The Outward Bound Trust invests in IT to further potential.

The UK’s leading provider of bursary-assisted outdoor learning, The Outward Bound Trust has made a significant investment in technology to underpin the quality of its operations.

Headquartered in Penrith, the charity has centres across Scotland, Cumbria and Wales and relies on the generosity and support of donors to enable underprivileged young people to access life changing experiences.

Faye Cowley, Head of Business Support at The Trust, turned to national IT specialists Technology Services Group (TSG) to develop a solution built on Microsoft SharePoint 2013 and explains, “We were impressed with TSG’s approach to the project and the references they provided to show their knowledge and skillset.”

“It was important for us to identify a business partner who could effectively relate SharePoint to our business needs.”

Working with young people in challenging environments, The Trust needs robust quality processes and the new comprehensive document management system has been key to their achieving ISO 9001 accreditation.

TSG SharePoint specialist, Tony Hughes added, “The solution provides strict version control and includes workflows to automate approval, review and publication of documents.”

“All key documents are now stored in a single secure location and SharePoint’s exceptional search capability allows users with access rights to find information that’s specific to their own roles.”

As SharePoint is part of Microsoft’s cloud-base Office 365, users can sign in and access documents wherever they are and from any device.

Cowley adds, “Now that we’re using the system, it’s clear that SharePoint could open up all sorts of future opportunities aside from just document control.”

“We’re already looking to extend functionality further to automate some of our paper-based processes and we’re keen to enlist the help of TSG to unlock its full potential.”