Case Study: YMCA Cardiff Group

YMCA reap the benefits of their Microsoft 365 migration & onsite days

Introduction to YMCA Cardiff Group

YMCA Cardiff Group is a community based registered charity and social landlord operating across South Wales. Within Cardiff, they manage two homeless hostels which house over 200 people, as well as a range of properties that provide rented accommodation for families on lower incomes, which helps get them on to the property ladder.

YMCA Cardiff operate a community centre and run several youth projects across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, including young carer projects, sexual health and health & wellbeing projects.

We spoke with Catrin Anthony-Evans, Communications Officer at YMCA Cardiff about their relationship with Complete I.T. (CIT) since partnering in 2021.

Partnering with CIT

Catrin and her team felt that they hadn’t built a relationship with their previous IT Support provider and there was also a lack of proactive support. This is what led them to search for a new IT provider that would match their company culture and meet their needs.

They needed someone who would be able to look after their entire IT infrastructure, manage their systems, and provide consultative IT support to help ensure they are using the best technology for the organisation.

We were recommended to YMCA Cardiff by Sharp, our sister company, who have been providing YMCA’s photocopiers and printers for over two decades.

After a couple of meetings with the team at Complete I.T.’s Bristol office, YMCA decided that “CIT are the right fit, they are person-centric, not cold and corporate” said Catrin.

Microsoft 365 migration & onsite days

After an initial IT systems review, it was recognised that the YMCA would benefit from migrating to Microsoft 365 to help improve their day-to-day activity, communication and collaboration.

The YMCA went ahead with the move to Microsoft 365 and the team saw instant improvements. “The agile nature of using cloud-based solutions is great because you can work easily from home, easily from the office and you can have everything on your phone – which supports our hybrid working style” said Catrin.

“The transition to Microsoft 365 has helped us become more collaborative. We can work on documents together and conduct meetings easily on Teams. Before, if the servers went down nobody could work, but now that everything is cloud-based all you need is an internet connection.”

As part of our Complete I.T. Manager service, a Technical Consultant (TC) from our team will become an extension of yours. They will get to know you, your organisation and your systems inside out.

“Our Technical Consultant was really helpful and organised throughout the Microsoft 365 migration. It’s great having him as our point of contact for these large projects and to help guide us through planning improvements for the year ahead” said Catrin.

IT roadmap – Planning for the future

Planning your IT roadmap is part and parcel of our process and helps you to visualise the big picture. Catrin loves being able to see her IT roadmap as it helps her to understand what work is being carried out when and enables her to budget accordingly.

“I think everything is really structured. The IT roadmap is planned for the year ahead and I know what is happening on a month-on-month basis, so it gives us great confidence that our IT is going to be in a good position in the future” Catrin explained.

The YMCA saw great value in their technical onsite days, so much so that they increased their number of onsite days with their technical consultant for 2022.

24/7 IT Helpdesk team

The YMCA also benefit from our IT helpdesk service, who are only a phone call away to deal with any queries or issues they may encounter. Catrin explains, “It’s great having a helpdesk team to rely on, they’re easy to get hold of and it’s taken the pressure off of me so I can focus on my other responsibilities, as previously team members had been coming to me to raise IT issues.”

Our 24/7 IT helpdesk service enables the YMCA team to make contact with CIT no matter what time of day it is, which is essential to their organisation as their homeless hostels operate all hours.

Overview

“One key benefit of the CITM service is having that one really knowledgeable contact (Technical Consultant) to rely on, who really knows how our organisation operates, understands the infrastructure, and can do the road mapping – it’s invaluable,” said Catrin.

In Catrin’s role, she has to manage relationships with various suppliers and having a strong relationship with the person on the other side is important to her. “CIT is personable, I get on really well with our TC and feel comfortable just picking up the phone to talk to him about any issue or idea I may have.”

Overall, the Microsoft 365 migration has been greatly received by the team at YMCA and Catrin is eager to make all of their systems cloud-based to help with future-proofing. Catrin explained that “if another YMCA branch contacted me for an IT support provider recommendation, I would happily recommend Complete I.T. to them” said Catrin.