Case Study – Cloud Transformation – Enabling Hybrid Working
Our customer is a Wealth Management firm with their clients at the heart of everything they do – a value that closely aligns with Quorum’s own, which is very important to us when deciding who we choose to partner with.
They have 20 users and a single office. They had traditional on-premises IT and telephony infrastructure which no longer suited the organisation and constrained flexible working.
Quorum have an established relationship with the customer and as a trusted IT advisor were tasked with the discovery and design of a migration to a new modern cloud environment that supported their needs and promoted hybrid working and flexibility.
It was key to the customer that their IT strategy:
- Utilise SaaS where possible.
- Be built with end-users in mind.
- Be considered as a business change rather than just a technical change.
- Enable hybrid working.
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Following an in-depth requirements gathering, discovery and design project, Quorum’s advice was to move to a fully cloud IT environment, including telephony. This would also involve moving the customer’s business applications to Microsoft Azure, issuing laptops to all users with a modern managed desktop solution, and was achieved with zero physical servers.
Our customer is a forward-thinking company and agreed with our recommendations to move to a fully cloud environment and the benefits of this matched their requirements.
We worked collaboratively on a plan and approach that suited the business and caused minimal disruption and optimal user experience including: consistent delivery, User Acceptance Testing, governance, and eventual handover to Quorum Managed Services for ongoing support.
The benefits of Cloud transformation through Quorum were:
Enabled hybrid working & improved user experience
Move to OpEx model improved agility & utilisation
Built to best practices with security & modernisation front of mind
The Solution
An end-to-end solution was agreed, this included the forming of a steering group with key representatives from Quorum and our customer’s teams. In Quorum’s experience this joint way of working is essential to the successful delivery of projects as it enables main stakeholders to be fully engaged throughout the entire project, facilitates cohesive decision making and allows any potential risks and issues to be quickly addressed.
Cloud Adoption
Designed and architected a resilient solution using the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework that follows the follows the 5 pillars of the Azure Well Architected Framework: reliability, security, cost optimisation, operational excellence, and performance efficiency.
Security
Azure Active Directory allowed users secure access, as well as tailored conditional access policies and multi-factor authentication for increased protection.
Productivity
Full Microsoft 365 deployment including email migration to Exchange Online, on-premises file server to SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Teams allowed for a fully mobile working solution that allows users to work from any location.
Modern Desktop
A Microsoft Modern Desktop solution was implemented using the Microsoft Endpoint Manager Suite. Recommendations were also made for hardware procurement and training delivered to ensure the best user experience possible.
Cloud Development
Quorum planned, tested, and delivered the migration of 6 key business applications to Azure ensuring a smooth transition and supporting Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery requirements.
Telephony
Microsoft Teams allowed for a fully mobile working solution that allows users to make and receive calls from their laptops, mobiles, and tablets as well as integration with other Microsoft 365 applications.
Business impact and end-user experience were important in delivering this project and so it was key that the entire project be delivered by a consistent delivery team. The project was fully managed by a Quorum team which comprised:
Programme Manager
Manage
Senior Cloud Architect
Design & Build
Senior Cloud Consultants
Deliver
One senior executive at our customer gave this feedback:
“This was a daunting project, but it went more smoothly than we could have ever imagined and this was down to the excellent and skilled Quorum team. We really did strike gold with each member.”
Following this programme of change, our customer now have no on-site infrastructure and a modern Cloud environment that meets their business requirements and affords their employees the flexibility to work from anywhere on any device and still be productive.
This was all achieved within a manageable budget and is bolstered by Quorum’s Managed Services team for ongoing support, both technically and for end-users.
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Quorum Network Resources Ltd
18 Greenside Lane Edinburgh
UK EH1 3AH
Phone: +44 131 652 3954
Email: marketing@quorum.co.uk
CONTACT INFO
Quorum Network Resources Ltd
18 Greenside Lane Edinburgh
UK EH1 3AH
Phone: +44 131 652 3954
Email: marketing@quorum.co.uk
FOLLOW US
AWARDS & RECOGNITION