FitzRoy are a charity supporting people with autism, acute mental health needs, and learning disabilities in homes and services across the country, helping them to live independently. Their IT team help deliver life-changing projects, like setting up accessible IT suites for their day service users, but they were working with extremely limited time and resource as a result of one major problem.

The burden of device management was preventing them from working on more valuable initiatives. Devices were stacking up around their office, awaiting manual repairs and reconfiguration, while admin piled up on their desks. They didn’t have a suitable location from which to manage this large inventory, and they were struggling to get devices to their end users, who either work hybrid or fully remote. To make matters worse, they were facing constant delays from suppliers, leaving their colleagues without laptops and creating delays across the charity.

“As devices were coming back from staff- faulty, broken or needing upgrades- we weren’t able to deal with them,” said FitzRoy’s Head of IT, Phil George. “We were adding a comfortable 6 to 12 months onto a device’s age with it just sitting in the office not doing anything. It was frustrating to have thousands of pounds of kit that could be re-used just sitting there and constantly being added to. When we’d suddenly get a rush of requests, and we had to fulfil those with new devices rather than recycling, I knew that it was costing the charity more, but I didn’t have the time to sort it.” 

This wasn’t sustainable. The only way they could recover their lost efficiency was to outsource- but as a charity, they needed a service which wouldn’t come with excessive costs or a fixed contract.

Finding time for device repairs and refreshes was Phil’s biggest headache, so we help them reclaim efficiency through collecting faulty devices directly from their end users, conducting any necessary refurbishments, and redeploying them with ease.

We store their assets free of charge in our 60,000 sq ft Net Positive Logistics Centre, ready to be sent out when required. They also have access to a custom portal, which provides full visibility of their asset lifecycle.

These services have been incredibly beneficial to Phil and his team- helping them reclaim time and resource, prevent wasted budget, and hit their ESG targets.

“As a charity looking to make the most of the budget that you have, you don’t want to be paying over the odds,” Phil said. “You have to work with providers that can be flexible to work with your own internal processes, and the budget that you have.

Having a team who can repair our devices and do all of it for us is just a huge benefit. Being able to reuse equipment and repair it, rather than it just sitting and going to waste, is financially beneficial for us. We aren’t having to buy new devices, and we’re getting them reconditioned and sent back to our end users at a fraction of the cost. The funds that we’ve saved can go right back into the front line of our work, enriching and enhancing the lives of the people that we support as an organisation.

Outsourcing this aspect of our work has been really good because it’s allowed us to focus our resources in other more important areas of our IT, such as our security. Also just focusing on other important things that are coming in day to day, getting back to our users quicker on our tickets, and just generally improving our overall service.

One of the things I personally liked about Novatech was that the building, where our equipment is being stored, is carbon neutral. It’s generating more energy than its consuming, which for me, is another big tick in the box.”

See this exclusive video with Phil George, Head of IT at FitzRoy.

When looking for a solution, FitzRoy initially struggled to find a service which adequately met their requirements. Other suppliers only pitched them leasing services, which would have been very expensive and didn’t allow full ownership of their equipment. These solutions were also very rigid and did not offer the flexibility FitzRoy needed. 

Our Device Lifecycle Services offer a true consumption model: FitzRoy only pay when we supply or move a device. We didn’t charge any onboarding fees, nor do we charge any monthly or per-device fees. This was important to Phil and his team.

Overall, Phil concluded:

“What Novatech brings to our ambitions is flexibility. Thanks to our services, we’re saving time, and we’ve been able to focus our resources on things other than our device provisioning.

Charities will inevitably all have different challenges and won’t always have the resources internally, perhaps to do things as they’d like to do them. Novatech are flexible, willing to tailor things and do things in a bespoke way, which helps us get the things we need. They were the only organisation I could find offering this model of service, for no huge cost.

I think that this model works right across the charity sector.“

If you’re drowning in device management and need help, you can learn more about our IT Device Asset Lifecycle Management Services here.