What is ISO 27001? ISO 27001 is an international standard for Information Security Management and provides a framework of good practice, including: Risk management Risk-based decision making Proportionate controls A checklist of good practice Why Mind chose ISO 27001 Charities are increasingly reliant on data and technology to deliver their missions. It is important that…
A guide to help you understand what the Microsoft New Commerce Experience (NCE) is, how it affects the licenses you buy, and the benefits of moving to NCE from an Enterprise Agreement (EA). If you are a nonprofit organisation that uses Microsoft 365, you may have heard of the New Commerce Experience (NCE) that Microsoft…
Adopting a hybrid model of in-house and outsourced IT allows charities to address challenges with resourcing, removes significant HR overheads, accelerates IT strategy, and mitigates against staff frustration with IT support caused by unplanned absence and changing priorities. In this blog, we explain what co-managed support is, the benefits, and how to ensure you can…
The charity sector has undergone significant transformation in recent years, with digital acceleration, shifts in working models, and increasing pressure on internal IT resource acquisition and retention. This has necessitated a rethinking of IT Service Management (ITSM) within the sector. In this article, charity IT specialists, Smartdesc, and ServiceNow’s nonprofit team ServiceNow.org share their advice…
Challenge Water Aid is an international charity that works to provide clean water and toilets to communities around the world. Like many charities, WaterAid were facing challenges in resourcing the IT Support function. Internal IT employees left the organisation, driven by the cost-of-living crisis, and the charity was unable to compete with corporate wages. This meant…
On 25 January 2024, we held our quarterly Charity Technology Roundtable in partnership with Microsoft Tech for Social Impact. We focused on the topic of getting IT resourcing right, discussing areas around: How are charities tacking the IT resourcing challenge? What models exist for for hybrid / co-managed IT team structures? How can hybrid / co-managed…
Teenage Cancer Trust is a cancer care and support charity for young people established in 1990. Their team includes office-based staff, volunteers, healthcare professionals and support teams for their NHS hospital units. Challenge Teenage Cancer Trust approached Smartdesc to find a solution to both their Incidents & Complaints and Expense Claiming processes. Their previous Incident…
ACEVO is the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations. Together with their network, they inspire and support civil society leaders by providing connections, advocacy and skills. Their members include the leaders of small, community based groups, ambitious medium-sized organisations, and well known, well-loved national and international not-for-profits. ACEVO approached Smartdesc through a tender process…
Situation Mind required the IT Infrastructure to be totally transformed and needed a scalable, reliable and secure environment to be able to cope with the fast growth of the organisation, and increase in users by over 50%, in a short amount of time. A long journey began over 5 years to roll out a completely…
Volunteering Matters (VM) bring people together to overcome some of society’s most complex issues through the power of volunteering. They partner with communities to overcome adversity – tackling social isolation and loneliness, improving health, developing skills and opportunity and making sure young people can lead change. VM approached Smartdesc as they wanted to move away…
