Virtual IT outsourcing, IT support London UK

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CASE STUDY 4 - ASPIRE

Business Description

Founded in 1983, ASPIRE is now established as a leading spinal cord injury charity whose philosophy is to reintegrate spinally injured people back into society after their injury and to encourage, facilitate and enable them to reach their full potential.

The charities’ flagship headquarters, the ASPIRE National Training Centre (ANTC), is a centre of excellence that is unique in Europe, where disabled and non-disabled people can integrate in sport and leisure activities.
The facilities at the ANTC include a fully equipped integrated Fitness Studio, unique 25m swimming pool with ramp access, sports hall, IT suite and Internet Cafe and the Lido Cafe. There is also a dance studio with theatre seating for 80 people.

For further information on ASPIRE visit their website at: www.ASPIRE.org.uk

The Business Challenge

When ASPIRE’s internal IT Support Manager left, it provided the ideal opportunity to reassess their IT provision and support. ASPIRE had 49 PC’s including an Internet Café and IT Training Facility, most of which were old and non-uniform machines. ASPIRE uses a membership system and a fundraising package along with the usual Microsoft packages and email. All these applications were sitting on a single server which was causing problems with reliability and proving to be a security risk. Using a manual back-up system occasionally failed which could have also led to data loss.

Overall, the current system was unreliable and due to a lack of communication between the internal IT department and external software suppliers support was poor with users having to wait an unacceptable amount of time for issues to be resolved.

Key workers need to be able to work from home, but this was impossible as email was not available out of the office.

What they were looking for:

ASPIRE needed a solution that included a refresh programme, took care of the critical IT elements such as email and back ups as well as providing seamless professional support. Systems needed to be more secure, reliable and resilient, with increased levels of support ensuring that problems were fixed in a timely manner.

ASPIRE also needed to understand their IT costs and be able to split out costs within different areas of the business so services provided such as the Internet Café and IT Training Facility could be measured.

The Virtual IT Solution

“IT is simply no longer a headache. As a manager I used to receive daily complaints regarding IT problems – but now its rare. Everyone is self-sufficient and empowered to contact Virtual IT to resolve any issues. The remote support ensures problems are dealt with quickly and efficiently with minimum disruption to user.

We also find the on-line reporting available from Virtual IT extremely useful and regular meetings with our Account Manager provide invaluable feedback on our IT support.

“We would have no hesitation in recommending this to other organisations, especially charities – in fact we already do!”

Tasha Dyson, General Manager, ASPIRE

When Virtual IT first contacted ASPIRE the solution sounded “too good to be true as it offered everything that we needed all in one package for a fixed cost”. The package included: Unlimited and pro-active round the clock support, managed email, off-site back-up and disaster recovery, a managed VPN and updated hardware and software where required.

The first thing Virtual IT did was address the issue of reliability and security by providing separate servers for each one of Aspect’s different applications therefore removing a single point of failure.

All old equipment was replaced using new flat screens which improved the look of the internet café and training centre. Virtual IT also assisted in removal of old equipment by working with a recycling partner Digital Links who donate used equipment to schools across Africa, ASPIRE staff were also offered old equipment.

The MS Exchange email solution provided includes web access for all users and selected home users are now able to access their systems from home using our secure and fast VPN access. And with an automatic off-site back up in place there’s no need to worry about back-up’s not working or loss of data.

As part of the installation process Virtual IT technicians liaised directly with ASPIRE’s software providers enabling a smooth transition to the new Virtual IT solution. With these relationships in place Virtual IT has become ASPIRE’s IT department with the knowledge and experience to provide strategic advice, assess applications & resolve technical issues quickly.

Since installing Virtual IT users are happier with new and improved systems, support issues are resolved promptly by our friendly support staff, and most importantly IT is no longer a headache.

ASPIRE now understand their IT costs by user – which makes reporting and budgeting for IT in the future easy.

For further information on Virtual IT call us on: 0207 644 2838 or email: info@virtualit.biz

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