We’ve been giving back to Little Miracles since we launched – they’re one of our chosen charities – but we were keen to do more and offer them free IT support too.
Little Miracles is a Peterborough-based charity supporting families with children with additional needs, disabilities and life-limiting conditions.
The charity relies heavily on efficient emails and secure IT systems to provide urgent and time-sensitive services, but their complicated and outdated system was causing them several issues:
- Service Impact: The charity’s services are time-sensitive and often need to be dealt with in the here and now and any IT downtime directly impacts their ability to provide support.
- High Costs of Downtime: Interruptions in IT services were costly, both in terms of financial loss and reduced productivity.
- Security Concerns: The existing setup lacked adequate security measures, leading to a high volume of spam and fake emails.
- Inconsistent Tools and Poor Integration: Staff used a mix of different tools, leading to inefficiencies and security risks.
- Lack of IT Expertise: With no dedicated IT staff, the charity relied on a nominated tech-savvy staff member, Jack, who lacked formal training.
The charity knew things weren’t running efficiently, time was being wasted on IT problems and their system was not user-friendly, but they didn’t have the expertise, finances or time to explore any other options.
“We were losing on average a day of week of lost productivity due to phishing and spam emails.”
Jack Cook, Trusts and Foundations Manager at Little Miracles
The Solution
Our Networks and Security manager, Les Best carried out a survey of Little Miracles’ IT infrastructure and recommended several improvements we could help them with:
- Unified Network and New Equipment: Installation of a new unified network system.
- Enhanced Security: Implementation of a unified router, disabling unnecessary ports, and setting up secure Microsoft email accounts with free licenses (which the charity didn’t even know were even on offer to them)
- Migrating to Microsoft: The whole company to use Microsoft Office to streamline tools and improve productivity.
Impact and Outcomes
We were pleased to carry out all the recommendations and the successful transformation has been a “gamechanger” for Little Miracles resulting in:
- Drastically reduced spam and improved email security.
- Enhanced internet speeds which allowed for the integration of new CCTV cameras
- Thousands of pounds saved in staff downtime due to IT issues
- Consistent and integrated tools allowed staff to work more efficiently.
- The new CCTV system enhanced security at the Centre, serving as a deterrent against potential break-ins, which previously could have cost up to £20,000 in repairs and downtime.
- The Microsoft Office suite helped the charity present a more professional image, improving communication and operational efficiency.
We have offered our continual free support on the service desk to Little Miracles, but Jack says they have not needed to take us up on this offer “Generally speaking, we don’t have problems now we have changed to Microsoft.”
“Before IT Naturally stepped in, our IT situation was awful. Everyone used different tools, we lost hours of productivity due to our IT issues. Now, everything is secure, professional, and it just works. We’re incredibly grateful for their help.”
Louise Evans, Head of Income Generation at Little Miracles
“The improvements have been huge, especially for me. I no longer need to handle IT issues, which were not my expertise! IT Naturally are so approachable and ready to help immediately. It’s been a game-changer for us!”
Jack Cook, Trusts and Foundations Manager at Little Miracles
We are delighted that we can offer pro bono IT support to Little Miracles and the work we have done has been a resounding success.
