Laying foundations for the future of Cats Protection

Cats Protection is the UK’s largest feline welfare charity, helping an average of 157,000 cats and kittens every year. Since it was first formed in 1927, the charity has rehomed over two million cats and helped many more, surviving war and recession thanks to the dedication and commitment of employees and volunteers. Today, in addition to the flagship adoption centre and administration offices in Chelwood Gate, Sussex, Cats Protection comprises a network of over 210 volunteer branches, 130 retail shops, and 34 adoption centres.

The Board of Trustees is committed to ensuring the continued resilience and success of Cats Protection, and recognises that utilising the right technology is critical to achieving this. Their digital strategy includes migration to the cloud, enabling security by design, improving support for third-party integrations, and becoming fully mobile enabled. However, to achieve this, the organisation first needed the right network infrastructure from which to build.

The challenge

• The varied and disparate nature of Cats Protection sites throughout the country (including retail sites, administration offices, and adoption centres) made network management challenging, with the responsibility often falling to on-site staff to report and help diagnose problems. This could lead to extended periods of network downtime at some sites, which were then unable to operate. The charity wanted to improve observability across all sites nationwide.
• Cats Protection required reliable Wi-Fi coverage that could ensure a consistently high-quality customer experience across their portfolio, and continue to enable the ‘hands-free homing’ service in adoption centres, using e-documents to facilitate adoptions. This was difficult given the remote location of some sites, and the need to provide multiple devices with guest access to a secure, reliable service.
• Due to the inconsistency of the architecture between sites, any network upgrades had to be carried out manually. This was a time-consuming process for the IT team, with so many different sites to manage, and the network had become complex and difficult to maintain. The charity needed to simplify network management across all sites.
• Limited IT resource stretched nationwide meant that the Cats Protection team found their time consumed by reacting to incidents, and were reliant on multiple vendors for remote support. The team wanted greater visibility and control, and to free up time to implement and continue to improve the charity’s digital strategy.
• Although it was clear that network upgrades were vital for future growth, any new solutions needed to demonstrate value for money as the charity is funded by supporter donations, and has a duty to manage costs carefully.

Outcomes

• ITGL designed and configured a solution that could be implemented consistently across the many Cats Protection sites nationwide, despite the varied nature of the existing buildings and infrastructure.
• Due to the varied nature of sites, interesting design challenges were overcome, such as installing chrome poles to mount APs above floating desks to ensure a practical and aesthetically pleasing structure was achieved in affected retail premises.
• The Cisco Meraki network solution gives the Cats Protection team centralised management and observability across their sites, with insight into full network usage, traffic, devices, and applications through a single-pane-of-glass dashboard. Any issues can be diagnosed more quickly, reducing network downtime and the associated loss of income.
• The new Meraki network and SD-WAN has improved bandwidth and network performance, creating reliable Wi-Fi coverage wherever needed. In adoption centres, where footfall is highest, higher connection speeds provided by Wi-Fi 6 and utilisation of Splash Access also ensure seamless guest access and a consistent customer experience, making the donation and/or adoption process simple and flexible.
• The solution is also flexible and scalable, with the ability to securely add new devices as needed, and will support the future adoption of cloud services.
• Roll-out of upgrades is now automated across all premises, giving Cats Protection the reassurance that their full suite of adoption and retail sites are consistently updated.
• With improved observability and the increase in information available to the Cats Protection team, the charity has the ability to consistently explore cost savings, and evidence value for money to the Board of Trustees. Value is realised through the consolidation of existing technology, increased operational efficiencies, and improved functionality.

The Cats Protection team is now confident that they have a network that is not just fit-for-purpose but future-proof. With these foundations laid, Cats Protection can proactively manage and develop their digital strategy, continuously improving the user experience across their sites nationwide.

Services and Solutions

• Cisco Meraki
• Cisco ISE Advantage
• Cisco Umbrella Essentials
• Splash Access
• Integral Services

“ITGL was very diligent whilst working with us and our Microsoft Partners as we all worked together to design, implement, test, and go live with the new solution that will support our business for years to come. ITGL is a key partner for Cats Protection and we highly value their consultancy, design, implementation, and support services.”

Stephen Godfrey, Infrastructure Solutions Architect, Cats Protection