How Cyan Solutions Helped Toto Energy drive rapid Growth

About Toto Energy

Founded in 2016, Toto Energy is a UK utilities supplier with a mission to make gas and electricity more affordable.

From the start, the company had plans to grow rapidly. After just one year, Toto Energy supplied more than 55,000 domestic properties nationwide.

Finding a partner for launch – and growth

Before the business was launched Toto Energy considered its IT and the infrastructure that would be needed to power its day-to-day operations.

“We had a good idea of the challenges we would face,” says Jonathan Corbishley, Head of IT at Toto Energy. “We were looking for someone to host a remote desktop platform for us, consolidating everything into one place so we could expand and grow across multiple sites. We knew our growth would be fast-paced and we needed a partner that could keep up.”

To compare suppliers, Toto Energy put out a tender and conducted a detailed comparison of both pricing and service. “Cyan was deemed to be both cost-effective and offer the quality of service we expect as a fast growth business”.

Plan
A partner for the earliest IT discussions

We became involved in Toto Energy’s IT at its earliest stages of planning and design.

This included integrations with a wide range of applications and services, including a specialist billing platform and customer relationship management (CRM) system for the utilities sector.

“Early on we were in discussions with industry-specific software suppliers, so we could handle different types of data flow in billing,” says Jonathan. “It was key that these suppliers were well-integrated with our wider IT, so Cyan came in on the discussions soon after.”

“We got a lot of input from Cyan on whether key supplier services could be hosted in a virtual environment, which had never been done before. Cyan were confident it could be done and, consequently, it has been done. That was a hugely important factor for us.”

We were also involved in discussions about how to best implement a hosted cloud desktop platform, including key considerations like load balancing and scaling.

Create
A proactive approach to IT design

After successfully designing and testing a way to include key supplier services in the hosted platform, we implemented Toto Energy’s full IT infrastructure smoothly and seamlessly.

“There’s always a lot to be done to make sure that everything can talk to everything else,” says Jonathan. “In IT there are so many small things you may not consider when building a list of requirements, but Cyan are always one step ahead. The team’s proactive approach helped us get up-and-running quickly.”

“Cyan go the extra mile to make sure everything is working and functioning before signing anything off. They don’t stop until you’re completely happy and that’s one of the many ways they’re so good to work with.”

Following robust testing, our team delivered a bespoke cloud architecture that gives users the same experience and access to business applications wherever they are located. New users can be added with a few clicks, making it easy to meet the demands of growth. This is all hosted in a tier 4 data centre with the highest levels of resilience and data capacity.

Maintain
A lasting partnership of support and strategy

Following the launch of Toto Energy, we have continued to provide ongoing support and maintenance – both at a helpdesk and management level.

“With our platform, we can adapt very quickly if we have a big influx of staff, for example into the call centre. Cyan can add new servers quickly and we can grow as fast as we want to, without being limited by our IT.”

“Cyan have played an integral role in our success by supporting our IT estate and strategy, at all levels. It’s not a supplier/customer relationship, it’s more of a partnership.”

Empowering Toto Energy’s rapid growth

Toto Energy continues to achieve its ambitious targets for growth through acquiring customers and rolling out smart meters. Jonathan identifies our IT services as an important part of this growth.

“The extent of Cyan’s support and the flexibility of the platform has allowed us to grow very quickly. They’re positive to work with, they’re engaging, and, above all, they’re invested in us – and that won’t change as we grow, which is excellent.”

 

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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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