Customer Story: Age UK Northamptonshire
Supporting charity workers with Microsoft 365...
...enabling them to support the elderly
Fuse is committed to ensuring that non profit organisations such as Age UK have proactive support and ensure devices and applications are kept up-to-date and secure. We also empower your employees so that when problems occur they have the understanding to be able to fix the issue themselves, while Fuse’s team engineers a process to make sure that the problem cannot reoccur.
About Age UK Northamptonshire
Too many older people feel they have no one to turn to for support. Age UK exist to help older people when they need it the most. Age UK Northamptonshire is many things to many people. A source of advice, information, companionship and support. They provide a wide range to services to a growing number of older people, improving their quality of life, promoting independence and preventing frailty, poverty and isolation.
In Northamptonshire, Age UK have over 100 full time employees, supporting another 200-300 volunteers. These are spread between the main office in Northampton, and several smaller offices, daycare centres and hospices. Many people work remotely, such as at NHS sites or client’s homes, on laptops and mobiles.
Project Background
As with all charities, Age UK have to prioritise their limited funds with the provision of frontline services, which can lead to lead to the neglect of backoffice services, such as IT. Having also undergone a change in leadership, the charity recognised that a major overhaul was needed to their IT to keep data secure, and enable their support workers in homes and hospices in particular to access that data easily.
Infrastructure
- Traditional on-premises server model with centralised file system
- Computers updated infrequently, many using Windows 7
- No consistency in what version of packages were being used by whom
- Unmanaged mobile phones
- Shared logins/multiple logins for different systems
Access to Documents
- Off-site access via VPN connections
- Slow, complex and often unreliable
- Often required using multiple devices, flash drives, email etc
- Network drives were unorganised, with lots of duplicated files
- Time lost with clients due to reduced efficiency
- /DR Provision was patchy
Support Provision
- Employed full-time Technical staff and IT volunteers
- Complexity of setup meant they were required resolve all issues - no self-help possible
- Loss of productivity while waiting for solutions
Fuse's Solutions
Fuse’s team met and worked with Age UK Northamptonshire’s stakeholders to agree on a migration plan. This involved building in and identifying obvious value in charity status discounted licences from Microsoft for Microsoft 365 Business, and Sponsored Azure spend. The solution also required a consistent and secure platform whilst ensuring a seamless transition.
Audit
- Interrogation of previous provision
- Assessment of priorities
- Investigation of server and existing licences
Licensing
- Upgraded licences to a combination of charity free and discounted licences, inc Microsoft 365 Business
- Took advantage of sponsored Microsoft Azure spend to provision remote desktop and storage for Sage Accounts
- Used 50 additional EMS licences for mobile management - free to charities
- Non-desktop users have E1 licences for access to email and SharePoint
Azure Services
- Remote Desktop Services used for finance department access to Sage Accounts
- Accessible anywhere, from any device
- Integrated security, backup and DR solution from Azure
- All devices managed from the cloud, using Intune, for security, app and data management
Cloud Migration
- Migration of all files to SharePoint
- All users migrated to OneDrive to access their documents from the cloud
- Devices upgraded to Windows 10 and Office 365, with managed updates
- File shares decommissioned
- Single sign on and self service password resets
- MFA (multi factor authentication) for added security
Outcomes
- Saved employee hours due to less time needed to find, access and transfer documents.
- Access to documents whenever and wherever employees need them via a single sign-on, plus editing by multiple users in real time.
- Better data security for confidential information including MFA, encryption of all devices, conditional access based on location, and managed updates.
- Comprehensive disaster recovery measures, with all data routinely backed up to the cloud and no reliance on physical offices.
- All users now have the same packages and apps, reducing training time for new employees and streamlining processes within the office.
- Remote support from Fuse’s technical experts, reducing time to resolve any IT issues that arise.
- Company knowledge base, empowerment of "IT Champions" and self-help capabilities are improving IT confidence across the organisation.
