Cyan delivers sustainable solutions and increases confidence in IT at Sands

About Sands

The Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society provides bereavement support services to anyone affected by the death of a baby, as well as working closely with health care professionals to improve the quality of bereavement care and promoting research to reduce infant deaths.

Sands’ operations are multi-layered, and the charity’s strategic objectives are delivered by a team of full-time and part-time employees who are based across multiple locations, as well as a large network of volunteers.

Transforming perceptions of Sands’ IT

On joining the charity in 2015, Danyanne Quemper, Director of Finance and Resources at Sands, was challenged with improving the IT infrastructure

“60% of our staff work outside of London, many of whom work directly with our Group network of 106 local groups across the country” she says. “There was absolutely no confidence in our ability to drive IT centrally and frustrations had led to a lot of people losing faith in the technology. It was considered average to have downtime of at least 30 minutes a day.”

Danyanne contacted the Charity IT Association (CITA), a network of volunteers to help not-for-profit organisations improve their IT.

“They helped us run our procurement process and the approach from Cyan stood out in terms of value for money, coupled with a perfect fit for the careful, understanding approach we needed.”

Plan

Expert IT guidance with charity-specific knowledge

After reviewing the plethora of existing vendors and uptime issues, we began planning a more efficient, centralised solution that would increase control and resilience of the charity’s IT estate. We also secured software licensing discounts available for the charity sector which Sands had not previously been aware of.

“There were immediate cost-savings in the model that Cyan proposed,” says Danyanne. “It was clear that the team understood the industry and how charities work. By replacing our IT as an integrated piece of work, Cyan delivered real synergy.”

A series of meetings and observations with Sands’ staff ensured the team felt listened to – an important first step in rebuilding damaged confidence in technology.

“From the start Cyan took a measured approach to delivering an integrated IT solution for Sands; they instilled confidence in the process and the team was great at communicating with us to find the very best solution to every problem.” adds Danyanne

Create

Bringing disjointed IT into a centralised platform

We developed a bespoke cloud desktop solution for Sands, centralising all the information and applications needed – accessible from anywhere at any time. Using this cloud platform, the team at Sands could consistently access up-to-date information and tools.

“The solution does exactly what we need it to and the feedback from our staff has been fantastic,” says Danyanne. “We were also impressed by how effectively everything was implemented. Within 4 months of starting to look for ways to improve our IT we were up-and-running with a more flexible, secure and resilient system.”

We also helped Sands transform its telephony infrastructure – an area where technology was also fragmented and inefficient.

“We had a designated helpline, but it wasn’t connected to any other phones,” says Danyanne. “This sometimes resulted in staff having to redirect bereaved callers which undermined the wonderful work of our staff team. Cyan provided a new hosted infrastructure for our telephony, as well as the training and support our people needed to use it.”

Maintain

Knowledgeable support at every level

We have continued to support Sands with day-to-day helpdesk services as well as more complex projects, including an office relocation and migration to a new datacentre.

“What makes Cyan unique is how kind, patient and knowledgeable people are at every level of the business. I’ve had experiences where the further you walk into an organisation, the less you see of the quality and skill that is evident at CEO level. Every member of the team at Cyan talks and walks the same consistent customer values.”

Our role in technical support provides a diverse network of employees and volunteers with a single point of contact.

A partnership built on trust

Sands continues to work to achieve its aims with its former myriad of complex IT structures now streamlined through a bespoke cloud platform supported by our expert team.

“I would absolutely recommend Cyan. At Sands, we have this thing about ‘feeling like you’re being held within a process’ – that level of safety and reassurance. That’s how Cyan has made us feel.  It gives us added confidence when we face new challenges, like GDPR compliance, to know that we’re with a truly supportive team who understand our organisation.”

 

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