Caysh

OUTSOURCED IT SUPPORT FOR LONDON CHARITY

CAYSH is a London-based charity that assists young people. The organisation operates from multiple locations with a head office in Croydon.

With around 90 users (at the start of the relationship), CAYSH needed an outsourced IT support partner that could deliver solutions to users regardless of location.

CAYSH also had several issues with its IT infrastructure. Legacy problems included system-wide performance issues, decentralised resource control, insufficient email retention capabilities and poor reliability. This resulted in an overall lack of user confidence in the IT system.

Following an in-depth tendering process, Akita were awarded a three year contract to overhaul an under-performing IT system and provide remote IT support.

As part of the transition of service to Akita’s remote IT support, we planned improvements to CAYSH’s infrastructure. Once the approach was agreed, Akita then successfully migrated CAYSH from an under-performing cloud computing solution to our virtual infrastructure.

As a result, system performance and reliability have been dramatically improved. All users have noticed a significant uplift in speed, system-wide downtime has been eradicated and CAYSH has far improved reliability from their cloud computing services.

Akita also upgraded CAYSH’s email platform, from an inadequately performing Exchange 2003 server to (the then latest) Exchange 2010. We also deployed a large Terminal Server upgrade.

Users now have access to a farm of remote desktop servers comprised of multiple terminal servers which automatically load balance their connections and workloads. This allows for flexible remote working between CAYSH’s locations.

Should CAYSH’s users have an IT issue, they know they can call Akita night or day and get a fast resolution to their issue.

OUTSOURCED IT PARTNER

The initial three year contract proved very successful and was continued at CAYSH’s request. CAYSH now has a dependable 24/7 IT support partner.

CAYSH no longer has the problem of poorly performing IT systems. Its cloud computing services deliver on the promise to serve as reliable tools which empower staff to achieve their goals.

Having a scalable cloud solution has proved important as CAYSH has grown. CAYSH’s network now handles around 130 users, and Akita has been able to assist CAYSH in managing the administration and permissions relating to this growth in users.

Server improvements have also increased flexibility of working. CAYSH now benefits from:

• Secure access to server-based resources from any location
• Consistent email delivery across multiple devices (PCs and mobile devices) without duplication
• Remote 24/7 access to data
• A high degree of system reliability

Perhaps more importantly though, improvements have restored users’ confidence in CAYSH’s IT systems.

As a charitable organisation, budgets have a strong bearing on ongoing IT development at CAYSH. Akita has been able to assist CAYSH with this requirement, sourcing the best-value IT solutions for the organisation’s needs and providing access to charity discounts for software such as Microsoft licensing.