CASE STUDIES CARTREFI CONWY

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Cartrefi Conwy utilise Nviron's nTrust Managed Service to Deliver and Support their IT Infrastructure

Introduction

Cartrefi Conwy is one of North Wales’ foremost providers of sustainable, affordable and quality
homes. Operating in the County Borough of Conwy, Cartrefi Conwy strives towards the creation
of communities to be proud of.

Cartrefi Conwy was formed in October 2008 from the Large Scale Voluntary Transfer of housing
stock from Conwy County Borough Council and the transfer of staff from its Housing and
Building Maintenance Departments.

Challenge

Cartrefi Conwy had appointed a Head of ICT at transfer who had led the implementation of
replacement business application systems. With the reduction in services delivered from the
Council as a result of these going live in October 2009, Cartrefi Conwy needed to review the
provision for support on its new ICT infrastructure. Given the risks associated with reliance
on a small team of specialist technical ICT staff and the ability to recruit & retain ICT staff with
the necessary skills to provide the full range of services for Cartrefi Conwy, the decision was
made in January 2009 to proceed towards a fully managed service for the ICT infrastructure
and to only recruit internally for support of the new business applications. The challenge
was therefore to find a partner who could offer a range of innovative solutions, backed up by
excellent first line support services.

When Cartrefi released the tender for a complete IT infrastructure managed service, Conwy
County Borough Council recommended Nviron to respond. Nviron were awarded the contract
which commenced in January 2010 as they met the requirements, had excellent references
and offered best value for money.

Solution

Nviron tailored its nTrust Managed Service to meet the requirements of Cartrefi Conwy.

Nviron employ and manage a permanent on site first line support technician. In the event of
holidays or sickness Nviron provide another IT technician on site from the help desk team.
This on site technician is backed up by Nviron’s help desk team who, provide monitoring using
Microsoft system Centre. They also provide second line support to the on-site technician to
ensure calls are escalated and fixed within SLAs.

The nTrust package also includes unlimited system dead call out and scheduled maintenance
and development visits to ensure that the service package continues to meet the changing
requirements of Cartrefi Conwy’s dynamic business.

Result

The nTrust Managed Service package has enabled Cartrefi Conwy to focus on developing the
use of its new business applications and ensured that IT is at the forefront of new business
initiatives, such as mobile data.

Cartrefi have managed to avoid the problem of an IT becoming absorbed in fire fighting, just to
keep the lights on. IT is run strategically to enable it to meet changing business needs.

By outsourcing IT infrastructure to Nviron, Cartrefi benefit from having an IT infrastructure
expert managing their IT support and development, enabling them to concentrate on the
application within the business.

Future Development

Nviron are continuing to manage and implement leading IT infrastructure solutions for Cartrefi Conwy, including the design of a mobile data solution to enable maintenance staff to manage their workload without returning to the office.