Increased bandwidth with stability was the initial goal of non-profit industry-based organisation, PEER, a Group Training Organisation (GTO) and an award-winning Registered Training Organisation (RTO), delivering nationally accredited trade training packages to meet South Australia’s skill development needs.
Established for over 30 years, they are one of the largest employers of apprentices within the Building and Construction industry in SA and deliver VET in schools training, apprenticeship training, upskilling, short courses and skills recognition training.
Agile and innovative, PEER is highly regarded for delivering trade training and assessment excellence in the fields of electrical, plumbing, data & communications, refrigeration & air-conditioning. That innovation and drive for excellence saw them reviewing their existing infrastructure in conjunction with their IT Service Provider, Vintek, which highlighted the quality of supply for internet services.
Vintek identified that PEER as an educational organisation, may be eligible to connect to the SABRENet dark fibre network. An introduction occurred and the process commenced from there, with the fortuitous feature of the service running past their Port Road front door. The transition process in establishing the SABRENet connections was managed through their partnership with Vintek and was a seamless experience.
Seeking increased bandwidth with stability wasn’t the only consideration. “Being a non-profit organisation, cost was also a key factor in our decision. To cater for organisational strategy we needed scalability to encompass our requirement to expand our cloud-based presence, remote training and digitisation of business processes”, explains Michael Watters, Executive Director for Corporate Services & Transformation.
PEER achieved it’s desired outcomes with scalability and stability continuing to be key deliverables with the growth in remote training delivery during the pandemic. They have also been able to implement VOIP facilities for their PABX with the closure of the copper services in their area.
“SABRENET provided PEER with a seamless transition to a dark fibre solution that underpins our IT infrastructure and organisational systems. It gives us the confidence to pursue projects knowing we have the flexibility in our supporting infrastructure to enable successful outcomes. This has enabled staff to focus on value adding activities to enhance PEER offerings and services that has opened up new business opportunities. SABRENet is a valued partnership that PEER can rely on to support our business both now and into the future.”
PEER has undertaken a heavy program of organisational cloud system implementations and procedural digitisation. This has been done across both the RTO and GTO. SABRENet has provided the necessary underlying infrastructure that enabled this strategy to be executed.
”The utilisation of digital learning materials has improved our student learning outcomes. We are currently developing an innovation lab to further enhance the development of customised digital teaching resources to cater for student learning styles and remote delivery. This is opening up new market opportunities for PEER,” enthuses Matthew.
Staff administrative processes and paperwork, plus data integrity has improved greatly through their cloud based applications. This has enabled staff to focus on value adding activities to enhance PEER offerings and services.
Looking to the future, PEER identified that there was an increased organisational importance of remote training to clients during the pandemic resulting in currently assessing a redundant link through SABRENet to their Vintek data centre. “SABRENet gives us the confidence to pursue projects knowing we have the flexibility in our supporting infrastructure to enable successful outcomes.”
