IT Champion helped the Amber Foundation identify the best way to deliver the project efficiently and within budget.
Amber Foundation and IT Champion have been working together for over six years.
Throughout this time the foundation’s IT systems have been supported by IT Champion with managed IT services and retained technical services.
Recently the organisation expressed a need to upgrade and refresh servers, PC’s and software at all three locations. They also wanted to explore a cloud backup solution and contacted IT Champion to help identify the best way to deliver the project efficiently and within budget.
Based at three residential centres in Devon, Wiltshire and Surrey, Amber Foundation offers a supported housing environment that’s a little bit different.
They don’t just provide training and support to address specific personal issues but offer new experiences and opportunities that raise aspiration and challenge residents to take responsibility for their lives and move forward positively.
Based on a model of ‘dreams and desires’ they provide each individual with a bespoke, practical programme of activities that builds their skills and qualifications, develops their resilience and purpose, improves their confidence and wellbeing and focuses firmly on their strengths and interests. Ultimately Amber Foundation aims to help as many young people as possible move on to sustainable work, a secure home and a fulfilling future.
IT Champion systems engineers worked closely with the stakeholders at Amber Foundation to identify the hardware and software that the organisation wanted to be upgraded.
Different solutions were discussed, and prices were supplied to help determine the best upgrade path for all three sites. IT Champion then created an outline project plan and the timeline for the upgrades, minimising IT systems downtime and disruption.
This project is just a small example of the IT-related services that IT Champion has supplied to Amber Foundation. Don’t just take our word for it, get in touch with them if you would like to hear what they think about the level of service they have received from IT Champion during an important time for the business.
Once a strategy and budget for the upgrades was agreed with the foundation, IT Champion systems engineers finalised a project plan to manage the entire upgrade process.
Key elements of the IT systems upgrade project included:
- Upgraded 40 staff PC’s from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and encrypted with BitLocker.
- Also upgraded PC’s from Office 2010 to Office 2016.
- At Chumleigh and Trowbridge, a loan server was configured for use while the existing server was rebuilt with Windows Server 2016. Once built, the Virtual Machines from the loan server was live migrated to it. Due to the age of the Dorking server, this was completely replaced with a new host and configured in the same way.
- Utilised Microsoft Azure Backup for local backup only. The backup runs to a NAS, located in a different building to the server. There is a separate NAS at each site.
- The amber resident’s server was replaced, previously running Multipoint Server 2008 and is now running Windows Server 2016 with RDS configured.
- There are about 15-20 resident PCs at each site that boot over the LAN to the RDS Server.
“When first agreeing to use IT Champions’ services, it was somewhat a “leap of faith” on our part. They were a lot smaller then, so we really didn’t know what to expect. However, the move over to ITC was one of the best decisions we as an organisation have made. We have now been with them for many years, and have seen them grow significantly without any reduction in service. They are professional, polite, knowledgeable…the list goes on. They answer the phone promptly and they deal with every problem immediately. They offer valuable advice and recommendations and are extremely patient. We would have no hesitation at all in recommending IT Champion to other organisations.”
Russell Beard DChA, Financial Controller
The Amber Foundation
Industry sector
Not for Profit
Location
Chumleigh, Trowbridge and Dorking
Date
October 2017
Company size
51-200 employees
