Crabtree Hall leads the way for rural centre

Business centre Crabtree Hall near Catterick, North Yorkshire is the first rural enterprise to achieve Leading Edge.

Winning the accreditation goes against the widely held view that businesses located in the countryside have to suffer poor broadband connectivity, telephone problems and a lack of ICT support.

A converted 18th century model farm, Crabtree Hall has invested heavily in its technology infrastructure to give a business edge to 11 office units. This includes Cisco based routers and switches with internet connectivity through microwave and wire-based ADSL.

“Crabtree Hall sets the bar high with comprehensive and scalable ICT built into the fabric of its office, conference and training facilities. We know that the business centre’s clients can plug in and go with their own computer and telephone systems and have support when needed from the centre’s management and ICT teams,” said Ali Shankland, ICT Active’s partnerships manager.

Reliable and fast broadband is critical for most businesses as Paul Dingle, director of construction business Speedclad which is based at Crabtree Hall, explained, “Much of our work is carried out via the internet and we send and receive large files containing documents like design drawings. It’s important we send and receive them quickly and Crabtree Hall’s systems handle our demands efficiently.”

The business centre has helped a range of businesses to start-up and expand without having to worry about their ICT as centre manager Mark Pybus noted: “ict active’s top level award shows we provide leading edge computer and communications facilities and that’s brilliant news for all those who work with us.

“We are fortunate to have Comtek our ICT support and advisors close by in Barnard Castle. They designed our computer and communications so that each office is self-sufficient and ready to go and also connected to our information systems control room. Together we provide a service with support tailored to each of our clients which include business tenants and organisations using our conference and training facilities.

“As a rural enterprise we’ve received ongoing support and advice from the Growing Routes organisation with a focus on how to get the maximum benefit from our resources including ICT. This has really paid off.”