Moving to Microsoft 365 has enabled Girlguiding South West England to improve productivity and collaboration
Date: Oct 17, 2022
INTRODUCTION
Our Client
Girlguiding is the leading charity for girls and young women. Offering services to Rainbows (ages 4-7 years), Brownies (ages 7-10 years), Guides (ages 10-14 years) and Rangers (ages 14-18 years).
Girlguiding South West England (GGSWE) provides a range of activities and opportunities for girls and young women aged from 4 years to adult in Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Isle of Wight, Jersey and Guernsey.
THE PROBLEM
Out of date ways of working, hardware and software across the organisation, with the need for a more collaborative and flexible working environment
Girlguiding South West England was working using an on-prem server running Server 2016 Essentials for Active Directory and file storage with email provided by a paid-for third-party hosting company using IMAP mail, and a separate third-party cloud storage provider used to share information with volunteers. They were also reliant on supporting multiple computers to provide remote access to computers left on in the office by remote workers, using a third-party VPN solution.
End user hardware was a mix of equipment, purchased at different times so there was little consistency in makes and models of hardware in use in the organisation, meaning that there was also inconsistency in the operating system versions, builds and software deployed on the computers. Staff were using different versions of Microsoft Office, either licensed COTS products or through using subscriptions in Office 365, through one of three Tenants setup for the organisation, but all were disjointed.
Staff struggled with working remotely, there was difficulty collaborating both in the office and remotely and there were some "work arounds" in order to fulfil missing functionality such as sharing calendar information or being able to work on the same data in real time. Different data repositories required different login information and added an additional layer of management complexity and also exposed the organisation to further risk.
OUR SOLUTION
Utilising the full suite of Microsoft Office 365 for collaboration and flexible working
The Silver Cloud Business has worked with GGSWE to create a project to ensure that all steps in the migration process can be accommodated and embraced by the staff and volunteers. A phased approach has minimised disruption and has eased in the new ways of working through demonstration of the benefits and tangible improvement in day to working.
The first step of the process was for The Silver Cloud Business to assist GGSWE in benefitting the Microsoft Non-profits grant after assistance in the application process. Staff are now enrolled in Azure Active Directory with multi-factor authentication enabled.
Email has been migrated away from the hosted IMAP server, and is now hosted in Office 365, giving users the ability to share information such as calendars for the first time, improving productivity. The move to Microsoft 365 has also resulted in GGSWE being able to use Microsoft Teams properly, with all users now in the same Tenant, improving security significantly.
For the first time, volunteers have access to email and data as well as collaboration tools through the use of Microsoft Web Applications.
Data has been migrated away from the on-prem file server into SharePoint online, which has allowed staff to be able to securely access data whilst away from the office.
In order to help stretch the IT project budget even further, The Silver Cloud Business has supplied business spec refurbished laptops, each with a three-year warranty, providing GGSWE with nearly new business spec laptops, that still have at least three years life in terms of spec and performance, for half the cost of new equipment.
Whilst the project is still in progress, the changes in ways of working have already been significant for GGSWE. It has allowed the key staff in the organisation to collaborate securely with the large group of volunteers and it has provided a secure way for volunteers to interact with head office within a single tenant and security domain.
THE OUTCOME
Fully supported and up-to-date in the Microsoft 365 cloud environment
The finished project means that GGSWE is now running its IT systems on fully supported software and operating systems, with the latest office applications in the Microsoft 365 cloud environment.