In 2004, Nevis Electricity Company Limited (Nevlec) embarked on a journey to upgrade their computer system from a Dbase IV locally customized billing program, to  a more modern and centralized operating system. 

To this end, a small contingent comprising of members of the management team along with the Information Technology Officer visited Belize Electricity Limited (Bel) to acquire first hand knowledge and information about the Microsoft Great Plains system.  Our main goal of traveling to Belize was to ensure that we were not reinventing the wheel, by doing trial and error and guess work. Instead we benefited from BEL who at the time was implementing Great Plains system.

After many months of discussions, the decision was made to go with Great Plains and Cogsdale. The required equipment was bought and the different locations, namely the Pinneys office, the Power Plant and Stores, were connected via fiber to facilitate the transfer of data between the three locations.

Currently, we are running 9 servers including an ISA server that handles internet access. In addition, there is a GIS server that was bought for the GIS (Geographic Information System) project that would be implemented in the near future.

As expected with a new system, we have encountered many challenges. However, through continued training and assistance from the Technical Support staff for the software we are conquering these problems.  We continue to move with the tide and adapt with the changes in the information technology field to ensure a bright future for Nevlec in that area.

- Julian Weeks