Kirsty Weakley reports on MNDA's new firewall and switching network, as well as the rest of this month's technology new business wins.

The Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association has upgraded its firewall and switching network to new Cisco technology to support a planned expansion in the number of staff at the charity.

The charity was one of the main beneficiaries of last year’s ice bucket challenge viral fundraising craze, which saw people donate more than £7.1m to the charity. It plans to use most of the money to set up two major research projects.

MND Association appointed Managed 24/7 to carry out an onsite review, which identified a number of problems with its existing infrastructure. It has now decided existing Cisco hardware and use Managed 24/7’s predictive monitoring IT support service. This should improve the network’s overall performance and help it to cope with future expansion and the increase in demands on its bandwidth.

Simon Cooper, head of ICT at the charity, said: “Unfortunately we came to a point where we no longer felt we had the right level of skills or the bandwidth internally to monitor our network activity as effectively as we need to.”

The charity invited a few service providers to pitch before appointing Managed 24/7 to design the new solution, implement it and provide ongoing monitoring and management.

Cooper added: “We have been working full time with Managed 24/7 since May 2015 and although we are in the early stages of development, our experience to date has been great. The team has listened and worked closely with staff and importantly has been flexible in fitting into our existing projects.

“Due to its accreditations, Cisco Gold partnership and ethos of using predictive analytics to identify any potential network issues before they happen, we have the confidence that Managed 24/7 has the right level of expertise to help support us.”

IT new business wins

Arthritis Research UK

Supplier: e3

e3 has won a three-year contract to manage and develop Arthritis Research UK's digital presence, which will be developed using the Sitecore content management system.

Barnardo's

Supplier: We are Friday

Barnardo's has appointed a digital agency, We Are Friday, to design and deliver a digital transformation strategy. The charity is due to launch a new corporate strategy in early 2016 when it celebrates its 150th anniversary.

Blackburne House 

Supplier: Advanced Computer Software

Education and training charity Blackburne House has installed student management software from Compas Computer Consultants, part of Advanced Computer Software Group, that will help it monitor students and courses.

Doctors of the World

Supplier: Impero

International aid charity, Doctors of the World, worked with digital agency Impero to create a real-time visualisation of positive things being tweeted by the public about refugees and migrants.

Dream Factory

Supplier: Hungry Sheep Website Design

The Essex-based children's charity, which helps children and young people with lifelimiting conditions, has launched a new website with Hungry Sheep Website Design. The new site is mobile-friendly and enables people to donate online.

University of London

Supplier: Blackbaud

The University of London's new development office has chosen the Blackbaud customer-relationship management system to help it grow alumni relations. The university hopes it can build more personal approaches to alumni relations and provide more targeted communications.

Viridian Housing

Supplier: Diligent Boards

The housing association has started using software from Diligent Boards to make information for board meetings available via iPads. This will reduce the need for printouts and make sure that everyone has the most up-to-date version.