Brother of Charity Ireland October 2019

How Brothers of Charity Services Ireland is on a digital journey built on caring

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T HR OUGH D IGI TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

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BROTHERS OF CHARIT Y SERVICES IREL AND

BROTH E R S O F C H AR IT Y S E RV I C E S I REL A ND IS U ND E R G O I N G A DI GI TA L TR AN SFO R MAT IO N B UI LT ON A N AMBITION TO PROVIDE BETTER CARE TO TH E C O MMU NIT Y

A

sk companies their distinguishing factors and there is every likelihood you will hear similar themes

time and again. Fewer, however, will bypass many of the more typical board-level buzzwords in favour of a simpler response: 04

‘caring’. But that is how Ronan Coy, National Head of ICT (CIO) at Brothers of Charity Services Ireland, describes the culture at the Irish charity organisation that supports more than 7,000 people across Ireland with intellectual disabilities.

Coy has been with the organisation for three years, having previously held high-level positions with the likes of Fujitsu Ireland (Director, Strategic Projects) and IBEC (Chair, Data Working Group). His current role, he admits, is a “very different world”, a far cry from the “cutthroat” IT sector positions he has previously held. “Brothers of Charity Services Ireland is an incredibly caring organisation,” Coy states, “every employee and all those in charge are primarily focused

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on the people we support, with an

digital transformation, including the

ethos of caring that ensures we always

nationalisation of the organisation’s

put their needs at the forefront of

IT infrastructure, business applica-

anything we do. It is what drives us.”

tion systems and ICT services. “It has

Coy joined the organisation in

been a true consolidation journey,” Coy

September 2016, tasked with spear-

expands. “There are several strands

heading an ongoing process of change

to that journey, such as the alignment

that involves bringing the operational

between the various regional organi-

structure from one that was spread

sations, the considerable technology

across six regional companies – Clare,

transformation and evolution that has

Galway, Limerick, Roscommon,

been necessary to facilitate that,

South East and Southern – to one

and a wider organisational and

national company. It is a process, he

cultural development that is still

says, that has required significant

ongoing. It has been a significant

change, and one that has brought inevitable disruption to the organisation, but it’s also been an exciting journey in which we are making use of new and innovative technologies and taking advantage of opportunities that we would not have had in the past.” Coy’s key focus within that journey has been managing a technology transition that he describes as initially challenging. “The local cultures in each of the regional organisations were very much inwardly-focused and still using legacy IT systems, making

€200mn+ Approximate revenue

1883

Year founded

4,138

Approximate number of employees 07

E X E CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Ronan Coy Ronan Coy is the National Head of ICT (CIO) at Brothers of Charity Services Ireland (BOCSI). In this role, he oversees all aspects of information technology, information security, data and analytics for one of Ireland’s largest charities. Prior to joining BOCSI in 2016, Coy was Director of Strategic Projects at Fujitsu Ireland Ltd. With 18 years in the high-tech industry, he also served in various roles including Bid Director, CTO and IT consultant. Coy has worked with IBEC, focusing on positioning Ireland as a global ICT powerhouse. He holds a BEng in Electronic Engineering from University of Limerick and a MSC in Technology Management from National University of Ireland, Galway.

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“ I T H AS B E E N A TRUE C ONSO LI DAT I O N JOURNEY“ Ronan Coy National Head of ICT (CIO), Brothers of Charity Services Ireland

the key priority one of standardisation and data harmonisation by moving to cloud systems. One of my first actions was to summarise what we hope to achieve with something I call ‘E-cubed’: effective frontline services, empowering people in and outside of the organisation through the use of technology, and providing the best experience for those that we support.”

This was followed by a focus on standardisation. Coy readily admits that the organisation had

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CLICK TO WATCH : HAPPY HERITAGE DAY 09 been “somewhat insulated from the

platform to move forward with our

broader developments in some IT

vision and to make use of the cloud

processes, meaning that standardis-

and other Microsoft technologies

ing all of our processes had to be the

to drive our journey,” Coy adds.

first part of the journey.” Second, he

“We’re making the change from

adds, was migrating to a secure data

Exchange 2003 and various other

centre environment. The organisa-

platforms to the cloud, and it’s not

tion was aided on this migration

straightforward, but we’re using tools

through its relationship with partner,

like BitTitan MigrationWiz to move to

Unity Technologies, which was also

the newest systems as seamlessly

working closely with Microsoft. As a

as possible. We’ve found that moving

result of this partnership, Brothers of

everyone to the cloud has not only

Charity Services Ireland was awarded

brought the expected benefits from

a grant by Microsoft in 2017 worth

a standardisation point of view, it has

more than €3m. “This gave us the

also allowed us to function far more w w w.bro t he rso fc h a r it y. ie

BROTHERS OF CHARIT Y SERVICES IREL AND

efficiently and effectively,” says Coy. The level of digital transformation seen at Brothers of Charity Services Ireland is being mirrored across the charity sector on a wider basis, Coy explains, with a broader attitude emerging of how to consider and deliver charitable services in new and innovative ways. To this end, Coy is keen to work towards the development of a centre of shared excellence through which all charitable organisations in Ireland can deliver 10

more individualised services. Such a system, he notes, would also allow for the transferring and sharing of data across organisations and services.

“My ultimate goal is that we have an individualised portal for each person,” he explains. “However, in order for that to happen, we need to build these foundation elements that are part of our current journey. It will require a significant cultural shift from where we are today, but the ideal is the creation of an interactive portal through which we can entirely rethink the way we provide services and make better use of smart technologies. It makes absolute sense for that to be our vision.”

“ M Y U LT I M AT E G O A L I S T H AT W E H AV E AN INDIVIDUALISED P O R TA L F O R E A C H PERSON” Ronan Coy National Head of ICT (CIO), Brothers of Charity Services Ireland Achieving that vision will rely on the continuation of the organisation’s digitisation. On this subject, Coy sees the continued implementation of new technologies and smarter ways of working as key. “We still feel like a paper organisation, and I want us to move away from that. We’re on our way – our new cloud platform, Aspire, allows us to store vast amounts of data and view it in real time – but we need to continue to drive through the modernisation of the remaining legacy systems over the next three to five years so that we have a truly modern and integrated workforce.”

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Brothers of Charity Services Ireland Brothers of Charity Services Ireland CLG Kilcornan House Clarinbridge Co. Galway H91 K2E9 Ireland T 091-796623 E info@brothersofcharity.ie www.brothersofcharity.ie