Oasis Domestic Abuse

Case Study

THE ORGANISATION

Oasis has been working to support people affected by abuse for over 25 years. In this time, Oasis has developed guiding principles that shape the way we work. At the front and centre of our work is a client-first, recovery-focused approach

THE CHALLENGE

Oasis is one of Qlic longest standing clients. Their existing infrastructure is server based and the server was coming to end of life and needed replacing. The organisation also needed to implement best practice for GDPR.

Oasis had recently fallen on hard times due a drop-in government funding and several difficult internal changes and therefore available funding for any upgrades to their infrastructure was minimal.

OUR APPROACH

Qlic, being familiar with the charity and the way they work, recommended that Oasis apply for the National Lottery Awards for All funding. The Big Lottery Fund offers grants between ÂŁ300 and ÂŁ10,000 to support charities and not-for-profit who deliver services that matter to people and communities.

The funding can cover:

  • equipment
  • one-off events
  • small capital projects
  • staff costs
  • training costs
  • transport
  • utilities/running costs
  • volunteer expenses.

National Lottery Awards for All has three funding priorities. The funding must also meet at least one of these priorities:

  • bringing people together and building strong relationships in and across communities
  • improving the places and spaces that matter to communities
  • enabling more people to fulfil their potential by working to address issues at the earliest possible stage.

Using our knowledge of both the charity  and the funding programme Qlic met with Oasis to discuss what solution was best for their organisation. The recommendation involved changing how they worked and moving them across to SharePoint. This recommendation not only had significant advantages over their current server-based solution in terms of remote working, it was also a significant step towards meeting the GDPR guidelines.

Qlic also advised that Oasis should get Cyber Essentials Certified, a Government backed cyber security initiative, which provides five security controls that, according to the UK government, could prevent around “85% of cyber-attacks”. Part of this would involve installing a Sophos UTM (Unified Threat Management) which would offer all in one protection for their network, wireless, email and devices.

THE WORK

Having provided Oasis with all the recommendations and details they needed, they went away and put their funding proposal together. Their proposal included:

  • the name of their project
  • when the project will start (which needed to be at least 12 weeks from when they submitted their application)
  • where their project will take place
  • all the costs involved in their project
  • whether their project targets a specific group of people and, if so, who.

Qlic provided support throughout the process and reviewed and edited the final bid in March.

The funding bid was successful and was approved in June. Qlic are now ready to implement the full solution for Oasis with all works completed by early September.

KEY OUTCOMES

TESTIMONIAL

"With GDPR on the horizon, and with a growing requirement in our sector for peripatetic working, we needed to secure funding to overhaul and better secure our IT infrastructure. In February 2018, on Qlic’s suggestion and with their support, we made an application to Big Lottery’s Awards For All scheme for the sum of £10,000.00. Adam’s guidance on our bid was honest, smart and straightforward, identifying ways to strengthen our application, from changes of emphases to full redrafts and he supported us through each step of the application process. We were duly awarded the full £10,000.00 and the improvements we’ve been able to make have greatly extended the mobility and reach of our service, and the integrity and efficiency of our systems.
Great service!"
Alex Collier, Business Improvement Officer
Oasis Domestic Abuse Servie

Get in Touch

Please fill in the form below and we will get back to you shortly.

Get a Quote

Please fill in the form below and we will get back to you shortly.

Book Your Free IT Consultation

We offer free IT advice and consultancy to all organisations. Let us know what you’re interested in below so we can book your free IT consultation.