Vortex Engineering Group

The group was experiencing daily technology issues, impacting productivity, and causing frustration. The recurring nature of the issues was affecting trust in the existing provider. Members of the group had performance issues with servers and file shares, and remote access was limited and not adhering to best practices. The group had issues with SPAM and email security.

There was limited visibility and reporting on their technology systems, to facilitate proactive management and financial planning. The costs of hosted servers, backups, and email was greater than market leading Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions which also incorporated more advanced functionality and security. The lack of technical documentation hampered the ability to discuss and plan systems architecture changes.

To address these challenges, we completed a comprehensive review and proposed an extensive transformation initiative to run over the course of a year.

Our initial step involved onboarding their computer systems into our remote management and monitoring (RMM) system, providing insights into their computer inventory, configuration, and replacement needs. The RMM system enabled seamless remote support, management of security updates, along with ongoing reporting to facilitate budgeting and proactive replacements.

We then tackled their email system issues and cost optimisation by setting up and migrating the companies to Microsoft 365 tenancies. This move also included transitioning their file data to SharePoint and OneDrive for improved remote access and version control. We switched from Active Directory to Entra ID and enabled multi-factor authentication, bolstering security and enabling the retirement of the hosted servers.

We facilitated the transfer of Vortex's domains to a third-party provider, ensuring full ownership and control. We replaced and downsized costly hosted physical servers with legacy applications. By seeking a new internet service provider, we improved their internet services on sites and retired an expensive MPLS network. Routers were replaced with firewalls featuring advanced threat protection scanning, enhancing security.

Our changes streamlined access, management, bolstered security, and created a scalable and user-friendly technology environment. The group reduced costs by eliminating hosting fees and adopting lower maintenance SaaS solutions requiring minimal helpdesk support.