Case Study Overview 1
The client provides family services and has several regional offices that are exempt from restrictions. However, the head office operation needed their staff to work from home which presented several issues. In the main they were:
- The client was using Desktop PC – not laptops.
- The phone system would only allow some users to take calls from home.
- The market was saturated by demand for laptop systems and screens.
- Remote access to the on-premises data and accounts system was only established for some users.
- Demand for the family services provided by the client were in very high demand because of the pandemic.
A significant number of laptops display screens, keyboards, mice and headphones were sourced through our IT Distribution Partners and delivered to our offices for preparation and made ready for the end-users. We worked in unison with the customer’s management to have systems collected for delivery to the user’s home address.
During the configuration, Softphone apps were installed so that the call handling team could continue to take and make calls to customers as if in the office. Additionally, VPN’s were configured to allow access to the office file system with access to the on-premises accounts system being made through Remote Desktop sessions.
The work undertaken was completed very quickly so that the family services could continue to be provided without interruption.
The client has since transitioned to have all systems Azure & Intune managed with all users having Microsoft 365, full malware protection. The investment made has significantly enhanced the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery capability of the organisation.
Case Study Overview 2
An international media company had begun the transition to the cloud and hosted server infrastructure, but the process was not complete and access to the on-premises File Server and MIS systems were still required by certain regional teams. As part of the planned upgrades, all users were now equipped with laptops running the latest operating systems with full malware protection, patch updates and monitoring.
Because the client’s network and IT infrastructure were in transition a very mixed approach to providing services was required. The London HQ systems were managed through Active Directory and had yet to be Azure joined. The North America and APAC systems, however, were Azure joined but both still needed access through IPsec VPN to the HQ systems.
While infrastructure was in place to allow a limited number of users to work remotely the capacity was not in place to allow all users to connect. Therefore, substantial changes needed to be made in short order; capacity needed to be added to the network as well as installing VPN client software to all users’ systems. Additionally, Multi-Factor Authentication was enabled and enforced on all Microsoft 365 accounts.
Voice comms also needed to be addressed quickly to allow the office to operate as normal. Softphone installations to several key users were rolled out with diversions to mobile devices being configured for others.
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