What does great IT support look like for a leading independent foundation?
In this customer case study, the Nuffield Foundation shares their experience of working with ramsac and the impact a trusted technology partner can have on day-to-day operations.
From responsive IT support and strategic guidance to discussions around the opportunities presented by AI, hear how technology is helping the organisation work more effectively and plan for the future with confidence.
Who are the Nuffield Foundation?
The Nuffield Foundation funds research, analysis, and student programmes that advance educational opportunity and social well-being across the United Kingdom. The Foundation improves people’s lives, and their ability to participate in society, by understanding the social and economic factors that affect their chances in life. The research the Foundation funds aims to improve the design and operation of social policy, particularly in Education, Welfare, and Justice.
What prompted the move to ramsac?
Nuffield Foundation took the decision to tender their IT contract after persistent problems with their incumbent supplier, with problems ranging from a poorly maintained infrastructure to issues with customer service. Elaine Graham-Leigh, Head of Information Systems and Data Protection at the Foundation explained
“We had had issues with customer service, users would call in an issue and be promised a call back that never came. We thought that was part of having outsourced IT, plus we had an ever-growing log of problems that the IT supplier didn’t seem to be able to do anything about.”
Why ramsac?
Nuffield Foundation went to tender and identified 3 potential suppliers, of which ramsac was one. Elaine explains how they chose ramsac,
“What really stood out for us in the tender interviews was that ramsac were the only company that really ‘got’ Nuffield Foundation and the type of organisation we are, understood our ethos and how that would shape what we would want. We felt with the other companies, they worked in the way they wanted rather in the way the Foundation wanted, with ramsac we got the sense that they would work with us to do things how we wanted to do them. So, it was a cultural fit more than a technical competency or price factor that helped us to pick our new supplier. It was really clear about 2 minutes into our first meeting with ramsac, we knew they were the right supplier for us. It wasn’t even a question.”
Making the move and project work
After transitioning to ramsac, Nuffield Foundation began a programme of project work including a desktop PC refresh, a disaster recovery project and a move to Office 365. Elaine commented on the move to ramsac
“It was surprisingly smooth, I thought it would be a lot more trouble than it was and I didn’t have to do all that much, I thought I would be spending months running around trying to find login details and I didn’t have to do any of that. When we were discussing tendering the IT, we debated if we should do it as we thought it would be a nightmare and actually it wasn’t.”
Cyber Resilience Certification
The Nuffield Foundation are proud holders of the Silver Standard Cyber Resilience Certification from ramsac, enabling them to assess the Foundation’s Cyber resilience and level of risk of cybercrime.
The importance of cyber resilience
Nuffield Foundation chose to benchmark their IT security by undertaking ramsac’s Cyber Resilience Certification in order to improve their cyber resilience and ensure the foundation is protected against cyber crime. Elaine explained why cyber resilience is so important
“We want to know that we’re doing everything we should be doing to keep our systems as secure as reasonably possible. It’s easy to focus on preventing a recurrence of the last issue, but what we need is a way of assessing how we’re doing across our systems and the risks we’re facing, not just the areas in the forefront of our minds.”
The Certification process
ramsac’s experienced IT security professionals undertook an in-depth audit of the Foundation’s IT estate. The result of the assessment was a detailed report identifying IT and cyber risks, with a practical suggestion of how each finding can be addressed. We were then able to determine what level the Foundation had achieved, they moved straight past Bronze to achieve the Silver Cyber Resilience Certification, a great success for the first assessment. The Silver certification represents great cyber resilience, reflecting practices that protect both end user devices, IT hardware and cloud stored data. Elaine commented on the Certification process.
“We found the process very smooth. The spreadsheets brought together the measures needed and already taken for each level in a way that was easy to understand and explain to senior management. It made it clear to assess our progress at any point and see how far we’d come and how far we had to go.”
The benefits of the Certification
Commenting on the benefits of being Cyber Resilience Certified Elaine said
“It gives us assurance that we’re taking the right steps and a way to demonstrate that to our leadership team, trustees and other stakeholders as required. The documentation brings together all the measures we have in place in a way that will make any future independent audit very much easier if we need one. We don’t have cyber insurance currently, but I expect that if we decided to pursue that, the certification would also be looked on favourably by prospective insurers and give us a useful way of demonstrating our seriousness about cyber security.”
The benefits
Nuffield have benefited greatly from the move to ramsac, with the problems they experienced with their previous supplier gone and an infrastructure that works for them and not against them.
“The customer service level from the helpdesk is very good, we have not had one complaint from a user here about customer service issues, so that’s a great improvement. Also we feel we have a partner that can get our systems to where we want them to be. It has opened up a lot of possibilities for our infrastructure that we just couldn’t do before because we didn’t have a partner that would help us achieve those. It’s been a huge improvement, and we would definitely recommend ramsac to other organisations.”
