"I am over the moon to have the opportunity to help hospices drive efficiency through technology and ultimately create more resource to provide clinical care that is so important."
Ian Snow, Managing Director
HQP are experts in procurement for the care sector. Founded by Hospices for Hospices, they work on behalf of their Hospice Partners to provide the best value for money products and services that deliver exclusive benefits. CT are proud to be one of HQP’s supply partners, under a framework agreement that supplies hospice partners with technology advice and solutions.
Lee Whittaker, Procurement Manager at HQP commented ‘CT is highly experienced within the hospice sector and we are delighted that they will be one of HQP’s supply partners, under a framework agreement that supplies hospice partners with technology advice and solutions. This agreement includes pricing models exclusive to HQP partners, allowing all our Hospices to have access to technology advice and affordable tailored solutions that will help support charitable objectives and long term future goals.’
The work we do with hospices is really important to us here at CT. It is really rewarding seeing how technology can make a real difference to patient care. We offer customers a fast, fresh and simple approach to Managed Services, Cloud and Business Continuity to help drive technology efficiencies, security and ultimately patient care across hospices in the UK.
“We enlisted the services of CT to help us ensure technology provided the foundations we need to support our charitable objectives and long term future goals. The team have worked closely with myself, leadership team and board of trustees to help develop a technology roadmap that met these long term charitable and business objectives. They continue to deliver high levels of customer service at all times and we are confident that should any problems arise they are addressed swiftly and effectively. We are looking forward to continuing our strong relationship with CT into the future”.
Andy Croydon, Head of IT Services at Ashgate Hospice
Our webinar, hosted by CT Managing Director, Ian Snow and Director of People and Performance at Ashgate Hopsice, Matt Corbishley, covers our partnership with Ashgate Hospice, and the strategic approach which has allowed them to enable effective remote working for clinical staff including full access to SystmOne. This has improved efficiency and security in the wake of the increased threat of cyber-attacks.
Ashgate were looking to improve the performance of their systems and to make them more reliable. These issues often impacted the hospice team, causing frustration and high volumes of calls to service desk.
Ashgate only had one leased line serving the hospice, which is known as a single point of failure. Should that line be damaged, the internet would go down until it was repaired. This was a big cause for concern, as losing internet connectivity for any length of time can impact on a patients care.
We pride ourselves on our strategic approach to IT solutions, which helps provide direction and focus to allow a business to achieve its goals.
This cloud infrastructure means we can offer either a private cloud solution or public cloud solution designed to best suit the customers’ individual requirements.
We are one of only seven IT providers in the UK to have obtained the ISO 27001 accreditation and reach NHS data security standards with the IG Toolkit.
The health and wellbeing of our staff is of paramount importance at CT. We take the approach of looking after our teams so they can look after our customers.
CT Knowledge has over 100 three minute training sessions which aim to help your team learn new skills and how to make the most of your most important business.
Assurance that we reach NHS security standards with the Information Governance Toolkit.
Guarantee that we are highly trustworthy – eliminating uncertainty about what your data is stored and managed
We are one of only seven IT providers in the UK to have obtained the ISO 27001 accreditation and reach NHS security standards with the IG Tookit.
We enhanced our ISO9001 processes by adding ISO27001 to cover the information security requirements and have had this in place since 2013. ISO9001 is the backbone of an information management system and ensures a robust quality control system which many organisations have.
Demonstrates commitment to looking after data in line with rigorous IT security best practices
Data loss is prevented and privacy and confidentiality is respected at all times – it’s all about minimising the risk of a data breach in all the services we provide
Assurance that correct quality control processes are in place to ensure we deliver consistently high levels of service
Ensures that every time we access your systems our teams are working to processes and procedures with data security and integrity at their core
Commercial Director
Managing Director
Technical Director
Business Development Manager
Business Development Manager
Challenges Faced by IT Teams and how CT can help
CT Secure Cloud Backup
CT Knowledge Demo
Central Technology gifts Netflix and Smart TV's to Hospice Patients at Ashgate Hospice
Securing the Hybrid Workplace: the key services businesses need for a flexible future
CT takes a look at dark web scanning and how to protect your business
Should you be looking for assistance with a small standalone project or something bigger, or even just a sounding board to check you’re on the right track - we're here to help. Please fill out the form below, or get in touch with a member of Team CT using the info in our "Meet the Team" section.
The Issue
Ashgate had performance issues with their current VDI (Virtual desktop infrastructure) solution which was hosted onsite, on one single server.
It was also a point of single failure which could cause downtime and potential data loss. This impacted on the hospice team, causing frustration and resulting in high volumes of calls to the service desk. It also impacted the clinical team’s ability to access SystmOne remotely. This meant they had to be based at the hospice to access the clinical system to review and upload information to patient records.
With 90 users utilising the VDI platform including key clinical and community based nurses, it was vital they had a VDI solution that offered the reliability and speed they needed when working from home, or on the road. It also needed to ensure the highest levels of security and meet stringent industry compliance standards, which is of vital importance when handling confidential healthcare and financial information.
CT's Solution
CT recommended a centrally hosted VDI platform which sits on our own UK based data centre infrastructure which is resilient, protected, faster for all users and reliable. It was implemented with enhanced security measures and placed in a cloud environment on multiple servers to remove single points of failure and provide a more resilient and consistently reliable user experience. The cloud hosted solution also reduced Ashgate’s capital expenditure as the solution is paid for on a monthly basis, this gives them the flexibility to easily scale up and increase the capacity as more users look to utilise the VDI platform for remote working.
The Key Impacts
Since the completion of the VDI project there has been dramatic decrease in the number of overall tickets raised to the service desk, with a drop of almost 60%, and a reduction of VDI specific tickets up to 90%. This frees up valuable time and resource costs, allowing the IT team to focus on being proactive and help Ashgate build their competitive edge and meet business goals. The staff at Ashgate have also commented on how quick the new platform is in comparison and how faster access is enabling them to work more efficiently.
"I am the Commercial Director here at CT and have over 26 years of IT industry knowledge and experience within the Manage Services sector.
As Commercial Director, my role is to manage the operational processes and systems of how we most effectively deliver services to our customers. I also oversee our Account Management team, to ensure the services recommended are always commercially viable and right solution for our customers. Our team is at the heart of everything we do and I believe our focus on personal development and coaching, allows us to achieve the highest levels of service to our customers.
Having seen the dedication of staff and the work hospices deliver, and how technology can provide solutions to many challenges they face, myself and the team are delighted to have the opportunity to work alongside HQP.
Our overall goal is to provide IT support that allows Hospices to focus on driving forwards their business, safe in knowledge that we can provide solutions that make a real difference."
"For the past ten years, my full time role has been as Managing Director at Central Technology.
I love the challenge of identifying ways we can utilise technology to help support, protect and drive the success of our customers. Here at CT we believe that by focussing on the personal development and wellbeing of our people we will ultimately provide the best service for our customers.
Importantly, what helps us stand apart from the crowd is our business approach to working with our customers. We spend the time getting to know our customers business and provide them with a roadmap that outlines the role technology will play in helping them to achieve their business goals.
Having spent 3 years as a Trustee at a local hospice I have seen first-hand the fantastic work that hospices do and the comfort they provide to families at the most difficult of times. I am over the moon to have the opportunity to help hospices drive efficiency through technology and ultimately create more resource to provide clinical care that is so important."
"I am the co-founder and Technical Director here at CT. With over two decades of experience in the IT industry, I built, alongside my team, CT’s UK based data centre infrastructure which delivers all your end to end service needs. It also hosts one of the largest Veeam Cloud Connect platforms in the EMEA region allowing us to provide the most secure and resilient technology solutions for all our customers.
I manage CT’s Technical Architect Team to ensure our solution designs are correct and deliver value to our customers. This team works with the Account Managers and customers to build a technology roadmap that helps drive growth and meet important business goals.
I have spent a lot of time with the team at Ashgate Hospice to identify technology requirements to build up a roadmap that is helping improve efficiencies, security and ultimately patient care. We understand how important the services hospices provide are and it’s great to be a part of delivering that service."
"I have been working in the IT industry for over 10 years. Our approach to working with customers is unique as we focus on understanding business goals to help create technology roadmaps that make real business sense.
My role is to understand the challenge business owners and directors face, such as rapid growth, cyber security, new technologies and remote working. Together with the operations and technical team here at CT, we then present real solutions that are aligned to business objectives and make a real difference .
I was very excited at the prospect of CT becoming the exclusive HQP IT Support partner, CT has worked with a number of hospices and charities alike and it’s great to see first-hand how implementing the correct technology can improve efficiency within an organisation that can ultimately allow the hospice to focus on the most important work, the care of their patients."
"I have been working in the IT industry for almost 10 years. My role here at CT involves finding out how organisations can utilise technology and IT systems more effectively.
I spend time talking to Directors about their key business objectives, current challenges and changes within their organisation. This allows us to look more closely at where technology can add value to short, medium and long term aspirations.
Working with Hospices is always an amazing experience because the shared objectives are always focused on providing and improving experience for the service users. The very nature of the staff who work at Hospices means it’s always a pleasure to work together on an IT project. We’re always here to help, should you be looking for assistance with a small standalone project or something bigger, or even just a sounding board to check you’re on the right track."
The Issue
As Ashgate moved towards using more cloud hosted services including, Cloud Hosted Servers, Cascade HR, Telephone Systems and Office 365, they needed a more resilient connectivity solution that provided 100% uptime to ensure that they would never have any downtime. Loosing internet connectivity for any length of time can impact on a patients care.
The challenge they faced was they only had one leased line serving the hospice. This is what is known as one single point of failure and should that line be damaged, the internet would go down until it was repaired. They also had two connections into the NHS’s HSCN network (Health and Social Care Network) but this provided minimal resiliency and they needed a more robust and resilient solution to ensure access to HSCN was always available.
CT's Solution
CT provided a diverse leased line solution, which included two internet connections to their main site with automatic failover to the secondary connection should the primary fail. The leased lines installed are solely serving Ashgate; they are fast, reliable and secure, meaning access to internet is always quick and easy. The new leased lines also provide the capability to increase 10x the speed they are currently, this provides Ashgate assurance they have additional capacity in the future as they adopt more cloud technologies. This has taken huge amounts of frustration away from the team and the peace of mind that they have the back-up they need to continue the important 24/7 work they provide.
The connectivity solution also includes CT Protect, a cloud based web filtering solution. This ensures users are unable to access inappropriate content or unsafe websites that may contain malware or ransomware. This is vitally important to Ashgate to ensure its network is safe and secure at all times and prevent any malicious content entering its network.