March 2021, in the midst of lockdown, SWIC answered the call from City Harvest to deliver a bespoke and state-of-the-art telecoms solution for a new warehouse they were opening in Acton Park, London. 

City Harvest is on a mission to reduce the surplus of food in London to tackle the increasing levels of hunger around the city. 

Every day, more than 2 million Londoners don’t know how or when they are going to eat their next meal. 

Through a network of warehouses and expert logistics, City Harvest distributes nearly 1 million meals per month to the people of London. 

Their impact has been phenomenal, and they are only getting stronger as they increase their footprint and take the operation to the next level.  

But like many growing organisations, City Harvest was facing daily challenges dealing with enquiries and ensuring constant communications with their clients and employees in order to secure on time deliveries.  

Simply put, staff were finding it difficult to stay in contact with each other, and maintaining diaries and schedules was difficult without good internet connectivity.  

These issues combined meant that City Harvest’s growth was stalling and therefore their overall output was suffering. On top of that, they were outgrowing their existing space and needed a larger warehouse. 

For a charity that relies upon fast action and crucial decisions, City Harvest required a telecoms solution that could be deployed rapidly, was scalable and was extremely reliable. 

Following an initial consultation, SWIC recommended their Xelion cloud-based PBX solution coupled with a 4G Internet solution, new cabling and a Managed Wi-Fi infrastructure. 

From initial contact with SWIC to delivery of a fully working solution took a little over 2 weeks. 

Now, City Harvest’s people can keep in touch seamlessly no matter where they are. The Xelion mobile app and Wi-Fi access throughout their new 13,000sqft warehouse means effortless communications on any device a with ultra-fast Internet speeds of up to 100mbps.  

Now, City Harvest can focus on what matters most: feeding the people of London. Whilst SWIC’s services work around the clock to ensure their vans keep rolling and their people keep serving. 

“We had a team of 4 grow to a team of 16 within a period of 6 months, with key members working remotely. SWIC came and installed a world-class phone system and a remote 4G solution that enabled communications to be instantaneous and operations to keep moving seamlessly in a rapid turn-around time. I think SWIC can deliver excellent solutions for any growing charity or commercial venture.” 

– Stephen Brand, Operations Manager 

SWIC and City Harvest have one key thing in common – thriving in unique circumstances and unprecedented situations.  

And together, City Harvest is now in a better position to redistribute the 2,900 tonnes of edible food that is thrown away in London every day. 

SWIC are always on the lookout to empower inspiring organisations with our latest game-changing technologies, because we go the extra mile where other providers can’t or won’t.