“So Seamless”: High Praise from Heart Kids NZ
Think Concepts orchestrated this not-for-profit’s move to the cloud, helping them continue their important work from anywhere in the country – or the world!
Every week in New Zealand, 12 babies are born with a heart condition, and more than 550 a year will require major heart surgery. Heart Kids is New Zealand’s only charity dedicated to supporting those children and their families.
Heart Kids’ national office coordinates the organisation’s primary fundraising and engagement activities while supporting local branches and volunteer committees who do outreach in their own communities. They also have a dedicated team that provides support at Auckland’s Starship Children’s Hospital. As a not-for-profit funded in partly by the public purse, Heart Kids must be mindful of every dollar spent and greatly appreciates that Think Concepts is cognisant of that fact.
Part of Their IT Past, Present, and Future
Think Concepts has been their trusted technology partner for four years, providing managed IT support that includes 24/7 remote helpdesk and premium SLAs as well as a dedicated technician/account manager who spends two hours a month on site, allowing for in-person interactions and easier troubleshooting.
Consulting is another service that Think Concepts provides, helping businesses improve their processes while simplifying their infrastructure. Part of the IT roadmap for Heart Kids was decommissioning their onsite server and going fully cloud-based.
Because of budgetary constraints, this important project had been put on the back burner, but four months ago, a month before their office lease was due to expire, they decided to go ahead and make the move. “We still had a physical server when I started,” says Denise Kitto, head of operations. “I worked with the team at Think Concepts to shift everything to the cloud.”
What Denise appreciates most is how Heart Kids is no longer tied to a physical location. “Staff wouldn’t necessarily know that we've created this different IT architecture, but it has made everything more accessible for our staff around the country. It gives us the total flexibility of being able to work remotely from anywhere. It’s brilliant.”
A Trouble-free Transition
Other than some behind-the-scenes work the Think Concepts team did on the eve of the changeover, most of the staff would have been unaware it had occurred. “The transition from being on a server to the cloud has been pain-free and totally seamless from our perspective. It was completed without a hiccup.”
The pandemic plus the fact that their new premises were not yet ready when their lease expired made the timing right for cloud migration. Among the benefits Denise cites: “We are no longer reliant on a physical server, so no hardware to move around. It’s also given us the opportunity to re-evaluate the way we structure our IT and how our staff use it.”
Denise also speaks highly of Think Concept’s ongoing technical support, available remotely 24/7 to 35-odd staff scattered about the country anytime they have an issue. Though she previously worked in environments where they had their own internal IT department, Denise found no difficulty at all in using an outsourced organisation. “They’re responsive, very personable, and they understand the structure of our business. I work with Werner, the primary account manager, and they will absolutely make recommendations on how they can continue to support our business so that it works for us.”
Within a month of taking on her role as head of operations, Denise met with Werner, who performed a health check on all their systems and gave them a list of recommendations to work through. “It’s actually a really good service,” she says. And one that doesn’t cost the earth!. “They ensure that we get the best bang for our buck. They absolutely are responsive to that and have been supportive of our charity status.”
Because of Think Concepts’ willingness to take a budget-conscious approach, Denise feels confident that they’re in good hands. “None of us are technicians or IT people, but we have a level of trust that we’ve got the highest level of security we need. The cloud is totally secure, and they manage that for us.”