Case study: Ensign Pensions
Hybrid Cloud Azure with Disaster recovery ASR and Office 365
“A trusted partner of our business… their team have delivered the support and expertise that we need, when we need it.”
Phil Boyle – Operations Director, Ensign Pensions
Company: Ensign Pensions
Sector: Financial Services
The Scenario
Ensign Pensions manage the Ensign Retirement Plan that is helping to improve the retirement outcomes for thousands of seafaring employees
They were originally were part of a larger organisation and wanted to separate their IT infrastructure to establish themselves as an independent business. The main functions they needed to move from the existing infrastructure to a new one included data, email and applications.
With specific interest in Office365 as a potential solution, Ensign had received emails from TechQuarters and visited our website before applying to attend one of our seminars to learn more. Ensign then engaged with TechQuarters and decided that a move to the Microsoft Cloud was the right solution for their needs.
How TechQuarters helped
During the evaluation stage of Ensign and TechQuarters working together, we created a Cloud Roadmap document that detailed the proposed technology and a plan for implementation.
We implemented a Hybrid Cloud using on-premise servers and Azure. We migrated 7 servers to Azure and weaved in Office 365. The servers contained SharePoint one server that housed pension documents and workflows with Intelogy (a document and workflow process systems for SharePoint). We implemented a Domain Controller, 2 SQL servers for their Pension Apps and a Development server, E3 licensing implemented for all users and Microsoft Office installed locally.
TechQuarters now provide full Managed IT Services for Ensign Pensions, and training with the 365 Cloud Academy was made available to help all users with their understanding of Office 365 and the new systems. Ensign receive frequent account management meetings and we review their IT strategy on an annual basis, referring to their Cloud Roadmap.
The Results
- The work was phased and completed over just a few months
- All users now work from the cloud
- All users print directly to the printers
- All users have stable desktops and laptops
- Users access shared company data on SharePoint
- Internal IT hardware has been minimised
- Ensign has a full business continuity plan for their IT
- Ensign users can access their required information from any location on any device
What Ensign pensions said
“When we started looking at the options for migrating our IT, it quickly became apparent the Microsoft Cloud could offer us a real advantage. Having attended their seminar to hear more about the Microsoft Cloud, we quickly gained confidence in TechQuarters’ ability to deliver a full solution to us, helping us to establish our strategy and providing hardware, software, implementation and support.
TechQuarters has become a trusted partner of our business and their team have delivered the support and expertise that we need, when we need it. TechQuarters has helped us to identify the solutions we need to deliver current and future requirements. We enjoy working with TechQuarters and regularly recommend them to others.”
Phil Boyle – Operations Director, Ensign Pensions