Flexible IT Support for Zoos, Wildlife Parks & Aquariums

Adaptability – More than fixing things that break, sometimes you need advice, someone to take a strategic look at technology within your business to make sure you make sensible decisions, it’s so easy to sign up for a service or buy a piece of hardware only to find that it isn’t compatible with your existing setup. You may not be able to define exactly what support you will need so the last thing you want to hear is ’we don’t cover that’ so an open flexible arrangement reduces the stress and pain of these situations.

Technical Expertise – We’ve worked with a range of different clients ranging from small to large and we take the technical knowledge gained from one client and build upon that to implement better systems to all clients. It’s easy for an internal IT team to only have experience on your setup, this is great for knowing how to fix things when they go wrong but also means they won’t have experience of doing things differently and understanding the benefits and opportunities that can bring. Even a small IT Service provider can have recent experience of hundreds of different organisations seeing things done well (and sometimes things done badly) and with each experience the teams knowledge grows. To buy this array of experience into an Internal IT team would require a large team with a high turnover rate.

Business Alignment – As well as the technical expertise we delve a little deeper to understand a client and gain industry specific knowledge.

Our previous experience with Zoos, Wildlife Parks and Aquariums means we understand the diverse nature of technology used and the importance each one represents.

Common Systems We Encounter:
Catering Software
EPOS
Membership Software
Ticketing System – Patronage
Fund raising – Raisers Edge
Artefacts – Education/Room Booking
ZIMS – zoological information management system

We look to understand the business challenges faced and discuss these with you and offering option how technology can benefit you and help with these challenges.

Common Business Challenges We Encounter:
Audience/Revenue peaks and troughs
Keeping audience updated with performance schedule (Email/Social Media)
High Operating Costs
Low Paid staff or volunteers with mixed technical ability
Network/internet reliability.
Email (newsletter) deliverability rates.

We speak your language, we know the importance of memberships and ticket types, we understand the importance of Gene Databases and breeding programs which you would normally only get with an internal IT department and not a Managed Service provider or IT services provider.

Proactive Approach – Our NOC (Network Operations Centre) provide management of your devices, network, and systems. Checking to see they are up and running and also, they have system resources available. The NOC team also keep the devices up to date, so they are running optimally and securely.

Continuous Improvement – We have an expanding technical knowledgebase, when we fix something, we document it so when the next person deals with a similar issue it will be quicker.

Scalability – Continually monitoring people resources is just as important as the tech resources. Knowing when things are getting too busy to cope is important. Finding technical people isn’t hard, but finding good people is incredibly hard, not just the technical expertise but the kind of people who want to learn and develop as well as providing a good service. We implement processes, documentation and standards that mean if we need to add people it’s a well-oiled process. What this means to you is that if you grow rapidly the Tech and IT team can grow rapidly with you

Security – Implementing Security is standard, like handling sensitive information, passwords and detailed information about your network. As well as severing information managing a central security platform with proactive checks and alerting means your network, your systems and devices are monitored and managed.

Productivity – When your teams technology breaks every minute they spend troubleshooting or waiting for it to be fixed is lost productivity and often lost revenue. Fixing things in a timely manner from a responsive IT Support provider can mean the difference between critical systems running and not. Pick one of your most critical systems, maybe the EPOS system, and work out how much that would cost you to be without for an hour. This will help calculate the value of a good IT Support provider. As well as timely fixes keeping your team productive, we also believe in teaching your team how to use their technology tools more effectively. We do this through a variety of methods including our Workshops where one of our training will take you through a technology or system.

Vendor Management – Dealing with vendors such as Internet Service Providers (ISP’s), software vendors can be challenging, they often speak a different language that a non-technical person may not understand so working through any technical issues is difficult without a translator. Worse still, the vendor will only be considering a fix for their product without realising or considering the consequences to other systems you use. A good versatile IT partner or internal team will manage the engagement with vendors from the viewpoint of your best interests.