The story in a nutshell
- In Namibia and Zimbabwe, the organization operates and supports nurseries, schools, and soup kitchens for children and youths from the poorest areas of the country at eight different locations
- Smartphones represent the most important means of communication for the foundation's far-flung locations
- If there were any technical problems, an IT expert from Windhoek had to travel hundreds of miles
- After switching to TeamViewer's solutions for mobile device support, remote device management and remote support, now the devices are always up to date
- The team in Germany can use TeamViewer to conveniently keep cell phones and laptops of the on-site project managers up to date remotely, set up email clients on the smartphones, and help with any IT problems that arise
- This allows the foundation's employees to concentrate better on their actual task: educating and training children and young people
Introduction
Namibia is an emerging country with great social inequality. After 30 years of independence, many people live in poverty, often without running water. As in other countries in southern Africa, HIV/AIDS is widespread, which disproportionately affects children who have lost their parents to the disease. These children grow up living with grandmothers or alone, and often end up on the street with no schooling. The Steps for Children foundation offers these children education and support to help them escape poverty. Founded 18 years ago in Windhoek, the foundation now looks after 5,000 children and young people at 8 locations, from cradle to university. The aim is to support orphaned children from slums, starting from the age of one year old. The children attend preschool and receive tutoring in math and English in the afternoons. In workshops and guesthouses in Okakarara and Gobabis, youths learn how to earn their own income.
“The distances between our project centers in Namibia are very great, and in the beginning the technical infrastructure could only be set up at great expense” recalls Stefan Wolfschütz. He has been part of the management board since the company was founded and handles the IT, among other things, on a voluntary basis from Germany. If there are problems with their laptops, the project managers, who work as teachers or supervisors in Namibia, can contact Stefan Wolfschütz and his colleagues, who can connect to the device remotely via TeamViewer and help from thousands of miles away.
Challenge
The IT infrastructure with computers, storage systems, and network devices had grown over the years and could no longer meet the changing requirements; processes were unnecessarily slow. However, as most foundation employees work on a volunteer and part-time basis, quick access to information, sometimes even from home, is particularly important.
Recognizing that the processes of the paper-based bookkeeping system at the time, which relied on collecting paper receipts that were far too cumbersome, was the trigger for an initiative that Stefan Wolfschütz called “harmonization of the IT infrastructure”: With the support of an IT service provider, the foundation recently began migrating its local IT to Microsoft 365 in order to benefit from the advantages of a cloud environment and to simplify administration. As a part of this, the project staff in the guesthouses, schools, and other facilities received iOS and Android smartphones for the first time, which are already the most important means of communication for people in Namibia and are far more common than laptops.
Staff can use them to scan receipts in an app and send to the bookkeeper in Windhoek, who has also migrated to paperless bookkeeping. They can also communicate faster and more efficiently and keep guesthouse bookings up to date via the Booking.com app.
“The change raised the question of support for mobile devices”, says Stefan Wolfschütz. “We do have an IT contact in Windhoek, but he is hundreds of miles away from our project centers. However, even the most dedicated workers in Namibia don't have the skills to set up and manage mobile phones by themselves”. Wolfschütz began to search for a way of conveniently managing the mobile devices from afar.
Stefan Wolfschütz Board of directors of the Steps for Children Foundation
“TeamViewer has proven itself. In the past, we tried other vendors' solutions, but the remote connection sometimes just dropped. With TeamViewer, the connection stays for hours at a time. Even when there's poor network coverage, the solution runs stably.”
Solution
The foundation opted for TeamViewer Mobile Device Support – a logical step, as remote support for the foundation's laptops was already being provided via TeamViewer. 4G mobile internet is available in Namibia in the urban areas, but outside the cities the mobile network often only offers a low bandwidth.
Before delivery to the project managers in Africa, Wolfschütz and his colleagues in Germany installed the TeamViewer app on the smartphones so they could access and manage the devices remotely. In the event of a problem, the expert in Germany initiates a remote connection at the click of a mouse, which the employee on site simply has to authorize on the device. The expert can then navigate the smartphone interface remotely and resolve the issue in the shortest possible time.
In addition to Mobile Device Support, the foundation also uses TeamViewer Remote Device Management for the administration of all the organizations' PCs, notebooks, and smartphones, which allows software updates and patches to be conveniently monitored and kept up to date with the asset management solution. The team in Germany can initiate and install updates by the click of a mouse, so that the foundation's employees in Africa can benefit from devices that work seamlessly. This way, they can focus on their core tasks.
Results
The use of TeamViewer has already brought tangible benefits for children in the first few weeks. The team in Germany can now easily keep all the devices up to date remotely with a dashboard, set up email clients on the smartphones, or help with problems in an app. A synchronization issue with the room booking for the guesthouses (possible through Booking.com as well as the foundation's website) was solved as well.
Without TeamViewer, the Windhoek-based IT expert would have to try to solve such problems over the phone or make a lengthy drive. “In the past, managing our IT sometimes involved traveling hundreds of miles and a lot of effort. And if we were unlucky, that day the internet would be down. Now we can take care of these issues in minutes and ensure that our employees on site can do their work efficiently”, adds Stefan Wolfschütz. “TeamViewer is now our standard tool and Mobile Device Support in particular is a very convenient way of administering our mobile devices remotely.”
If he has any questions about the software himself, he contacts TeamViewer customer support: “A quick call and a friendly staff member immediately helps with questions that would otherwise have taken hours of research. This fast customer service clearly sets TeamViewer apart from other providers.”
For future foundation projects, Stefan Wolfschütz sees TeamViewer as a key partner for optimizing the efficiency of the foundation's work. “Two years ago, we had the first high school graduates from a really poor and poverty-stricken area who went through our entire project, including kindergarten, preschool, school, and high school graduation. Now, they are studying in Windhoek. Education has given these people the chance to lead a life of self-determination”, says Stefan Wolfschütz.
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