Sir John Soane’s Museum

Sir John Soane’s Museum is an extraordinary house and museum in Lincolns Inn Fields. It is the house of one of the greatest English architects, who built and lived in it two centuries ago. The museum will transport you back to Regency London, taking you through Sir John Soane’s extraordinary home, left as it was at the time of his death in 1837. It displays his vast collection of antiquities, furniture, sculptures, architectural models and paintings.

IT challenges

Before collaborating with ramsac, the museum faced significant IT challenges.

“The Museum required advanced IT support including Cyber Security guidance as we recovered post pandemic and had a wider and more comprehensive IT estate. With a growing number of third-party systems integrated to our network and increased digital ambition, we needed more onsite support and more strategic advice.”

Noted Markand Patel, Head of Visitor Experience and Operations at Sir John Soane’s Museum.

Choosing ramsac

Following a robust competitive tender process, ramsac was selected as the museum’s managed service provider for their proficiency in addressing complex IT needs.

“The plan ramsac brought with them for the Museum was also fully rounded and the support they offer
through the relationship manager and on site engineer was a very appealing prospect and fitted with the Museum’s needs. It was very important for the organisation to choose an MSP that we felt we could trust and were proactive and very competent and I certainly got this feeling during the hiring process, they were just as engaged with who we were and where we want to go and had the most comprehensive plan for the organisation.”

Markand recalled, emphasising the confidence and trust placed in ramsac’s capabilities.

Building the IT roadmap

As part of the totalIT managed service provided by ramsac, the onboarding process included a thorough IT audit, and one of ramsac’s specialist IT Architects worked with the museum’s leadership team, to develop a structured IT roadmap, prioritising crucial updates and maintenance and laying out plans for future projects, improvements and security enhancements. Markand commented,

“We get regular detailed monthly reports of our entire IT estate. The level of detail and support has been reassuring and the proactivity in guiding the organisation to a much better place IT wise, led by regular meetings and building an IT Roadmap have been an invaluable asset and that we are moving in the right direction. totalIT covers so many aspects from supporting end users with any IT questions or issues, round the clock system monitoring, remote network administration, server management, system updates and security maintenance, to valuable onsite time with Mark our IT on site engineer as well as strategic input from Lawrence our IT solutions architect as well as every other kind of support from Ben our relationship manager”.

Working with ramsac

Since the inception of their partnership, the museum has reported a multitude of improvements, including a server migration project. Commenting on the project, Markand said,

“The experience of the migration project was excellent from the very beginning. The pre planning stages to the regular project update meetings and the project document detailing every aspect of the project led by a dedicated project manager Charlotte Braby and Mark Cobb our onsite ramsac engineer. For a project of this scope, it was impressive how smoothly the entire process went. I am looking forward to working on the next project together.”

The collaboration with ramsac and Sir John Soane’s Museum has been characterised by mutual respect and learning. Markand commented,

“I have met many staff from ramsac, in fact I was invited to their base of operations to meet members of every department and to learn a bit more about their ethos. From that experience to every encounter with any personnel from ramsac it has always been a valuable, collaborative, engaging and a learning experience.”