Age UK Oldham
THE ORGANISATION
Age UK Oldham (AUO) is an independent local charity that works with NHS Oldham and the Local Authority to deliver contracted services for older people in the Oldham area. The organisation provides a wide spectrum of services to local residents from information and advice through to support with care and social activities. Roughly one third of the organisations income is self generated through charity shops and other trading outlets.
THE CHALLENGE
Age UK Oldham were using an entirely hosted remote server solution, with users reliant on a remote server hosted by a third party to access their emails and files. The organisation had noticed a significant dip in service and support from the provider after they were recently acquired and were looking at better ways of providing collaborative working for all users across the organisation. The IT support service in place from the current provider would only offer support for users within the remote desktop service, leaving a huge gap where users weren’t able to ask for help with their local devices, peripherals or network.
OUR APPROACH
With a hybrid working setup and minor line of business applications, Age UK Oldham was the perfect fit for Microsoft 365. The organisation would hugely benefit from the flexibility and access-anywhere functionality of the new system, without relying on a clunky remote desktop solution to access organisational email and files.
As part of our initial pre-sale factfind with AUO, we established that the previous provider had been recommending the purchase of thin client or low-spec machines as they wouldn’t need much power to interact with the remote server. However, this meant that we needed to refresh some of the existing hardware with better spec machines to ensure users were able to get the most from the Microsoft 365 system.
A full migration plan was developed, which included identifying the data that needed to be migrated, determining the timeline for the migration, and identifying any potential risks or challenges as part of the migration process.
The Microsoft 365 platform was configured to meet the organization’s specific needs. This involved setting up user accounts, configuring security and file access settings and fully testing the system to ensure everything was working as expected prior to rollout.
Qlic provided full user training to staff members during the migration on how to use the new Microsoft 365 platform, and assisted with any snagging or questions the users had with the new system.
Following the Microsoft 365 migration, AUO were fully onboard with our support service, gaining unlimited access to our support team to assist with any ongoing support needs.
THE RESULTS
As a result of the transition to Qlic & Microsoft 365, Age UK Oldham experienced significant improvements in productivity and collaboration. Staff were able to access the latest software applications and work more efficiently. The new platform also provided better security and compliance features, which helped to protect the organization’s data, whilst the new IT support service now provides a fully comprehensive unlimited support solution for users of the system.
Overall, the move to Microsoft 365 was a success and helped Age UK Oldham to better serve their elderly community.
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KEY OUTCOMES
- Unlimited-use IT Support solution for 40+ users
- Shared data migration to Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online
- Replacement of under-spec devices with new, refreshed user laptops
- Full Device Management using Azure Active Directory & Microsoft Intune for all user devices.
- Azure cloud server for remote Sage 50 access
- Cloud-to-Cloud Backup for SharePoint data
