Exponential-e has been selected by Gloucester City Homes to deliver cloud and networking services to support its move towards becoming a ‘digital-first’ organisation. Exponential-e will use its 100-gig Ethernet network to deliver a virtual desktop infrastructure that gives the housing provider’s employees access to a persistent, personal desktop from any device or location.
Since all services are delivered down a single piece of fibre, Gloucester City Homes has the flexibility to easily scale or adapt its infrastructure to meet changing needs. In addition, Exponential-e provides constant managed service support and security assurance so that Gloucester City Homes doesn’t need to invest large amounts of resources to manage the system.
Lesley Williams, head of IT, Gloucester City Homes, said, “In a short space of time, we’ve already seen the benefits that a secure and stable infrastructure delivers. Staff can now move from a desk to a meeting room to home and pick up their desktop in exactly the same state as they left it. This makes a huge difference and gives us an opportunity to deliver better services.
“For example, we recently underwent a programme where our 5,200 tenants needed to renew their tenancy agreements as part of our separation from the council. Previously, this would have been a manual, paper-based process. However, the flexibility of the infrastructure means we’ve been able to use a combination of smartphones and laptops to run events that allow tenants to refresh their agreements from designated locations throughout the city, something that was more convenient for our tenants and enabled more efficient processing for us.”
Lee Wade, CEO, Exponential-e, said, “Since its foundation in 2005, Gloucester City Homes has undergone a massive amount of change. It has successfully transitioned from operating as an arm’s length management organisation with all its ICT infrastructure and services being provided by the local council to an independent body with complex back-office demands controlling everything from renewing tenancy agreements to managing broken drains.”
