How Connect It All manages mobile connectivity for 500+ support workers across Yorkshire and the North East

Inspire North supports vulnerable residents across Yorkshire and the North East. They have a distributed workforce of over five hundred support workers.

Staff work in vulnerable and sometimes unsafe conditions. Reliable mobile connectivity is essential for their safety and service delivery.

Inspire North have been working with Steve and his teams for almost a decade. In that time, the relationship has grown to meet Inspire North’s evolving needs across their expanding service areas.

The challenge

Managing over 500 devices created operational chaos.

Before working with Connect It All, managing mobile devices at this scale looked, in their own words, “very chaotic.”

It was previously managed by Inspire North’s central services team. Two data and systems coordinators were handling an overwhelming range of responsibilities.

Daily mobile management included:

• Sending out new devices to staff across Yorkshire and the North East
• Ensuring each mobile had the correct apps configured to the support worker’s role
• Processing returns from departing employees
• Managing SIM card distribution and activation
• Getting damaged devices from field workers back to head office for repair or replacement

The stakes were high. Support workers can’t be without connectivity when working with vulnerable residents. Any delay created serious safety concerns and service disruption.

Mobile device management pulled focus away from other critical IT responsibilities. Support requests and other projects but kept getting pushed aside for mobile firefighting.

The solution

Connect It All manages Inspire North’s SIMs and hardware. We also work alongside other suppliers to create an efficient, reliable process:

• Simple request handling: Inspire North has an online form that service managers can complete. The Central Services Team (CST) forwards it straight to Connect It All, who handle everything – from order to delivery.
• Proactive device planning: Steve and his team keep Inspire North updated with the latest mobile versions and models. Inspire North stays ahead of device lifecycle requirements.
• Direct service relationships: Connect It All has built direct relationships with Inspire North’s other supplies. Bottlenecks have reduced, since services can contact them directly for ad-hoc support.
• Understanding urgency: When support workers need devices, they need them immediately. The team responds with the speed that vulnerable-sector fieldwork demands.

As Inspire North puts it: “We receive a request, send it straight over to Connect It All, and they deal with the rest from there.”

The results

Mobile device management is no longer an operational burden to Inspire North. After working with Connect It All for so many years, service reliability has improved.

Process improvements

• Streamlined ordering: Mobile phone ordering and replacements now follows an efficient process
• Faster delivery: Services receive mobile devices quicker
• Enhanced reliability: Mobile devices and connectivity are more stable across its user base

Time and focus recovered

Before, Inspire North’s CST had two data and systems coordinators managing mobile devices. Since the work with Connect It All began, mobile device management has become “a bit of a back burner”. Not because it’s less important. It no longer requires constant firefighting due to Connect It All’s management.

The team is now able to concentrate on other IT issues. Support requests and projects are no longer competing for attention with mobile management. Their CMS inbox – where all IT requests land – is no longer dominated by mobile device problems.

Service delivery impact

Inspire North’s support team can focus on their vital work with vulnerable residents. Their communications infrastructure won’t let them down. The urgency of getting devices sorted is now matched by the speed of Connect It All’s response.

As Simon Powell, Head of IT & Performance at Inspire North reflects:

“Having the support from Connect It All to manage our devices for all services has improved the process significantly. Services have mobiles a lot quicker. They’re a lot more reliable… Given that we are the IT and performance team for the whole organisation, the fact that we have Steve and his team heavily managing this area of mobile devices, it just means we can get onto other projects.”

A working partnership that grows with your business

After working with Inspire North for almost a decade, and Simon and the current Central Services Team for over five and a half years, our support has evolved in-line with Inspire North’s needs. We understand the human impact on supporting more than 500 support workers, and the technical requirements.

We bring the same urgency and reliability whether you manage fifty devices or five hundred.

If you’d like to find out more about how we could support your organisation’s mobile connectivity, get in touch today.