Wyndeham Press Group, the UK's third largest commercial print group, has worked with Vio Worldwide Ltd to implement a Virtual Community Network (VCN) connecting group headquarters and the nine group companies - Argent, Gait, Grange, Heron, Hubbard, Impact, Keyne Print, Print Direct and Westway. In Wyndeham's words, the VCN acts as a 'group ring-main', providing email capabilities and managed data transfer, and connecting the group with the outside world. The VCN created by Vio brings together the most cost-effective infrastructure from multiple telecom suppliers, to each of the Wyndeham Group locations. Every production site in the group is linked to the VCN via a lease line or ADSL connection, with Vio acting as the integrator and providing total management of the network. Wyndeham's aims for setting up the VCN were threefold; to reduce the high cost and administrative burden associated with maintaining group-wide networks; to consolidate its telecoms arrangements with one solution provider; and to protect the entire group within a private network with a central security policy. The solution gives the company a single network, handling production traffic, email, Internet access, and their intranet. The Vio-managed VCN, together with the Vio Digital Workflow Suite, handles all incoming production data via the Internet, ISDN, FTP, Wam!Net and Vio itself. Main Board Director, Wyndeham Group, Tony Austin explains: "Until now, the ten group sites have operated quite autonomously, with diverse telecommunications technologies providing multiple networks. But it's crucial to Wyndeham's growth that we integrate more closely, and standardise the way we manage production across the group. In fact, this integrated approach is already contributing to some exciting business wins. "The principle of integration needed to be reflected in our communications strategy, and we could see immediate benefits to ourselves and our customers in being able to exchange data more efficiently between sites without using outdated solutions like ISDN. The VCN makes web and server-based applications available to the entire group from a centralised location." According to Tony Austin, the VCN is already having a tangible effect on working practices, reducing duplication of tasks. The network also provides a single point of presence to the Internet, enhancing security and allowing the group to share resources, bandwidth and cost. Explaining the decision to outsource the creation of the VCN to Vio, Group Sales Director Jon Hearnden says: "Employing the relevant skills within the group was a no-go due to the high costs of maintaining the specialised knowledge. We have had a positive relationship with Vio for many years as users of the company's managed file transfer and workflow automation services. Now, Vio acts in a consultancy capacity with us, so we can always call on the team's expertise, and rely on our contacts there to keep us abreast of technological developments that will be of benefit to us." Vio takes full management responsibility for the Wyndeham VCN, enabling staff to resolve any network-related issue with a single call to Vio's 24/7 support desk. With the VCN in place, Vio can also improve efficiencies for Wyndeham through traffic shaping. For example, Vio enables Web browsing on the majority of the bandwidth until production traffic needs to be transmitted. At that point, the ISP service is reduced to a smaller, pre-determined bandwidth for the transmission period, giving Wyndeham maximum benefit from its investment by reducing bandwidth costs. "Our experience with Vio over the years has proved the excellence of their customer support. If we hit Vio with a request, they sort it out, with absolute attention to detail", adds Jon Hearnden. "By giving the whole Wyndeham Group access to this specialist knowledge and professionalism, we can be creative in our business development strategy, enhance our services to customers, and continue to reinforce our reputation as a technology-driven business."