Ruah Community Services is a not for profit organization with over 7 sites within WA with over 200 staff. See their Vision, Mission and Values statement.
VISION: Flourishing communities through active participation and wellbeing of people with complex needs.
MISSION: Empowering vulnerable and disadvantaged people to create meaningful change in their lives through provision of quality support services. VALUES: The core values that are embedded into Ruah’s ways of working, and which the organisation exemplifies in all its activities, are:
VISION: Flourishing communities through active participation and wellbeing of people with complex needs.
MISSION: Empowering vulnerable and disadvantaged people to create meaningful change in their lives through provision of quality support services. VALUES: The core values that are embedded into Ruah’s ways of working, and which the organisation exemplifies in all its activities, are:
- Respect: A high regard for the value and worth of each person and the natural world, in all our practices and interactions.
- Grassroots: A hands-on approach to pursuing social justice in the community by responding to needs and aspirations in practical ways.
- Partnership: a commitment to working with all stakeholders for the common good.
- Integrity: the pursuit of honesty, ethical practice, trustworthiness and accountability in all interactions.
- Creativity: an openness to and exploration into innovative ideas and possibilities.
Ruah Community Services had a very high IT infrastructure. This was due to expensive IT equipment such as servers and IT appliances required to manage the local infrastructure. Ruah engaged Protocol IT to conduct an IT audit in March 2016. It was discovered during the audit that Ruah relied on local servers to manage their data, email and account, HR and payroll data. Management and maintenance of these blew out operational costs
Taking it account that Ruah has multiple offices and always have a need to setup new offices in short notice, Protocol IT recommended that their systems be migrated into a full true cloud.
Technologies used were:
Microsoft Office 365
Email
Their existing email system was migrated to Office 365. This reduced the need for a dedicated Exchange server manage emails. It also reduced data storage on local server.
SharePoint Online
Several SharePoint sites were created on the Office 365 cloud. Their Information Management System (IMS) was created on this platform. This allowed stakeholders to manage all forms, policies and procedures access by users Data previously stored on local servers we migrated to SharePoint online. This once again reduced the need to have large data storage on local servers. As the SharePoint environment is a managed platform, files stored there could be easily managed by staff and their managers.
HR, Accounting and Payroll (HR21)
The HR, Accounting and Payroll suite was migrated to the cloud managed by the accounting software provider. By doing this the local SQL server was decommissioned. This removed the reliance on local hardware and data storage.
Carelink+
As Ruah provide NDIS and CHSP programs for the community, Carelink+ was used as their CRM package. Carelink+ did not have a full cloud solution. However, they did have a we based portal for user access. In light of this, the Carelink+ database was migrated to Azure. By doing this the software was no longer reliant on local servers or hardware.
Technologies used were:
Microsoft Office 365
Their existing email system was migrated to Office 365. This reduced the need for a dedicated Exchange server manage emails. It also reduced data storage on local server.
SharePoint Online
Several SharePoint sites were created on the Office 365 cloud. Their Information Management System (IMS) was created on this platform. This allowed stakeholders to manage all forms, policies and procedures access by users Data previously stored on local servers we migrated to SharePoint online. This once again reduced the need to have large data storage on local servers. As the SharePoint environment is a managed platform, files stored there could be easily managed by staff and their managers.
HR, Accounting and Payroll (HR21)
The HR, Accounting and Payroll suite was migrated to the cloud managed by the accounting software provider. By doing this the local SQL server was decommissioned. This removed the reliance on local hardware and data storage.
Carelink+
As Ruah provide NDIS and CHSP programs for the community, Carelink+ was used as their CRM package. Carelink+ did not have a full cloud solution. However, they did have a we based portal for user access. In light of this, the Carelink+ database was migrated to Azure. By doing this the software was no longer reliant on local servers or hardware.
- Fast access to data folders regardless of which country the user resides
- Business Grade email system without the cost of expensive on-premise servers and related hardware
- Always up to date with versions of the Microsoft Office suite
- Simple secure access to all other software suites including HR21 and Carelink+
- BYOD (Bring your Own Device) was possible without compromising data security and integrity