The client

St Clare Hospice is a well-established charitable organisation serving the community around Harlow, London, and beyond.  

With approximately 200 users across their primary hospice site and several charity shops, the hospice provides vital care and support services.  

The challenge

When we began working with St Clare Hospice in 2019, the organisation was facing significant challenges with its previous MSP. The support provided was inconsistent and lacked strategic direction, causing operational strain. As a primarily on-premise environment, the hospice and their brick-and-mortar shops required dependable, responsive support that aligned with their critical care mission and commercial realities. 

Further complexity arose in late 2019 when the hospice’s IT manager role became unexpectedly vacant. This sudden change created an urgent need for continuity and enhanced support to maintain IT stability while a replacement was recruited. 

The solution

We quickly stepped in with a tailored emergency support plan to ensure uninterrupted IT service during this difficult period. We provided an elevated level of 24/7 support to cover all critical areas, including ensuring clinical availability of online consultation platform, SystmOne, and fundraising platform, Raiser’s Edge, along with the non-clinical services of Iris, Kudos, Cascade backup management and HSCN services.  

Since then, Arc has maintained a close partnership with St Clare Hospice, supporting their on-premise infrastructure while advising on future technology developments, all whilst adhering to and continued Cyber Essentials Plus and DSPT compliance via our advanced security reviews. 

Bringing fresh ideas to us, we are currently collaborating on plans to transition key workloads to Microsoft Azure, ensuring a strategic roadmap that aligns with their evolving IT needs, all at a commercial rate suited to the hospice’s budget. 

“I have no hesitation in recommending Arc to other organisations seeking a reliable, knowledgeable, genuinely supportive and loyal IT partner.”

Spencer McBlain, IT Manager at St Clare Hospice

The results

Thanks to Arc’s proactive support and flexible service model, St Clare Hospice has experienced improved IT stability and responsiveness. St Clare’s internal team benefit from expert escalation support, enabling them to focus on core responsibilities without disruption.  

Our ongoing partnership has helped the hospice maintain a secure, reliable IT environment essential to their operations and patient care. 

Spencer McBlain, IT Manager at St Clare Hospice, said: “Arc has been a dependable partner taking the initiative through both routine and challenging times. Their responsiveness and understanding of our unique individual needs have given us peace of mind, knowing our IT infrastructure is in safe hands. I have no hesitation in recommending Arc to other organisations seeking a reliable, knowledgeable, genuinely supportive and loyal IT partner.”