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Microsoft 365 drives productivity for financial training provider

Overview

Alpha Development Partnership provide training to top-tier Financial Services clients across the globe. They help develop graduates, interns and professionals by equipping them with professional and leadership skill sets via instructor led training.


Client: Alpha Development Partnership
Industry: Corporate Training, Financial Services
Services: Training
Web: alphadevelopment.com

Challenge

Alpha have offices in London, Gloucester, Singapore, Wroclaw and New York. Staff need corporate services, data and collaboration tools to be available anywhere at any time. Before working with Virtuoso, Alpha were able to access services remotely via VPN, but wanted a more contemporary and intuitive remote-working solution. They also wanted to extricate all server hardware from their business, removing any single points of failure.

Alpha ran a competitive process to select a long-term technology partner. They required a partner that could transition them to a new IT system as well as handle their ongoing support requirements. Virtuoso were selected due their overall support offering, 24×7 support capability and experience as a Microsoft Gold Partner with the desired solution, Microsoft 365.

As Technology Manager at Alpha Development, Jeff Baskett needed to modernize the company’s infrastructure and help to reduce the amount of time the company spent on day-to-day IT management.

We needed a proactive IT Support partner which could provide consistency, support and advice. With our ageing server becoming a concern, we needed a provider which was on the front-foot, coming to us with suggestions which delivered efficiency-gains and complied with the upcoming regulations.” Jo Mearing, Alpha Development

Solution

After initial discussions with Alpha Development, it became clear that the company would benefit greatly from a migration to the Microsoft 365 Business platform. Microsoft 365 Business includes a range of features that are not included with standard Office 365 Business Premium licenses, such as enhanced security features and Mobile Device Management.

Offering Quarterly Business Reviews as a way to provide a technological roadmap through IT best practices, Virtuoso demonstrated a pro-active approach with customers, using clear and concise language to help explain the most suitable options to consider moving forward. This approach, coupled with 24/7 support services, means that all Alpha users can not only benefit from the OnTrack service, but that solutions could be proposed to help mitigate problems in the longer term.

 “It became clear that Microsoft 365 would be the best solution for Alpha as we continue to grow. We also immediately felt that Virtuoso were completely aligned with how we wanted to progress as a business, and we trusted their experience to help us move away from problematic, legacy infrastructure like the server, and to embrace the Microsoft cloud – all with their support.” Jeff Baskett, Technology Manager

For Alpha, there were numerous benefits in moving to Microsoft 365 Business. Not only does it allow for file data to be stored securely in Microsoft 365, but devices can also be enrolled in Azure Active Directory. This enabled the removal of the server, which had been acting as File Server and Domain Controller.

With a few other small changes, the on-premise solution could be decommissioned, and the risk of recurring issues removed. Furthermore, with file data hosted in SharePoint, users in overseas offices no longer had to rely on inelegant VPN connection to access key business data.

Results

Since moving to the EliteSupport service and hosting their company data in the cloud, Alpha have reduced the amount of IT issues they experience on a day to day basis and freed up some of Jeff’s valuable time.

Alpha’s global workforce now have access to 24/7 support services, all of the vital company data and processes, and can collaborate on documents in real-time from anywhere in the world.

Importantly, issues with the server became noticeably less frequent almost as soon as it was relieved of file data and other business functions. Now that Alpha are able to work without relying on on-premise infrastructure, or indeed a VPN, the time that used to spent mitigating day-to-day IT issues can now be better spent elsewhere.

“Virtuoso really have helped us to harness the power of the Microsoft cloud. We used to experience huge setbacks when the server went offline, or overseas offices couldn’t connect via the VPN. Now we don’t have to worry – and I can concentrate on providing the excellent service we are proud of to our own clients” Jeff Baskett, Technology Manager

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