very long and the person benefited in that it got them
over a hurdle. However, in the future, if an ICT support service were to continue, we
would envisage the role of the service to be to emphasis the importance of including

training and a helpline support as part of a scheme providing hardware to parish
councils. It may also be worth including basic email, word processing and
spreadsheet training through NALC as part of any general training and support to
parish clerks.
5.7 Case Study – Mobile Training Unit

The project was contacted by an organisation that had a grant to buy laptop
computers and printers to provide a mobile training facility for young people in rural
areas. The project provided advice about the cost and type of equipment that would
be appropriate.
Comments
There is a role for an organisation to provide impartial technical advice about
specifications, reasonable cost, places to buy hardware and software, and what
added extras might be needed (for example carrying cases, spare cables,
warrantees, maintenance contracts, insurance, health and safety and policies for
use).
5.8 Case Study – Village Website Group

One of the groups in the pilot project was not a formally constituted voluntary
organisation but a community group of individuals in a village who had come together
with the desire to set up a village website. This was not the type of work that had
been originally envisaged for this pilot project, but a village website is a good way for
rural communities to communicate both within the village and to the outside world
and it was felt that the skills of the project workers were such that they could provide
valuable training and support to his group.
The support to this group was in the form of 4 training sessions during the six-month
period which took the group from its initial ideas, discussions about the different
options available, providing a grant for a designer to create some initial pages,
assisting them with registering a domain name and sorting out hosting. A content
management system was finally settled on as this didn’ t require any technical
knowledge and could be kept up to date quickly and easily.
Comments
This work demonstrated that the support for a group like this needs to be on-going
and takes time. It is also not just about technical support in relation to using
hardware and software but also requires organisational support – developing a team
approach, developing the roles of individuals and understanding the longer-term
commitment required to sustain the website.
5.9 Common Themes

Frequently the requests for help were for training, rather than to solve a software or
hardware problem. Although the emphasis of this pilot was not primarily training, this
proved to be a route in, and in several cases provided the opportunity to solve other
issues that the organisations was not aware they had a problems with (eg viruses).
The difficulties caused by viruses cannot be under-estimated. There seems to be

some lack of understanding that virus protection software needs to be updated
regularly to protect from the latest viruses and that system scans need to be

performed frequently, not just relying on capturing viruses on emails as they come in.
The software also needs to be updated regularly, for example Microsoft critical
updates, to close vulnerabilities. The need for protection is only likely to increase as
more organisations become connected to broadband and are connected all the time
rather than using dial up modems.
The philosophy of Circuit Riding is more than just identifying training needs. It is
about getting the infrastructure right, promoting the imaginative use of IT by putting
the basics in place. It is only when the network works that you can start training on
file sharing, print sharing and so on. The strength of this type of project is in building
up a relationship with organisations and directing to training available though other
agencies when appropriate.
Many of the voluntary sector organisations recognised that they needed help with
ICT, but were so busy fire-fighting that they did not have the time for training or to
find solutions or did not give ICT sufficient priority to allocate the time. They also did
not prioritise ICT sufficiently to allocate budgets to replacement, maintenance and
training.
A circuit rider type of ICT Support project could raise awareness and standards of
use of ICT in the voluntary and community sector.
6 Lessons learnt from the pilot project

6.1 What didn’t work
The following comments are a summary of discussions held at the Co-ordination and
Steering Group meetings.
Marketing – if there had been a longer lead-time, the marketing could have
reached more people. The material that was produced was OK, but perhaps a
personal approach would have worked better with some time spent ringing up
organisations explaining the idea and then sending further information.
Steering group membership – the people on the Steering group suffered from
the same issue (as the organisations they were aiming to support) of
resources spread too thinly and so did not have as much time as would have
been desired to focus on the project.
It may have been better to have a few representatives from organisations
receiving the service represented and also staff from the partner organisations
who were in a less senior position.
The link with and the promotion of the circuit rider concept was not explicit and
emphasised strongly enough.
If we were advising another project or doing this over again – it would be worth
spending more time at the beginning defining the objectives and goals of the
project (although to some extent this pilot was about being as vague as
possible and seeing what happened).
6.2 What did work?

The pilot project has given a good selection of case studies to inform future
projects.

A number of issues were common to several organisations – in particular the
lack of understanding of viruses and the need to update protection regularly.
Another common theme has been that problems occur when people from
outside install systems in an organisation and then go away without the
organisation having anyone who is IT literate enough to know how to maintain
them.
The cross fertilisation of experience and knowledge between the members of
the co-ordination group has been useful for everyone. Having a selection of
people with different backgrounds has worked better than everyone having the
same experience.
The project has demonstrated that there is a need for a service – there is a
frustration though (on both sides) at not being able to satisfy that need.
The project has learnt that a lot of the issues are about lack of time, problems
with organisational structures and lack of general understanding about how
prioritising IT and training could relieve some of the time pressures in the long
term.
7 Cost of this pilot project
The total cost of the pilot was £18,380. Approximately £10,000 was for the direct
delivery of service to the 24 organisations and the remaining £8,380 was for the
evaluation report, monitoring, marketing, admin, management and supervision.
The cost of monitoring was high because monthly monitoring reports were required
for budget and outputs, and the amount of paperwork required to backup the reports
was also considerable.
8 Future work
8.1 Discussions at the Steering Group – “How would this service be different
from a commercial IT Support contract?”
8.1.1 Setting minimum standards

One member of the Steering Group feels strongly that the service should not be just
reactive fixing problems, but be about an agenda of raising the standards in the
Voluntary Sector. For example, a minimum standard might be that every
organisation should:
Have email for each individual with a PC on their desk or individual email
accounts for each time they logged on to shared PCs.
Be able to browse the Internet for information relevant to their business
Be able to share files
Be able to print to shared printers, etc
Have password protected databases and be aware of and meet the Data
Protection Act
Have up to date records of licences of software
Have a policy about the use of email and the Internet
Other services they thought there is a need for are:

Off-site backups

Web-hosting
Name servers
Managing email lists
8.1.2 Discount Offers

Another suggestion from the Steering Group is to have an element of being able to
supply affordable hardware through consortium buying, or negotiated member
discounts. An advisory service could also suggest a minimum specification of
machine (Hard drive size, processor speed, RAM memory… ).
8.1.3 Marketing
It was felt that it is important for the service to have an identity, which comes from a
mission statement, name and logo. Linking to the circuit rider movement can provide
valuable support (from experiences in other parts of the country), the possibility of
benefiting from increased awareness of such initiatives nationally and also favourable
funding.
8.1.4 What might it cost?

An article in the October Voluntary Sector magazine supplement said that the
London Advice Services Alliance (LASA) have a two-year single circuit rider project
supporting 24 advice centres and community groups in London, funded by a
£120,000 Community Fund grant. This is a useful benchmark for the sort of cost
involved (taking into account London weighting) and the ratio of worker to
organisations supported.
Experience of the project worker who provides ICT support on a commercial basis in
London is that a ratio of around one IT worker to 22 organisations works well for a
mixture of routine maintenance and fixing problems, but the aim should be to get an
organisation’s system working reliably and consistently so that the majority of the
work is simply routine maintenance.
More detailed business planning is required to assess the realistic costs of a service
to cover all voluntary sector organisations in Northamptonshire and what funding
sources are available (including a model for contribution towards cost from the
organisations receiving the service). A conservative estimate would be that at least 3
workers would be needed to cover the whole county and this would cost at least
£150,000 a year. It should be possible to recover some of this cost through a fee
based membership scheme and income generation.
8.1.5 Location and Travelling Costs

Any modelling of a wider scale service will need to take into account the distances
involved. If there is to be only one ‘
office’from which the service is delivered, it
should be located centrally in the county, but it may be worth considering having
several bases to reduce travelling distances. The cost of travel is also about the
amount of time workers spend not delivering the service, but getting there. Cost of
travel needs to be built into the overall budgeting for a full service.

8.1.6 Publicising what training is available
In a meeting with a representative from LearnDirect it was mentioned that there is
actually a lot of ICT training available, but the problem is that people don't know
about it.
This is possibly because there isn't one place to find ICT information - is this a role
for the project and is it about having a website presence?
8.1.7 Breakdown recovery model

The pros and cons of having a service based on the breakdown (car) recovery model
were discussed. Organisations could join with different levels of membership that
entitled them to a different service.
1. The basic level might be to receive an information service that was made up of
paper newsletters, email alerts and website information along the lines used by the
CVS fundraising development service, but targeted at better use of ICT. This would
require a worker to supply this information, act as editor and administer distribution.
2. The next level might be an impartial advice service. Lists of suppliers for buying
new and second-hand hardware, software, people who could offer a maintenance
service, advice on what equipment/software would best meet their needs, what sort
of budget they might need, etc...
3. The next level could be going in to an organisation and doing an IT audit, offering
advice about how they could improve their set up, writing an IT Strategy, having a
network of people who could go in a fix problems (for a charge)...
4. The full service would be in effect a maintenance contract that involved regular
checks to prevent problems, making sure backup routines worked, that the server
and other hardware had enough had disc space and memory, etc, and incorporate
the principles of raising the standards of the organisation.
The issue is about cost benefit analysis. It is a balancing act about how much it
would cost to provide a full maintenance service, bearing in mind the ratio of staff to
organisations served (20-25 organisations per person) compared to being able to
provide a more limited service to more organisations. The charge for each level of
service would need to be considered and researched, in relation to what
organisations would be prepared and able to pay and how much income this would
generate to offset against the overall cost.
8.2 Other Consultation

The following section is a summary of a discussion with the recently retired head of
IT Support from Northampton Borough Council, on the question: ”What do you think
about the practicalities of organising a county wide IT support service for the
voluntary sector?”
It will be difficult to economically provide a comprehensive IT support service

to the voluntary and community sector because of the variety of technology
and the varying circumstances of the organisations.

While it may seem to be the right thing to aim to bring the sector up to a
common standard, this might be pushing them to spend resources that they
don't need to. Many organisations work at a level where they can cope with
very basic equipment and software for what they need to do.
One idea is to set up a self-help group. This would need input to find out
which organisations have expertise and are willing to exchange information
and help - so you could end up with a self-help group on particular software.
But this may be very difficult to manage and would be hampered by individual
organisations not having the capacity to support others and it ending up being
a one-way process.
The strength of CVS is in its training programme. One way to provide a

service could be to add it on to the training service. Paradise used to offer a
telephone helpline for people who had been on their courses whereby they
could ring up to a month after the course to ask questions and check about
things that had been covered in the course.
Another strength of CVS is about providing information to the sector. Maybe a

list of approved suppliers is developed, or negotiated discounts for services
provided by local companies for CVS members is a way forward.
Should it just be about technical support? Consumables can be a high cost

outlay particularly for older equipment. The experience at NBC was that
County Supplies were cheaper for newer common consumables, eg HP
printer cartridges, but they ended up paying over the odds for older cartridges
and were able to negotiate a better deal themselves with a local supplier.
A lot of the service would actually be about training and it may be more cost
effective to promote what training is already available and develop that rather
than trying to be all things to all people. For example making it more widely
known that ITrain will do training in the work place.
Linked to this is the role of advisor rather than fixer. This would be providing
information about things like how to buy a computer, or how to set up a
network, and so on, which could be through various methods such as fact-
sheets, website pages, regular newsletter with handy hints, specific courses.
8.3 Additional services that a circuit rider/ICT Support project can offer
Management Committee Training - to emphasis the importance of including
ICT in the strategic vision of their organisations and budgeting for initial
equipment, maintenance, upgrading and training.
Seminars on ICT Security, Troubleshooting and Developing ICT Strategies
An information pack for organisations that are starting from scratch on what
they should think about for their ICT.
Advice pack on how to apply for money for ICT equipment.

Advice pack on how to set up public Internet access facility
8.4 Funding Bid for 2004/05

This section summarises the bid submitted by CVS to SRB6 for 2004/05 on 12/03/04.
8.4.1 Project title: ICT Information and Training Co-ordination Project

The project will last for 10 months (June ’
04 to Mar ’
05) and will build on the
experience of the 6-month pilot ICT support service for Northamptonshire voluntary
groups based in rural areas, funded by the Northamptonshire Connecting
Communities Partnership in 2003/04. A project worker will work approximately one
day a week to:
Carry out a signposting/mapping exercise of the available training and other

ICT support in the county.
Produce a business plan to extend/develop an ICT support service for the
voluntary sector.
Set up a co-ordination panel/group that would co-ordinate the ICT support
services and steer the development of the business plan (extending the
membership of the previous pilot project Steering Group)
Make funding application(s) to fulfil the details of the business plan
The project will also possibly pilot some form of ICT signposting/information service
(for example website links to useful resources already available on the Internet).
The cost is £10,050 cash + £1,850 leverage. This pays for 40 days of project
worker’
s time, plus management and supervision and book keeping/accounts.
A small steering group will be responsible for the overall direction of the project The
steering group will meet at least bi-monthly. Standard supervision sessions will take
place between the CVS line manager and project worker.
The milestones for the project are:

June ’ 04 – start of project
June ’ 04 – August ‘ 04 – mapping of available services and projects aimed at
supporting the sector
June’ 04- - August ’04 – invitations to join Steering Group and first Steering
Group meeting
Sept ’ 04 – Dec ’ 04 – development of business plan and funding applications,
further Steering Group meetings
Jan ’ 05 – Mar ’05 – dissemination of information and possible development of
pilot advice service, further Steering Group meetings
Mar ’ 05 – Evaluation report
The new project would focus on developing a business plan for more substantial and
complex service. This plan will be the basis for further funding applications
9 Conclusion
This pilot Northamptonshire ICT support service can be considered a success, in that
it provided useful lessons and experiences for developing a larger scale long-term

service. There is clearly a demand for such a service and the pilot was only able to
scratch the surface. It is hoped that future funding bids will be successful and it will
be possible to build on the experience of this pilot, develop the good ideas that have
come from it, and enable the local voluntary sector in both urban and rural areas to
make informed and effective use of ICT to support their activities.
10 References and Useful Reading

10.1 References
1 Supporting Rural Voluntary Action, NCVO 2002 - During the autumn and winter of
2001 NCVO undertook research into the scope, activities and support needs of
voluntary organisations in two contrasting rural districts, Teesdale and East
Northamptonshire. The project: Mapping the Rural Voluntary Sector – Establishing
the Baseline, attempted to explore a range of rural environments within which
voluntary organisations operate.
2 Northamptonshire Voluntary & Community Sector Survey Report Jackson Quigg

Associates Ltd August 2002.
3 The Fundraising Expreiences of Voluntary and Community Organisations in

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire Connecting Communities Partnership produced
by Clare Doe and Wendy Saunders December 2002.
4 ICT Pilot Project Report by Glenn Willis for CVS Northamptonshire March 2003
available from CVS NOrthamptonshire Tel 01604 624121.
10.2 Other Useful Reading
Supporting Rural Voluntary Action: A 10 Point Plan; NCVO 2002 see:

http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/ Sector Issues/ Rural/ Publications.
Organisational Relationships and Networks in the Voluntary Sector: The Rural

Analysis see: http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/ Sector Issues/ Rural/ Publications.
Skills Gaps, Training and Workforce Development in the Voluntary Sector: The Rural
Analysis see: http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/ Sector Issues/ Rural/ Publications.
Voluntary and Community Sector Infrastructure: A model for the future available from
NCVO at www.ncvo-vol.org.uk or from the policy team on 020 7520 2473.
Voluntary and Community Sector Infrastructure: A consultation document .available

from the HomeOffice at www.homeoffice.gov.uk, email: cbis@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
tel: 020 7035 5309.
Strengthening Voluntary and Community Sector Infrastructure: Two Approaches

Summary and Comparison Document available from NCVO at www.ncvo-vol.org.uk
or from the policy team on 020 7520 2473.

Community capacity building and voluntary sector infrastructure in rural England
available from DEFRA at:
www.defra.gov.uk/rural/pdfs/community_capacity_building.pdf
11 Acknowledgements
This report was written by Karen Cropper.
Other than the project workers and the members of the Steering Group, no other
people have been specifically named. Those people who have contributed their
comments are thanked.
All the organisations that participated in the pilot project are thanked for their
feedback.

12 Appendix A- A History of Open Source Software
(This section was written by Rob Stead)
Many years ago Richard Stallman (http://www.stallman.org/) formed the free software
movement via the Free Software Foundation and the GNU Project
(http://www.gnu.org/). This was very much a 'political' movement whereby Free
meant 'free speech' rather than 'free beer'. In other words, anyone should be able to
tinker with the source code and improve upon it. This is the hacker tradition (not to be
confused with the derogatory term its now become).
What two main things Richard Stallman did was introduce copyleft
(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html) and make available a C Compiler
(http://gcc.gnu.org/). Copyleft simply places some obligations upon a hacker; the
most important being they can't pass on the work as their own by selling it and any
bug fixes or improvements should be fed back to the 'keepers' of the software.
A C compiler allows anyone who has written some C code to compile it into a
program. This took Richard Stallman seven years to write and by donating it to the
community he freed everyone from the likes of Microsoft. The importance of this can't
be understated.
Linus Torvalds (http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/torvalds/) took the C compiler from Richard

Stallman and used it to write a kernel (http://www.kernel.org/); essentially an
operating system that follows UNIX conventions, originally created by AT&T and sold
commercially, but loved by nerds for its robustness. Linus also released the kernel
under copyleft.
This is what we now know as Linux, although the proper name should be GNU/Linux
in order to acknowledge Richard Stallman's efforts. The word Linux is simply a
combination of the words Linus and Unix.
Over time lots of people started using Linux and embraced the copyleft principle by
releasing their own software freely to the community.
Also trying to down play the 'political' side of things the term 'Open Source' has been
adopted by many, although not all. The copyleft licence (called GPL) has been
slightly modified by various people, but the principle of a 'community' project persists.
Some licences allow people to sell the software, for example.
The most critical software released to run on Linux using the copyleft principle are:
Apache (http://www.apache.org/): This is a web server that allows people to

run web sites.
Sendmail (http://www.sendmail.org/), Postfix (http://www.postfix.org/) or Exim

(http://www.exim.org/): These are the most popular software for handling
email.

Perl (http://www.perl.com/): Created by Larry Wall (http://www.wall.org/~larry/).
This is a scripting language that allows people to automate routines or web
pages. For example, I use Perl to backup my web sites.
PHP (http://www.php.net/): Created by Rasmus Lerdorf

(http://lerdorf.com/bio.php) this is another scripting language that has become
very popular for creating web sites.
mySQL (http://www.mysql.com/): This is an Open Source database that works

well with PHP.
KDE (http://www.kde.org/) or Gnome (http://www.gnome.org/): Both are

Windows type desktops.
Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org/): This is a graphical web browser similar to

Internet Explorer. Mozilla also make available an email program that can
replace Outlook Express. Mozilla is what used to be Netscape.
OpenOffice.org (http://www.openoffice.org): This is the equivalent to Microsoft

Office (Word, Excel, etc).
All the above projects have some method for sharing the task of programming and
debugging. This is usually done over the Internet using some software called CVS
(Concurrent Versions System, http://www.cvshome.org/).
But there are literally thousands of Open Source projects and many are hosted at
Sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net). For example phpMyAdmin allows you to
administer a mySQL database (http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpmyadmin/). You'll
notice on this page there is a link to CVS, which is where anyone can download the
source code.
Of course not everyone wants the hassle of downloading and install all this stuff, let
alone hacking the code, so various companies have been set up to distribute
everything they think people will want. The software is simply downloaded like
everyone else off the Internet. They charge for the CDs and packaging and
compete by doing things in a friendly way.
The main companies who distribute GNU/Linux are:
Red Hat (http://www.redhat.com/) - USA

Mandrake (http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en-gb/) - France
Suse (http://www.suse.co.uk/uk/index.html) - Germany
Debian (http://www.debian.org/) – USA
Slackware (http://www.slackware.com/) - USA
There are also distributors who market to South America, China, India and Japan.
Open Source is a billion pound industry with IBM, Novell and Sun as the major
players.

13 Appendix B – Newsfile articles and inserts
13.1 October 2003 Article
13.2 December 2003/January 2004 Article

13.3 Insert October 2003, November 2003 and Dec 2003/Jan 2004

13.4 Insert February 2004

13.5 Article March 2004

13.6 Article April 2004

14 Appendix C – Standard documents used – questionnaire and
record forms
CVS/ACRE Partnership Project
Pilot Computer Support Service - Initial Contact Details
This form to be filled out for anyone who contacts CVS about the project.
Date Time Filled out by
Contact Name
Organisation Name
Contact Telephone No
Correspondence Address
Postcode
Address of Organisation
(if different)
Postcode
Rough size of organisation
(how many paid employees?)
How many computers do
0 1 2+ (please circle one)
they have at the moment?
Do they have email? Y N (please circle one)
Email address (if applies)
Any other comments
Details about the project if you are asked

This project is a partnership between CVS and ACRE. It is funded until March 2004
by the Northamptonshire Connection Communities Partnership. The target groups
are voluntary organisations in RURAL areas.
Included: villages, and Daventry, Towcester, Rushden, Thrapston, Oundle and

Brackley. NOT included: Northampton, Kettering, Corby or Wellingborough.
(However, if an organisation is based within one of these towns, they may still wish to
register their interest now, since we hope to extend the project after March 2004.)
Once they have registered their details it may be a few weeks before they are
contacted by one of the consultants. They will be contacted to discuss the details of
the service that can be provided and to arrange a day and time for one of the
consultants to come and see them if that is appropriate. If they haven't heard
anything by two weeks from when they rang, they could ring again to see what is
happening.

Pilot Computer Support Service - Standard Document
Date Rec'd Location North South
Organisation Name
Contact Name
Correspondence Address
Postcode
Summary record of contact with organisation
Date Activity Time taken Comments

Initial contact from organisation
Initial follow up discussion

(telephone) to establish issues

Pilot Computer Support Service
Details about organisation
These questions are to act as a prompt and use as appropriate to the circumstances
1 What type of organisation are they?
2 What do they do?
3 What type of problems do they have and want help with?
4 What do they see as their most immediate problem?
5 What do they use computers for at the moment?
6 How do they see computers fitting into their way of working?
7 What equipment do they have?

7a PCs or Macs - How many?
Are PCs networked?
7b Printers - what makes, how many?
Are printers networked?

7c Scanners?
7d Digital cameras?
7e Other?
8 What operating system and software do they have?
9 Do they have access to the Internet?
9a If yes, how do they connect to it?
Who is their ISP?
What browser do they use?
9b If no, do they want to connect to the Internet
10 Do they have email?
10a If yes, what email software do they use?
How were the email accounts set up (did someone in house do it, did they
insert a disc from their ISP, did they pay someone to do it?)
Does anyone have responsibility for setting up new email accounts, and if yes
who?
10b If no, do they want to have email?
11 What sort of telephone system and number of lines do they have?
12 Do they have website?
12a If yes, how was it set up?

Who maintains it?
12b If no, do they think they need a website?
13 Do they have a budget for IT equipment, maintenance, training?
14 Who deals with IT within the organisation?
15 Who makes decisions about paying for new equipment or training?
16 Do they have a Computer Users Policy?
17. Do they have a Workstation Directives?

Record of initial contact
Organisation Name
Contact Name
Date and time set up to go and visit?
Who is visiting?
What have you agreed in advance to do with them?
Any other comments?

Record of Visit
Organisation Name
Contact Name
Date
Total length of time worked (including travel):
Length of time spent 'training':
What areas covered in training?
What other issues covered/problems solved?
What further action has been agreed?
Signed (by person who was trained)
Date:

Record of Telephone Support
Organisation Name
Contact Name
Date
Total length of time worked:
What was problem they contacted about?
What advice did you give?
What further action has been agreed?

15 Appendix D – Summary of Outputs
This pilot project delivered 6.21 training weeks (1 training week = 1 person for 30
hours).
24 organisations benefited from the project.
2 Desk Top Publishing workshop training sessions were organised as part of this
project. 6 people attended the workshop at Kings Cliffe Resource Centre on 27th
February 2004 from 5 organisations. 5 people attended the workshop at Great
Houghton Village Hall on 3rd March 2004 from 3 organisations.
18 Capacity Building Initiatives were achieved.

16 Appendix E –Useful Facilities and Sources of Information
16.1 The IT Centre Ltd
39 Gold Street, Northampton, NN1 1RA Tel 01604 234567
Web: www.the-itcentre.com
Internet café and business centre.
Opening hours: 09:00 till 20:00 (Monday to Friday)
09:00 till 18:00 (Saturday & Sunday)
The internet café offers:
25 workstations.
Notebook/Laptop drop in points
headphones/webcams for hire
laser printing, scanner, CD writing and photocopying facilities
help/advice on computer hardware /software
information on IT learning opportunities
enrol and study for learndirect courses
There is also an IT Business Suite, which offers a self contained, purpose built IT
Suite of exceptional; quality, designed to meet all business and training
requirements. The suite has:
18 networked workstations, all equipped with Dell computers
True IP videoconferencing facilities
interactive whiteboard
laser printing, scanner, CD writing facilities
16.2 Council for Ethnic Minority Communities (CEMC)

Military Road Centre, Northampton, NN1 3ET
Tel 01604 734187 Email cemc_Northampton@hotmail.com
CEMC have a drop-in computer suite of 10 computer workstations which is available
to students enrolled on CEMC courses and Northampton College students, all staff
and volunteers of minority ethnic organisations, members of local minority ethnic
communities. Also run IT training courses with Northampton College.
Opening times Mon, Wed, Thurs 9:30 am - 8:30 pm, Tues 9:30 am – 1:00 pm, Fri
9:30 am – 3:30 pm, holidays 10am – 4:30pm. Drop in users can only access the
Internet Monday – Thursday 9:00-10:00, 12:00 – 1:00 and 4:00 – 5:00 term time only.
16.3 Northampton Volunteering Centre

15 St Giles Street Northampton NN1 1JA Tel 01604 637522
Email info@northampton-volunteers.org.uk
Web:www.northampton-volunteers.org.uk
Northampton Volunteering Centre manages a laptop/printer loan service for
community/voluntary groups, which serve people in Castle, St. Crispin or Spencer
Wards in Northampton. This provides access to a computer for groups who would
like to use one for things like: producing a newsletter; funding application; writing
letters, and using the Internet. There are also public access Internet facilities at the
Centre.

16.4 Northamptonshire Libraries Service
Internet Access. All 35 libraries in Northamptonshire have computers providing free
broadband Internet access via the Peoples Network using our Information Direct
Subject Gateways providing easy access to the best sites on the web. Access to
other services - web searching, email, Microsoft Office XP packages (Word, Excel,
Access) and scanners - is available for a small charge of £3 per hour (min charge of
£1).
learndirect and other learning opportunities. There are five learndirect access
points where you can enrol on learndirect courses in Brixworth, Corby,
Northamptonshire Central, Wellingborough and Weston Favell Libraries. They also
run occasional free IT taster sessions in libraries to help you learn the basics of using
our computers, the Internet and email.
Web: www.northamptonshire.gov.uk then from the menu bar at the side select “Living
and working”then select “Libraries”.
16.5 ITrain
ITrain is a Northampton College initiative supported financially by the European
Social Fund to update and introduce new IT skills into the workplace of small and
medium sized enterprises (which includes voluntary and community sector
organisations). The training is aimed at employed individuals and volunteers to widen
their participation in learning, specifically their IT skills, as part of the Government's
lifelong learning strategy.
The free training is available for anyone who works or volunteers in a

Northamptonshire based organisation with up to 250 employees and covers IT
applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, Email and Powerpoint,
although other packages may be available.
For more information contact:

Sally Dobson sallyd@northamptoncollege.ac.uk mob 07764 378497or Jean Kurecki
jeank@northamptoncollege.ac.uk mob 07764 378499
Website: www.northamptoncollege.ac.uk/ITrain
16.6 Age Concern

Age Concern Northampton & County, Cliftonville Road, Northampton, NN1 5BU
Tel 01604 611200
Lifetime Project – offers IT courses for older people around the county
16.7 Northamptonshire community portal

www.connect2northamptonshire.com is being launched at the end of March. This is a
community portal for promoting local community services and activities. Local
community or voluntary (not-for-profit) organisations will be able to put information on
the portal for free - their own web pages, etc.
Contact: Sarah Lemon on 07876 475612 email sarah.lemon@c2portal.com

16.8 Morfett Consultancy Ltd
Free IT training for lone parents, unemployed, and people made redundant.
65a Abington Street, Northampton, NN1 2BH
Tel 01604 635601 Email info@systemtrain.co.uk
16.9 IT For Charities

Web: www.itforcharities.co.uk
Lots of information about buying hardware and software and policies relating to use
of ICT.
Web: www.itforcharities.co.uk/techtips.htm
Has links to lots of sites that provide technical IT advice and tips.
16.10 London Advice Services Alliance (lasa)

www.lasa.org.uk
Lots of useful information about circuit riders, buying and using ICT equipment,
trouble-shooting, etc.
17 Appendix F – Service Providers

17.1 Hardware repair and maintenance contractors
Inclusion in this list does not constitute any endorsement by CVS or
ACRE of any of the service provided by these organisations.
EdIT - Contact Mike Pay (Mob) 07977 057584 Email mike@EdIT2000.co.uk

Specialises in education and voluntary sector organisations. Is prepared to do one-
off 'health-checks' at an hourly rate.
Indigo – Have a range of products and services. Can supply new hardware and
maintain networked systems. Their main catchment area is Northamptonshire,
Warwickshire and Leicestershire. Contact Simon Colley Tel 01858 4456225
Email: enquiries@indigo-computing.co.uk
website: www.indigo-computing.co.uk.
Gordon Monk is an independent contractor. He specialises in IT training; is able to

advise and often troubleshoot software and hardware issues, and can provide
general IT support. Tel 01832 293505 Email Gordon@simplifying-ict.org.uk
Ralph Gray is an independent contractor based in Kettering, but will cover anything
within reasonable travelling distance Tel 01536 484823 mob 07740215947.
Rob Stead is an independent contractor. He specialises in support to voluntary sector

organisations and has expertise in database development, web hosting and creation
and can provide general IT support. Tel 01480 811565 or 0800 0740645
Email enquiry@robstead.co.uk
Website: www.robstead.co.uk
Willow Data Services Ltd - Contact Bernard Marriott. Northampton based

Tel 01604 785050 email willow.data@virgin.net

17.2 Discounted software providers
If you do not have virus protection software, you can download (from the Internet) a
good free package from grisoft called AVG:
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php
If your organisation is a member of NCVO (National Council for Voluntary

Organisations), you can get discounts on software from the following companies:
Phoenix Software
Telephone 01904 700101
Email debbie-vickery@phoenixs.co.uk
Web www.phoenixs.co.uk
Pugh Computers
Telephone 01974 200 217
Email barry@pugh.co.uk
Web www.pugh.co.uk
Entec
Telephone 01462 499 532
Email jon.steggles@entec.co.uk
Web www.entec.co.uk
Free software licences for charities from Microsoft Giving Programme.

The Microsoft Giving programme provides small grants of software to hundreds of
charity and community groups in the UK. Between 1998 and 2002 Microsoft donated
over £3 million of software to the UK voluntary sector, for use in fundraising or
helping to run voluntary organisations.
In order to apply for a donation of up to three pieces of software, charities, education

establishments and community groups can e-mail ukgiving@microsoft.com or write
to Microsoft Giving , PO Box 7916, East Reading, RG6 1XB. You should provide a
brief outline of your project or organisation - concise and factual information that will
help them understand how they might be able to assist you - and, where applicable,
the software you require and your registered charity number. For full details about
this programme please refer to:
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/community/community/support/grants.stm
The policy in making these grants provides for one donation to an organisation
(including affiliates and branches) every three years.
17.3 Equipment Hire

Compulease Education Direct
Tel 0845 124 9977
Fax 0845 124 9997
www.compulease.co.uk
They have a lease service for IT equipment available for Education, Charities and
Businesses, but not home use. The minimum term for a lease is 1 year. It is best to
ring up for a quote based on specific requirements.

18 Appendix G – Jargon Buster
Abbreviation/ Explanation
Jargon
Information and Communication Technology - an all-
encompassing term for any technology, from paper-based
systems to computer networks, that is used to communicate
ICT with and inform others. Usually these days it is generally
applied to electronic systems, but can also be used for any
filing and/or dissemination of information in paper form,
including post.
A mobile grassroots ICT worker supporting a case load of
Circuit Riders
organisations each too small to have their own IT staff
The ‘ nuts and bolts’of ICT systems. Specifically, the
keyboard, mouse, ‘ main box’and monitor of a computer and
Hardware bits connected to it like printers etc. The physical
components of an apparatus.
Something used or associated with and usually contrasted
with hardware: as the entire set of programs, procedures,
Software and related documentation associated with a system and
especially a computer system; specifically: computer
programs.
A way of connecting bits of hardware together in order to
share information and resources across computers.
Network A formal or informal system of sharing resources,
information and/or support through individuals or
organisations
Device for sending data across a telephone line by
Modem
converting digital signals to noise.
Also known as ADSL and SDSL this is a fast way to access
the internet by sending digital signals down a telephone
Broadband
wire, much in the same way as computers connect to each
in an office.

19 Appendix H – Second Hand Hardware Suppliers
The following suppliers were extracted from a larger table found on

www.itforcharities.co.uk.
Company Location Charity/ Notes E-mail address Tel no.

Company
Adelante Berkshire Company Supply end-of-line & sales@adelante.co.uk 01628
Systems factory-refurbished Acer 820600
laptops, PCs & servers
BargainPC West Company Supply refurbished sales@bargainpc.co.uk 0121 688
Refurbished Midlands computers from main 2857
Computers brand manufacturers
Buzzinbuys.com National Company Sell 'Factory Refurbished' sales@tier1.com 0870
computers 4422022
Byteback Bradford Not for Refurbished recycled PCs, info@bytebackbradford.co.uk 01274
profit PC repair & upgrade 201212
services
BytesTwice Supply second-hand PCs 0800
0526179
Computer Market National Company Central web site offering
large range of second-
hand PCs and other IT
equipment sourced from a
number of other vendors.
Crash-IT Birmingham Charity Recycle & upgrade enquire@crash-it.org 0121 421
computers from 7600
companies and public
bodies & donate them to
Community groups,
charities and disabled
individuals
CREATE London Charity Supplies internet ready 020 8885
Tottenham (recycled) PC's from £99; 6209
also supply networks
CyberCycle London, Charity Computer recycling cybercycle@commlog.org 020 7737
Maidstone, service (part of 0494
Birmingham Community Logistics),
also offering networks.
Offices in London,
Maidstone & Birmingham
Dell Factory UK Company Dell UK provides
Outlet "Unopened, Unused or
returned systems that
have been previously sold
by Dell but have been
returned to Dell for a
variety of reasons. The
great majority are
unused." Full support &
maintenance options.
DonateAPC.org. - - Free web site service - -
uk where individuals/
organisations can offer
their old computers &
other ICT equipment to
charities

Company Location Charity/ Notes E-mail address Tel no.
Company
EnProve IT East Charity Project supported by The pwebster@groundwork.org.uk 01623
Midlands Groundwork Trust, 666710
refurbishes redundant
PC's from businesses for
further use by charities,
voluntary groups, schools
etc
Hewlett Packard Company Do recycle computers and
may donate some to
charities
Highridge.net Staffordshire Company Sell recycled PCs enquiries@highridge.net 01283
500530
Information West Company Sell refurbished/new PCs, sales@itclear.com 0870
Technology Midlands laptops, servers & printers. 7588156
Clear Group Special pricing to charities.
In Kind Direct London/ Charity A charity that receives charities@inkinddirect.org 020 7860
UK PCs from companies, puts 5930
on new software and re-
distributes them to other
charities.
Kicks N Clicks Deliver refurbished kicksnclicks@ourkidsports.com 01925
computers to junior & 490711
amateur sports
organisations; specialise
in supplying & supporting
Linux systems for free
Logic Computer - Company Apple Macs: Provide a preownedmacs@logic.uk.com
Solutions free web service to match
buyers and sellers of Mac
equipment
Naasei Nationwide Supply refurbished IT & info@naasei.com 0870
International office equipment to 1994723
educational, charitable &
non-profit-making
organisations throughout
the world, either as
donations or "at next to
nothing prices"
PC Online Company Collect and sell second support@pcscreens.co.uk 01204
Screens.co.uk user (& new) monitors; will 668812
give free technical support
The PC Store UK Company Sell refurbished and new sales@thepcstore.co.uk 0800
PCs 0733311
Recycle IT Luton Not-for- george@recycle-it.ltd.uk 01582
profit 492436
Company
Speedie Birmingham Company Sell refurbished second sales@speedie.co.uk 0870 727
Computer user computers 1578
Systems

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ICT Support Service

for Voluntary Groups in Rural Areas

Evaluation report on a pilot project

Report by Karen Cropper March 2004

CVS Northamptonshire ACRE ACRE

4 Pilot ICT Support Service for Voluntary Groups in Rural

5 Experiences and Case Studies........................................................ 9

6 Lessons learnt from the pilot project ........................................... 15

7 Cost of this pilot project................................................................. 16

KC 06/04/04 Final Draft Page 2 of 45

8.2 Other Consultation ..................................................................................... 18

10 References and Useful Reading.................................................... 21

12 Appendix A- A History of Open Source Software ....................... 23

13 Appendix B – Newsfile articles and inserts ................................. 25

14 Appendix C – Standard documents used – questionnaire

15 Appendix D – Summary of Outputs .............................................. 38

16 Appendix E – Useful Facilities and Sources of Information ...... 39

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17 Appendix F – Service Providers.................................................... 41

18 Appendix G – Jargon Buster ......................................................... 43

19 Appendix H – Second Hand Hardware Suppliers........................ 44

KC 06/04/04 Final Draft Page 4 of 45

Key findings are given below:

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The project was based on workers providing consultancy/advice/training on a one-to-

2.2 Funding of the project

Jackson Quigg Associates conducted a survey of the "Northamptonshire Voluntary

The Northamptonshire Connecting Communities Partnership report on "The

KC 06/04/04 Final Draft Page 6 of 45

3.2 Circuit Riders

The advantages of Circuit Riding are seen as:

Recognised nationally with resources available for IT Professionals to support

More information about circuit riders is available on the Internet – see

3.3 Other related projects and services in Northamptonshire

Teamwork Kettering, Corby and Wellingborough, are shortly planning to start a

KC 06/04/04 Final Draft Page 7 of 45

Northamptonshire community portal, www.connect2northamptonshire.com, is being

Other services available are given in Appendix E.

4 Pilot ICT Support Service for Voluntary Groups in Rural Areas

Information was also passed on by telephone and email to local development

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4.3 Direct service to voluntary sector organisations

5 Experiences and Case Studies

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27% (3/11) of organisations that had Internet access have broadband.

27% (3/11) of organisations were infected with viruses.

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5.2 Case Study – Small organisations

5.3 Case Study – Medium sized organisations

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5.4 Case Study – Village Hall

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5.5 Case Study – Parish Church

5.6 Case Study – Parish Council

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5.7 Case Study – Mobile Training Unit

5.8 Case Study – Village Website Group

5.9 Common Themes

The difficulties caused by viruses cannot be under-estimated. There seems to be

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6 Lessons learnt from the pilot project

6.2 What did work?

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