Business overview
Absolutely Together is a brilliant charity with the wonderful aim of putting smiles on faces.
Absolutely Together provides free leisure activities for families of children and young adults with additional needs. Its programmes include bowling, karting, inclusive climbing, gym access and other experiences that families can enjoy together.
Absolutely Together also partners with local SEND schools, providing free access to its facilities and activities. Through its specially adapted go-karts, children and young people can experience the excitement of driving with as much or as little control as they are comfortable with.
The charity’s leisure venues cover their own staffing and support costs, which means that all money raised through Absolutely Together can go directly towards its projects.
We first met members of the Absolutely Together team at a business event in 2019, and it quickly became clear that our values and approach to business were closely aligned.
We have been working together ever since.
The challenge
Absolutely Together needed to keep their teams connected across six locations, but their existing network had become more complicated and expensive than it needed to be.
They had been using the same MPLS wide area network, or WAN, for several years. This network connected their different sites and allowed teams to access shared services and information.
Absolutely Together wanted to find out whether a different approach could provide the same level of functionality and reliability, while reducing their ongoing costs.
Their phone system also needed attention. They wanted one modern system that would make communication between teams and locations easier.
As a charity, cost was naturally an important consideration. Absolutely Together needed to know their funds were being used carefully and that they were only paying for services they genuinely needed.
The team was also thinking ahead. Any new setup needed to make it easier to connect additional locations as the charity grew.
Why Absolutely Together chose us
Our relationship with Absolutely Together began through shared values and business coaching rather than a cold sales conversation.
The team already knew that we understood their organisation and the responsibility that comes with spending charitable funds. They could trust us to recommend what they needed without adding unnecessary services or complexity.
We took the time to understand how each location worked before putting together our recommendations. We also offered Absolutely Together a charity discount, helping them get the right setup at a price that worked for them.
The solution
We worked closely with Absolutely Together’s CEO and Director of Facilities to review their existing network and phone system.
Rather than replacing their MPLS network with another complex solution, we designed a simpler alternative that still gave every site reliable access to the services they needed.
We also replaced their existing phone setup with one hosted system covering all six locations.
A simpler network
We built a secure site to site VPN network using Cisco infrastructure to connect Absolutely Together’s sites.
Each location was given an internet connection that suited how the site operated. Teams could still access shared resources held at head office through the site to site VPNs, whilst traffic to the internet broke out locally, rather than travelling through one central location.
Three locations were also given a mobile backup connection. If there is a problem with the main connection, the backup helps the team stay online while the issue is resolved.
One phone system across six locations
We rolled out a single cloud-based phone system across all six sites.
This brought the charity’s communications together under one system, making it easier for teams to manage calls and stay in touch between locations.
New users and sites can also be added more easily as Absolutely Together continues to grow.
Safer public Wi-Fi
Some of Absolutely Together’s venues provide Wi-Fi for visitors, including families and young people.
We introduced web content filtering at selected locations to block access to inappropriate websites and give the charity more control over what could be accessed through their public network.
The benefits
Absolutely Together now has a simpler network and one phone system connecting their teams across all six locations.
The new setup has helped them:
- Reduce their ongoing network and communication costs
- Keep sites connected, with mobile backup at selected locations
- Make communication between teams and venues easier
- Improve the safety of their public Wi-Fi
- Add new users and locations more easily
The team no longer has to manage an unnecessarily complicated network or separate phone arrangements across different sites.
As Absolutely Together grows, new locations can be connected more quickly and affordably. Their team can spend less time worrying about technology and more time creating experiences for the families they support.
We are proud to support Absolutely Together and work with an organisation whose values align so closely with our own.
Xoomtalk delivered exactly what we needed: a highly secure, reliable network that keeps our multi-site charity seamlessly connected. They stripped away the unnecessary complexities of our old provider, upgraded our capabilities and gave us total peace of mind regarding our public Wi-Fi safety.
By combining exceptional service with our shared values and dedicated charity pricing, they’ve ensured our technology acts as a true enabler for our mission, giving us more time to focus on making smiles and creating lasting memories. I couldn’t recommend them highly enough.
Greg Sinclair
CEO and founder of Absolutely Together
