Business Info - issue 147

businessinfomag.uk magazine 30 MANAGED SERVICES In common with a growing number of small and medium-sized organisations (see story below), Stonewall, the largest LGBT rights organisation in Europe, has embraced managed IT services to improve its IT provision, in its case with Apogee, Europe’s largest multi-brand provider of managed workplace services. Using an IT service provider as an extension of an in-house IT team offers a range of benefits from help in developing a comprehensive digital transformation strategy to supporting the day to day IT needs of end users and the wider organisation. For Stonewall, a particular challenge was the provision of laptops, including purchasing, imaging, set-up and delivery, and the disposal of old devices. This became a matter of urgency during the Covid-19 pandemic, when it was critical for every employee to have the technology and set-up they needed Data security number one challenge for SMEs Half (48%) of small and medium-sized businesses surveyed by Keypoint Intelligence for Konica Minolta highlight data security and protection as their number one IT challenge, with 37% claiming that employees have experienced virus, malware and security threats because of changes made in response to the pandemic. Almost half (47%) of SMBs from the UK, US, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Czech Republic surveyed for Top SMB IT Pain Points & Solutions say they have acquired or upgraded their IT security software or services since the start of the pandemic. Home working posed particular challenges, including the difficulty of managing remote workers (cited by 38%) and servicing/supporting remote workers’ hardware and software (44%). Almost half (49%) complained that they had difficulty equipping remote workers with the hardware or software that they needed. Other challenges associated with home working include communication with managers/co-workers (51%), locating files (37%) and collaboration on digital documents (30%). In response to these challenges, 33% of SMBs have invested in managed IT services; 35% have invested in document sharing and collaboration applications; and 45% have acquired/upgraded cloud data storage. Overall, 65% of decision-makers have said that the pressures of the pandemic had accelerated their digital transformation. www.konicaminolta.co.uk Apogee helps Stonewall streamline IT provision to perform their roles remotely. Even in the best of times, the provision of laptops was a laborious and time- consuming process that diverted the Stonewall IT team from more productive, strategic tasks – imaging set up alone could take at least half a day per laptop. Safe hands Stonewall started looking for an IT specialist to relieve them of this burden and, after a rigorous tender process, selected Apogee as their Managed IT Services partner. Being owned by global technology conglomerate HP, Apogee gave Stonewall peace of mind that their IT devices were in safe hands. Following a thorough consultation and discovery process, through which it gained an in-depth understanding of Stonewall’s work, IT operations and requirements, Apogee identified the models of laptop best suited to each employee’s needs and prepared for their roll-out. A key requirement was for the hardware to be delivered to multiple locations, homes and offices, pre- configured and pre-imaged with applications and software specific to each user. Apogee’s Professional Services team provided a complete end-to-end ManagedWorkplace Solution for each individual device, from initial set-up and custom imaging to ongoing technical support and end-of-life data sanitisation and disposal. The secure disposal of pre-owned devices is essential for data security, to which end Apogee has put together a buy-back package for Stonewall’s legacy IT equipment. For Stonewall’s IT team, Apogee’s managed service has been a real time-saver, as IT Project Delivery Lead Leon Jones explains: “If we tried to deploy 100-odd laptops pre our Apogee experience, it would have been an issue. Apogee has definitely lightened the load and pressure on myself and our engineer regarding resource time.” Monthly subscription Apogee has also reduced the financial burden of IT provision, by enabling the charity to move away from big ticket capital purchases of IT technology and services to a smaller monthly subscription. This has a lower cost of ownership than capital purchase, with all hardware, software, deployment and support services combined into a single monthly rate across a three-year payment plan. All in all, Apogee’s Managed IT Service, tailored to Stonewall’s specific business needs, has helped the organisation achieve a lower total cost of ownership, whilst optimising user satisfaction and freeing up valuable IT time and internal resources to drive business growth. https://apogeecorp.com/ case-studies/stonewall/ Stonewall IT team saves 65 days a year by outsourcing laptop set up and deployment to Apogee