At-A-Glance
Customer:
SPCA Tampa Bay
Industry:
Animal welfare
Challenge:
Providing support for Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and other PC applications for 100 employees across two campuses 12 miles apart while maintaining end-user laptop, desktop, and kiosk hardware in a cost-effective manner.
SPCA Tampa Bay realized, as many organizations do, that its business needs IT, but its work cannot be consumed by IT. AS SPCA Tampa Bay continues to grow and expand, IT must grow and expand with it, yet not overwhelm it. Without strong IT support, maintaining servers, applications, networks, and desktops can be all-consuming to a business that cannot ever lose sight of its mission.
The SPCA was struggling to provide support for Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and other PC applications for 100 employees across two campuses 12 miles apart, all while maintaining and endlessly refreshing end-user laptop, desktop, and kiosk hardware in a cost-effective manner. Critical applications supporting its donor database, shelter animal management system and veterinary client records required varying types of IT infrastructure, frustrating users, and complicating technical support. Hardware requirements grew as the needs of the organization grew. Purchasing and maintaining server and network hardware became increasingly more costly.
These are large expenses for any midsize enterprise, but especially for a non-profit like an animal welfare organization.
CenterGrid worked directly in partnership with SPCA Tampa Bay to document their pain points in providing IT to their employees, customers, and donors. The leadership team wanted IT outcomes that would let them focus their time and money where it belongs: on delivering the SPCA’s mission to the community. It was determined that moving their business applications to the CenterGrid Compass cloud solution was the right answer. A very cost-effective way to remove the burden of server and network maintenance and expense, this solution would also improve service reliability and security for the organization.
To reduce the budget required for PC hardware and maintenance, SPCA users were migrated from PCs running Windows 10 to virtual desktops running Windows 10 in the CenterGrid Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) cloud solution. These desktops are always available, always secured and patched up-to-date by CenterGrid, while providing lightning-fast access to the business applications hosted for SPCA Tampa Bay in the Compass cloud infrastructure in the same data center. Replacing PCs with Google Chromebook computers offered a low-cost, low-maintenance, flexible alternative for SPCA users while still providing the familiar Windows 10 experience.
“CenterGrid made the move to a virtual environment incredibly smooth. They listened to our feedback during testing, created a thoughtful implementation plan and made themselves available wherever and whenever we needed them.”
Martha Boden | CEO
