Its key trading partner is Freedom4, which is a joint venture between Freedom4 PLC and Intel Capital (The Intel Corporation’s technology investment fund). Intel is a global technology giant and is one of the key investors in the WiMAX technology and has committed and continues to commit billions of dollars in investment.
Connect>MK was also formed to help address some of the social and digital exclusion issues within the Milton Keynes area. Government and other studies have shown that there is a strong link between home access to a PC and economic prosperity, employment prospects and educational attainment. It is also known that there are many in our society, who for all manner of reasons cannot afford to buy or cannot afford the support that might be needed to use a PC or laptop at home. Due to the poor quality of the telephone infrastructure within Milton Keynes, a wireless platform was the only way to deliver these key services.
Connect>MK with the support of both Milton Keynes council and Microsoft have therefore created the low-cost loan scheme. It allows anyone who qualifies to have a computer and the support they need for a sum of just £1.50 per week until such time as they choose to either buy their own or simply want to return it, there is no commitment other than to make sure you pay on time.
Any profits that Connect>MK generate are in the control of Milton Keynes council and will be used to the benefit of the people and businesses of Milton Keynes.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM was selected as a platform mainly because of its flexibility to integrate with 3rd party systems and the fact that it can be delivered via a web browser (Internet Explorer) making it easy to deploy within the council without the need for a complex supporting infrastructure.
“Trying to manage our internal sales processes and marketing campaigns was a nightmare before Microsoft CRM”