UNCOVERING THE LAYERS
and although traffic was significantly up,
we didn’t encounter any of the issues
across the site that we had in the past.
The platform also remains available every
minute of the day, along with customer
support in case something goes wrong
outside of normal working hours.
We’ve also seen additional benefits in
recruitment, with an industry-leading
platform that makes it easier to attract
and retain the talent we need to make our
ambitions a reality. It’s the first time we’ve
had IT and digital working together, with
Rackspace leading the way, setting up all
sorts of possibilities for further business
benefits in the future.
How has the team adapted to a
different mindset and what does
this involve?
The role of technology and innovation
across the organisation is shifting to
underpin our business strategy.
With our IT set-up moving from being a
service provider to a core part of how we
achieve our objectives, we have been able
to adopt a different mindset across the
team and wider business – something we
have learnt from Rackspace’s culture and
how it delivers innovation.
Rackspace has and is continuing to
operate as an extension of the British
Heart Foundation team. The Professional
Services team provided us with advice,
support and guidance on the right ways
to deploy the cloud, transforming the role
technology plays in the organisation.
64
Issue 11
How has the system improved
efficiency for the end-user?
Not only have we benefited from
Rackspace’s technical expertise, we have
also learnt from its mission to always
provide a fanatical experience to its
customers. This has helped us achieve one
of the key goals of our IT transformation:
delivering a positive user experience for all
stakeholders – both those helping us reach
our aim of ending heartbreak by 2030 and
those who are benefiting from it.
One way that we’ve delivered on this goal
has been through our website, which
has improved the website availability
and online experience for volunteers
and donors. It is also something we are
looking to develop by further tailoring the
user journey for different stakeholders.
We want to introduce personalisation
technology to provide individualised
content and information to carers or those
affected by heart disease, for example.
Ultimately, this will ensure that all our
stakeholders are having a relevant and
useful experience.
How far has the system future-
proofed the organisation?
The migration was always about providing
a future-proofed platform to support
our 2030 strategy and the reliable
infrastructure has opened up a number
of new possibilities. We’re going to be
pushing a lot more traffic through the
website in the coming months and years,
and we’re reassured it will be able to
perform optimally. The new, expandable
platform is also helping us think of new
ways of helping patients via digital
technologies, using data analytics and
patient insights.
While the new site is reliable and scalable,
we understand it is just the first step in
keeping on top of advances in technology.
The user experience is becoming
increasingly digital and we need to make
sure we are using our online presence
to better engage with our stakeholders,
supporters and beneficiaries. We’re
looking at Platform-as-a-Service with
Rackspace, which will help us be more
agile, more scalable and more stable. It’s
ongoing and it’s the way we can best use
technology to reach our targets. ◊
A TRUE
PARTNERSHIP
HAS BEEN
FORMED WITH
THE RACKSPACE
PROFESSIONAL
SERVICES TEAM
WHO HAVE
SUPPORTED
US AT EVERY
STEP OF THE
PROCESS.
www.intelligentdatacentres.com