Case Study
IT Roadmap at Centre 404
Centre 404 is a charity that offers vital support services to people with learning disabilities, autism and their families across 7 London Boroughs.
The charity brought Smartdesc on board to support and improve their IT estate.
Challenge
Centre 404 were using old, disjointed IT systems that needed overhauling and consolidating. This meant they were facing numerous challenges including:
- Frustrated staff logging frequent IT support tickets, resulting in high costs
- Out-dated infrastructure, technology and VPNs
- Relying on physical hardware & servers that were difficult and costly to maintain
- Convoluted IT set up across multiple sites providing an awkward/fragmented user experience
“We are really happy working with Smartdesc. It’s really helpful having a single point of contact. Our projects have been a bit complex but Smartdesc have made it really easy and the team have handled it well. The support Smartdesc provide has been first class.”
Marisa McDermott, Head of Finance and IT, Centre 404
Solution
The Smartdesc team provided expert strategic IT advice and oversight, working closely with Centre 404 to co-author a
technology roadmap based on secure, cloud-first Microsoft IT infrastructure. The work involved:
- Migrating the charity to Microsoft 365 and Azure, taking their physical servers to the cloud
- Migrating Shared Files off the old file server, into a newly designed SharePoint / Teams / OneDrive environment
- Removing the VPN and moving to AzureAD (Entra), providing a streamlined user experience with single sign on
- Standardising the charity’s internet connectivity across the sites, all centrally managed
- Overhauling and re-cabling the communications cabinets, making it easier to access and manage
- Working closely with Centre 404 staff to map out an IT Training Plan tailored to individual user needs
- Enabling easier staff training on IT and the new systems through a seamless user experience
After implementing Smartdesc’s IT strategy, Centre 404 saw drastic improvements, including more than a 50% decrease in IT support tickets logged by staff.
Results
- Drastically reducing the IT support days needed logged by staff by 50% – over 5 days per month
- Streamlined IT infrastructure and connections that are secure, cloud-based and future-proofed
- Bespoke IT roadmap developed to monitor progress, goals and user satisfaction
- Much improved staff satisfaction and confidence using IT through improved tools and training