St Petrocs work to end street homelessness in Cornwall by providing accommodation, support and advice to single homeless people. The charity has been established for 32 years and has been a Microcomms client for the past two.
Formed at the instigation of the Bishop of St Germans, the charity has considerable support from local churches, local communities and dedicated groups of ‘Friends.’
Starting over from the ground up
We helped St Petrocs start from scratch with regards to their IT, completely rebuilding the IT infrastructure of the organisation from the ground up. From new servers and network design through to WiFi and software, we’ve enabled the charity to work more efficiently, to save money and improve performanc, ensuring charitable licensing where possible. Security is a key priority for St Petrocs as they hold confidential client data, so installing unified threat protection like Watchguard firewall systems was paramount.
A key driver for the infrastructure refresh was to increase the efficiency of the staff in terms of their IT and remotely accessing data to assist their homeless clients during all hours, including critical times such as medical or housing emergencies and particularly during times of colder weather.
St Petrocs Society’s Communications Manager, Dave Brown said,
“Since working with Microcomms to upgrade all aspects of our IT, our efficiency has improved, which has had a positive effect on the service we deliver. For instance, a new networking system has meant we are able to update client notes easily and efficiently and as a result our staff are better informed, especially on shift hand-overs, which has meant a better level of service for our clients.
We have more flexibility in how we work now – our systems are more secure and consistent because our servers aren’t going down and broadband connection isn’t being lost. It’s great that we now don’t have to think about IT at all and can focus on the job in hand. If there are any issues, we just call Microcomms to sort it out!”
Better wifi means digital inclusion for service users
Another area that has been a real improvement for St Petrocs is the provision of guest Wifi for the clients accessing the charity’s services, in line with digital inclusion. Many government and assistive support is only available online and Internet access can be a challenge. The free guest Wifi allows for digital inclusion of even the most vulnerable.
Simon Murley, Managing Director said, “As a Cornish company our commitment to providing support to local social care organisations is paramount. We can see on a daily basis the need and help given to vulnerable people in the county by St Petrocs and we’re grateful to have the opportunity to work with such a fantastic team of committed, caring people.”
The full range of IT systems and support that Microcomms has provided to St Petrocs includes:
- Enterprise Wifi
- Cat5 copper and fibre infrastructure
- HP Enterprise Networking
- Security and Firewall appliances
- Dell and HyperV virtual servers
- Comprehensive and ongoing IT Support
- Private WAN circuits, PSTN and broadband
For more information on how we can help your organisation update and streamline its IT systems for more efficiency, better security and an all-round improved service to your end user, please give us a call on 03300 020 000.
