The right answer for DNA test company

(Taken from the Eastern Daily Press Newspaper on 17th Oct 2007)

Blue sky thinking from Breakwater IT is shaking up local companies and reorganising systems, from websites to back office procedures – bringing in new, improved and easy to use work practices to guide businesses smoothly into the future.
A new approach to organising and managing information, from company accounts and internal documents to customer relationship management (CRM), allows data from different software applications to be combined to improve business processes throughout.
Now systems can be simplified using the latest technology, boosting staff efficiency and customer service – and the company can concentrate on its commercial strategy and future growth.
Breakwater IT is helping companies, such as Anglia DNA, overhaul their business systems, ensuring a more efficient information flow across the organisation as a whole. Anglia DNA, based in Norwich, is one of only five companies in Britain accredited to the International Standard for paternity testing.
It genetically analyses DNA for applications such as parentage tests, sibling testing, immigration, child support issues and birth certificates. It works extremely quickly, with a same-day service if necessary, so information has to be swiftly converted from the swab used to take a sample (from the inside of the mouth) to the screen where it is analysed by scientists.
With many requests coming via the internet and others from courts, doctors and solicitors and arriving in the post, Anglia DNA has to be able to merge all the information, respect confidentiality and work swiftly to meet court and client deadlines. It has to ensure the steps, from the initial DNA request through to receiving the swabs and sending the results, are as smooth and efficient as possible, with client records kept – and absolute confidentiality ensured.
Dr Thomas Haizel, of Anglia DNA, said Breakwater IT’s involvement is crucial to the business plan. “We are embracing a big project in order to significantly grow the business. It’s very exciting and we are laying down the necessary IT infrastructure we will need,” he said. The genetic profiling and identification carried out by Anglia DNA can be used for purposes other than parentage tests, such as ancestry tracing and even on animals to test pedigree lines or trace missing pets. It’s a fast expanding business, growing not only in Britain but across Europe and into India, Thailand, South and West Africa. And the IT system developed by Olaf Eulenstein, Systems Consultant at Breakwater IT, is designed to take it into the future. “The concept was for a robust system that pulls data together from different systems and presents it in one interface. It’s one system for everyone to use and benefit from – from the customers who can order on the Internet to the scientists in the labs,” Mr Eulenstein explained.

Dr Haizel said Breakwater IT far exceeded expectations when commissioned to take on the overhaul of the IT system: “We were looking at five different companies and Breakwater IT had by far the best understanding of what we required. We told Olaf what we wanted our system to be able to do and he came back very quickly with exactly what we needed. We were very impressed.” Mr Eulenstein said Breakwater strives first to understand the philosophy and the current and future plans of businesses it works with. “We look at the strategy of each business, the growth, what it is trying to do and how technology underpins it,” he added. He pointed out that an improved IT infrastructure tailored to an individual company is extremely cost effective as it saves time, effort and money.
For example, data does not have to be input more than once into several different systems. Mr Eulenstein said too many companies are working inefficiently, using different systems and growing in a fragmented way. If they stopped to look at how they wanted to progress, companies such as Breakwater could work with them to bring in the technology needed to make them far more efficient enabling a better customer experience.
Dr Haizel said he was delighted to involve Breakwater IT in the future of Anglia DNA. “They are absolutely just what we needed. They worked very quickly and came up with the solutions we required,” he said. “Now the company has one system for everything it needs, with helpdesk and backup assistance from Breakwater IT when it needs it.
“Breakwater IT far exceeded our expectations. I thoroughly recommend them to other companies,” he added.