Valleys to Coast is a not-for-profit organisation which provides and manages around 6000 homes across Bridgend, South Wales.
"Ancoris provided us with the guidance, oversight and hands-on support we needed to get the project done but also paid attention to upskilling our IT team and building their capability through the project."
Polly Thompson
IT Director, Valleys to Coast
"This was the first time I’d led a change management project, but Ancoris has helped dozens of clients through this, so they have a vast store of resources such as surveys that we can quickly and easily adapt to our situation."
Jonathan Flay-Petty
Project Manager and Business Change Lead, Valleys to Coast
"You can’t necessarily wait for consensus for a big change like this. But once you start the project, it’s vital you speak to people who are worried about switching, understand their concerns, and give them peace of mind by showing them how the new system will meet their needs."
Jonathan Flay-Petty
Project Manager and Business Change Lead, Valleys to Coast
Then
- Staff were being held back by legacy tools, including older versions of Microsoft Office running on thin-client desktop PCs. The on-premise implementation of Sharepoint was so difficult to use, staff often shared documents by email and spent time collating comments and managing version control manually.
- Mobile workers, especially the tradespeople working in Valleys to Coast Direct Labour Organisation (DLO), had very limited access to IT. Valleys to Coast had provided staff with Android phones but to complete a form or read a new policy document stored on Sharepoint, they had to go into the depot or an office to access it on a PC.
- There was no mobile device management in place for either the Android phones or an increasing number of other mobile devices, such as laptops, that were being provided to staff to allow them to work more flexibly from any location.
Now
- Staff are able to produce quality work more quickly and efficiently. It’s easier to get more people involved — and involved earlier — when creating and reviewing documents. There’s also no longer any need to spend time on version control or collating feedback because everyone is always accessing, editing and commenting on the same copy of the document.
- Staff in the DLO now have a single app on their mobile phone that handles all their work communication. This includes being able to open documents and forms from links sent by email.
- Staff were able to quickly pivot to working from home when Wales went into lockdown in March 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, staff were immediately able to begin using Google Meet and Chat to maintain easy communication with colleagues.
- Valleys to Coast IT team can easily and efficiently manage and secure all its Android phones and Chromebooks remotely, through the mobile device management functions available as standard in the Google Workspace Admin Console.