The budget did little to alter the economic outlook and the sector is still facing very tough times. In NCVO's latest Charity Forecast survey, 90% of respondents claimed they expected the voluntary sector's financial fortunes to worsen over the next year. However, a third of charities also expect to increase the number of services they offer this year and the majority intend to collaborate with other organisations.

The sector has the unenviable task of working out how it will deliver more with less – with fewer resources, less money and potentially more cuts on the way. So how can organisations collaborate with partners in the optimum way and share systems and data securely?

One way that charities could achieve these key goals is to move their existing IT infrastructure into the cloud. The growth in cloud computing adoption is being led largely by the private sector, but many charities are beginning to embrace this technology because of the obvious money savings, increased work efficiencies and the greater flexibility it affords.

From a business perspective, one of the biggest plus points for any organisation moving to cloud computing is that they will no longer need to buy or maintain expensive and energy-draining servers. IT administration, including licensing issues, software updates and IT security management, will all be taken care of by the cloud computing provider. Removing this administrative burden will allow charities to concentrate on their core business and be more productive.

Cloud computing also enables a dispersed workforce to work effectively and allows easy collaboration with partners. Many charities have workers based around the country, including volunteers and project workers. These employees often need access to their systems and a hosted desktop service, based on cloud computing technology, enables them to access their desktop from any location, radically improving how some charities work.

Career Academies UK is a business education charity founded in 2002. It supports the movement of more than 1,000 employers and 130 schools and colleges, to raise the aspirations of 16- to 19-year-olds. Students follow a rigorous two-year programme alongside a curriculum equivalent to at least three A-levels, enabling them to progress to higher education or the world of work. When the charity was set up, the employees were given very limited access to the building's IT systems, which worked well at the time.

The organisation has grown considerably over the years and there are now 26 employees including several regional managers based around the UK (including Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales). With the incumbent system, the regional workforce found it difficult to work productively using the remote service in place. For example, if they needed to access any information they would have to call the head office and ask for it to be emailed to them, which was time consuming and inefficient. Last year, the company moved all its IT systems to a Workplacelive hosted desktop solution. Now everyone can access the system and their emails remotely, the employees in London can work from home and the IT is being used consistently, with everyone using the same software versions, making them more efficient and productive.

Another organisation that is benefiting from moving to hosted desktops is Catch22. The charity delivers more than a hundred services in over 150 locations to support young people who have had problems with substance misuse, the criminal justice system, entry to employment and education or leaving care services.

Prior to moving into the private cloud, Catch22 had no real control over its corporate IT network as it worked with a series of small local networks with limited services that offered no disaster recovery or business continuity. The charity wanted to provide standardised IT access for all employees and the highest levels of security to ensure data was protected at all times. With nearly 800 employees located around the UK, it needed flexibility. The cloud computing solution provided the most effective, stable, affordable and reliable system, which suited the needs of the charity and all its employees.

The transition process to Workplacelive took two weeks and in that time the HR, finance and payroll systems were all moved over to the cloud system.

The organisation now has greater control over IT expenditure and managers are confident their data is stored, backed up and secure. Licensing management had always been a problem for the charity, specifically when software had to be licensed for individual machines across the country. Now Workplacelive manages that.

The charity is also benefiting from more flexible working arrangements, as staff can now access their desktops either from home or on site. It has also meant that the organisation can move to the latest software and share data between different teams at different ends of the country. On the whole, it has made the charity a more uniform organisation and created a closer rapport between colleagues around the UK.

David Sturges is the chief executive of Workplacelive

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