Cloud modernises global financial provider's workplace

In 2019, during the planning of RFi Group’s London office relocation, it became apparent that something was wrong. While RFi Group had IT providers in both London and Sydney, neither were able to properly address requirements for the London office network, nor cloud computing in general.

RFi Group desperately needed to modernise their ageing infrastructure. Their complex IT setup involved multiple maturing on-premise servers, located within London, Sydney, Singapore and Toronto.

“We were dealing with two different IT managed services providers covering our 4 offices around the world. Often things would fall through the cracks. We had on-premise servers that were due for replacement and our existing providers were not fans of the cloud.” Eleena Broadfoot, Chief Financial Officer

Their previous IT suppliers were not able to provide the appropriate networking solutions needed within the new offices and had struggled to deliver cloud-based solutions to RFi Group.

RFi Group were also facing challenges with company-wide communication. As their employees were located extensively across the globe, they sometimes struggled to quickly and securely collaborate on projects, which was often further limited by ageing on-premise architecture.

For the network, Virtuoso were able to rapidly deploy a Cisco Meraki networking solution to get RFi Group operational in their London office and could focus on the larger IT transformation.

Virtuoso worked with RFi Group to understand their requirements and design a solution which addressed their risks and objectives. Following a number of workshops, RFi Group chose to proceed with Virtuoso’s recommendation of Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

Virtuoso provisioned RFi Group’s Microsoft 365 environment, migrated their data and services, then decommissioned servers in all regions – leaving RFi Group with no on-premise infrastructure, removing the risks of server failures and the costs that come with managing and maintaining servers.

The solution enabled RFi Group to access files securely, from any location, on any device, through SharePoint. OneDrive for Business enabled seamless chat, voice and video calling was made possible through Microsoft Teams, whilst the secure and simplified management of company devices and policies was enabled through Microsoft Intune and Azure Active Directory.

Furthermore, by integrating other services into Microsoft 365’s Single Sign On (SSO), Virtuoso added protection, such as Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Conditional Access, to existing browser-based SaaS applications.

“Virtuoso was able to not only consolidate our support with one provider, which means that nothing falls through the cracks now, but they also moved us fully to the cloud using Microsoft 365. We had an objective to improve our IT delivery, getting rid of old costly infrastructure and improving efficiency.

“They 100% helped us to simplify, streamline and upgrade our IT infrastructure in a cost effective and, more importantly, in a very human way!” Eleena Broadfoot, Chief Financial Officer

Furthermore, Hub 365 provided RFi Group with a fully-featured and customisable end user service catalogue, enabling employees to use the platform to streamline and automate both IT and non-IT requests.

“Hub 365 as a tool is great and has improved visibility of our IT issues in real time.” Eleena Broadfoot, Chief Financial Officer