National veterinary charity the PDSA has upgraded its communications infrastructure as part of an essential IT modernisation programme to improve efficiency and cut costs.

The charity has replaced dial-up connections with a managed broadband service delivered over a public network, from technology service provider Star.

'The dial-up connection was slow, potentially insecure and didn't offer access to our corporate systems,' said Graham Parker, PDSA IT director.

'We wanted our own private network that would be reliable and secure. But if we'd done it in the traditional way, it would have been prohibitively expensive.'

Parker says building an infrastructure using leased lines was not an option, given the fact that the charity has 42 PetAid hospitals, four PetAid branches, 308 PetAid practices and 181 shops across the country.

'It wasn't just a case of tackling the communications, we upgraded the PCs in the hospitals and updated the operating system and applications at the same time,' he said.

PDSA has also extended its broadband use to transmit and collate performance data from its retail outlets at head office.