100% Remote Work Implementation With Microsoft Cloud Case Study

The Challenge: Larger Organization Needed to Go 100% Remote Quickly

Community IT guided this client in moving to 100% remote work environment quickly in 2020, and supported staff in setting up a new office location entirely remotely. This client was prepared to make this complicated and wide-ranging change through strategic investments over previous years and an organized technology roadmap.

The large, faith-based client offers refugee, migrant, and asylum seekers resettlement support at over 100 affiliates and with over 6,000 volunteers. They also train refugee community leaders through a leadership academy.

In the spring of 2020, this client realized they would need to accelerate their move to remote work and remote support. This meant capitalizing on existing IT capabilities and building new IT support and new cloud capacity – remotely.

The Solution: Leverage Microsoft Cloud Services to Streamline Existing Support, Add Remote Laptop Deployment, SharePoint in the Cloud, and Utilize Microsoft Business Voice for New Remote Office Location.

Community IT has worked with this client for over 11 years supporting their IT infrastructure and internal IT team. We moved this client into Office 365 Services starting with an email migration in 2016, and then supported their transition to other cloud services ranging from Teams to Azure and SharePoint. 

This client was able to make the transition relatively easy with the nation-wide shift to remote work in 2020. Due to previous investments in Office 365, Direct Access and Remote Desktop Services staff were able to securely work remotely immediately. Throughout the year Community IT worked with the client’s in-house IT team to add in additional remote IT capabilities starting with AutoPilot and Intune to streamline the setup and deployment of laptops to remote staff. 

Microsoft Windows Autopilot/InTune allows Community IT to configure hundreds of devices remotely, saving about 80% of in-person configuration time. Where it usually would take about an hour to configure a laptop, Autopilot takes about 10 to 15 minutes. This is an ideal solution that joins computers to a cloud domain and allows remote standardized configuration from a central console. Once laptops are configured through Autopilot, InTune also allows Community IT techs to monitor and upgrade software touchlessly, install software and security, and provide help desk support easily. Autopilot/InTune also allows for greater security and theft prevention/laptop recovery.

During the year Community IT worked with the in-house team to plan out and support their migration from an on-premise file server into SharePoint. Community IT provided our best practices and IT Governance frameworks to help their in-house IT team to plan and design a SharePoint for nonprofits infrastructure that met the unique needs of their organization. 

Most recently, Community IT helped this client rapidly setup a new office location. Leveraging Microsoft Business Voice we were able to assign numbers and provide phone access to staff right within Teams without the need to make expensive configuration changes to their legacy on premise PBX (a central switching business phone system) or complicated deployment of third party apps. 

The Result: Remote IT that Works, With Remote IT Support

Community IT’s strategy matched the client’s needs in this rapid implementation. In 2020 Community IT supported the organization through the transition to 100% remote work through a number of different initiatives that leveraged Microsoft Cloud Services. 

Having an existing trusted provider relationship, previous investments, and strategic plan/budget already in place was crucial to quickly implementing this change to 100% remote work. This remote work implementation with Microsoft Cloud wouldn’t be possible without a partner that thoroughly understood the nonprofit technology landscape and existing technology options.

Building on existing relationships was also vital. The Community IT Business Manager brought his deep understanding of the client culture to managing the transition. The role of the IT Business Manager is to coordinate a center to the project, a place where problems get handled. The client faced a dramatic change to their work environment with a long-term partner at their side, and was able to move quickly to implement advice from a trusted support network.

Community IT continues to work with this client as they continue to grow and provide welcome services to those fleeing persecution and seeking refuge in the United States. As they add new office locations, Community IT will be able to remotely set up and configure those locations wherever they are needed.

Ready for a Nonprofit Technology Partner that Works with You?

Community IT understands that tech support goes beyond technology knowledge, and includes the attitudes and experience of your technology partner. That’s why we spend time developing long term relationships with our clients allowing you to seize technology opportunities as they arise.

Community IT’s strategic guidance, proactive approach, and implementation-specific tech teams with great depth and varied technical expertise helped this client realize their technology goals.

Community IT was able to help the client move to the right IT solution for their remote work implementation, and set up their new remote “office” – remotely. We are always ready to support our clients to face their real needs and constraints. We use our IT and nonprofit expertise to guide clients as they navigate their changing IT needs, as shown in this 100% Remote Work Implementation With Microsoft Cloud Case Study. 

You can be sure we are dedicated to the success of your mission and will help you find the solution that fits you.