4 min read
A national care group supporting vulnerable adults with complex needs across residential, supported living, and specialist brain injury services. The organisation operates multiple sites across England with care staff working in the community on company-owned devices.
Service: Managed IT Care sub-sector: Residential, supported living, specialist care
When COVID-19 hit, businesses across the UK shut their doors. Care doesn't stop for a pandemic. The people this care group supports, adults with complex needs, depended on continuity of service every single day.
The organisation needed to onboard new staff remotely while existing teams adapted to rapidly changing safety protocols. The head office became a logistics hub for PPE and COVID testing kits that needed to reach frontline workers across the country. Devices needed to be secured and managed at a distance. Everything needed to happen quickly, safely, and within existing budgets.
Then there was the device management problem. The previous IT provider had assured the business that all company devices were enrolled and compliant. During our audit, we discovered this wasn't true. A significant number of phones and tablets being used by care staff in the community were completely unmanaged. No security policies, no remote wipe capability, no compliance baseline. At a time when remote working had become the default, this was a serious exposure.
We stepped up as part of the team. Not just as an IT provider, but as whatever the organisation needed to keep care running.
On the technology side, we carried out a full device enrolment programme through Microsoft Intune. Every company-owned phone, tablet, and laptop was enrolled, secured, and brought into compliance. Much of this work happened during evenings and weekends to avoid disrupting care staff during their shifts. We weren't willing to ask a support worker to pause their day so we could configure their phone, so we worked around their schedule instead.
We created clear, illustrated documentation for non-technical staff: step-by-step guides for connecting to Wi-Fi, setting up Microsoft Defender, and getting started on new devices, so that care workers in the community could follow along without needing someone from IT beside them.
Beyond technology, we attended the head office to help coordinate PPE distribution and COVID testing kit logistics. We assisted with desk moves as the office adapted for social distancing. We supported the onboarding of new employees during a period of rapid recruitment. None of this sat within our IT contract, but it needed doing and we were there.
No additional charges were raised. No contract adjustments. No invoices for out-of-hours work. Care came first.
The care group continued to deliver uninterrupted care to every client throughout the pandemic. New staff were onboarded, trained, and deployed. Devices were secured. Communication kept flowing between office and community.
The device management deployment that was accelerated by necessity became a permanent foundation of the organisation's security posture. Every device is now centrally managed, compliant, and protected. A baseline that continues to serve the organisation today.
The documentation created for staff during this period reduced the ongoing support burden for routine tasks. Care workers who had never needed to think about IT security now had simple, clear guides they could follow without anxiety.
This period showed what partnership means in practice. When the situation demanded more than managed IT, we were there. Because care providers shouldn't have to worry about whether their technology partner will show up when things get difficult.
Uninterrupted care throughout COVID-19 · Full device management deployed out of hours · On-site PPE and logistics support · New staff onboarded remotely · No additional charges
Related service: Managed IT