This week has been one of those weeks where really important stuff has to be done at breakneck speed. One of those, where it feels stressful because the stakes are quite high but you’re really happy it’s getting done. So, this week has been a very productive and significant week – but I’m glad it’s over!

So, what have we done?

Set a date!

First thing we’ve done is set a date to launch our name, brand and website.

There is going to be quite a lot to coordinate, so we’re going to be switching over 2 days. We’re going to start swapping stuff over in the afternoon of Wednesday 30th March with an official ‘go live’ date of the 31st March.

We’ll not only be switching over our name, brand website and socials. We’ll also be switching our email addresses (though the old ones will still work for a while yet). And internally we’ll be switching on a brand new intranet, sorting out consistency across our computers, as well as changing the signs on our buildings and the look of our Gwent community van.

Completed the paperwork

We’re also pretty confident that we’ve crossed the T’s and dotted the I’s on most of our corporate paperwork. The Charity Commission, Companies House, Care Inspectorate Wales and insurance requirements are all done and I’ve spoken to those closest to us to give the heads up that things are going live soon.

We’ve received and provided feedback on our Brand Book.

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been working with our designers to adopt the feedback we’ve received from service-users and staff around how we share what we stand for, what we look like as an organisation and how we sound. Once I speak to our friends at Pomegranate Creative Printers to run us off some test prints, we’ll be excited and relieved to sign off that ad start producing collateral.

Tech and Intranet

And last but not by any way least, this week has been another huge effort from our internal team and the folks at b2b (our new IT support providers) to get our IT estate in order. We’ve had people installing new applications to help with remote access, updating kit, rerouting servers – that’s already beyond what I understand but seeing how they are working and the detail they are going in to is encouraging.

On top of getting the basics sorted they are also configuring our computers to set-up templates to be consistent with our new brand. We’ve already got some new email accounts running with the new name and they’ve been able to configure it so that all our staff will have their homepage set to our intranet from day 1 of our brand switch over.

Next week will be our final blog before the great reveal – which we are really excited but also a little nervous about.

Thanks once again to everyone that is making this happen. Particularly like to thank Perago Wales, Design Dough and b2b IT Services for their expertise and great people skills.

Kieran.