A new approach with Cloud enablement workshop

Over more than 30 years of experience in delivering managed IT services has seen us responsible for more than 500 successful technology deployments for UK businesses, making use of public, private and hybrid clouds.

We have advised on best practice and helped a huge array of organisations, across a range of sectors decide which cloud solution is right for them. Some have even decided to stick with their own on-premise solution, with cloud utilised for a specific app or back-up and recovery.

Time to get formal

Our discussions with clients have always followed a similar pattern, which always starts with good listening skills and a few important questions, like gaining an overview of their current IT stack and the direction the organisation hoped to pursue.

During this discovery phase, we would understand the current infrastructure, network and degree of security, whilst learning what business applications are being used and why.

But these discussions, whilst comprehensive and wide-ranging, risked us missing some important aspect of the firm’s journey of digital transformation, so we formalised the approach and our Cloud enablement workshop was born.

The driver to commit to a repeatable agenda was the need to bring our clients’ real value from the day they spend with us in our innovation suite, seeing apps and different system configurations in a working environment.

Each workshop offers expert input from a range of cloud specialists, including network architects and systems engineers, who ensure the focus is on technical aspects of the client’s digital transformation journey; our sales team takes a back seat.

The insight gained is a valuable addition

In addition to learning more about our clients, we offer an overview of the current technology trends and provide valuable insight into the different deployment methods currently available, in the context of the client’s business and what stage they have reached in their digital transformation.

We believe our particular experience in the legal sector, developed with a client base of more than 30 law firms, gives us a unique ability to share challenges, solutions and outcomes amongst similar businesses using the same technology.

This has led to more than one law firm deciding that a full migration to the Cloud was not right for their business and the resultant hybrid model combined on-premise, private and public Cloud services, with cost the main issue. Cloud can be expensive.

Each of the clients accepting our offer of a free Cloud enablement workshop are committing to nothing more than giving us their valuable time and bringing open minds.

In return, they leave with a greater understanding of where their business ranks in relation to other UK organisations facing similar challenges.

This ability to benchmark themselves against other businesses (who remain anonymous throughout of course), helps allay fears that they are adopting the wrong strategy or are way behind in their sector, which is rarely if ever the case.

Overview of services available and being used within the industry

To give you an idea of the topics covered in our wide-ranging discussions, here is an example agenda, combining most of the points we have addressed with clients in recent workshops:

• The battle for Cloud – Private vs Public vs Hybrid vs On-premise
• Networking and connectivity
• Office 365 and its ongoing development
• Your current stack operating in different deployment methods
• Storage and backup options – considerations and recommendations
• Costs optimisation and value equation
• Your journey – current state – intermediate state – future state
• Ambition and sandbox solutions
• Ensuring security in a challenging world

We speak from experience

You know we are a managed service provider, but you might not know that over 65% of our clients operate in professional services, with the majority working in the legal sector, which we believe adds authority to the experience and expertise we demonstrate at our workshops.

Our service offering reflects the changing needs of our clients, but at its heart remains the commitment to help organisations of all sizes and complexity exploit technology and applications to increase the efficiency, effectivity and ultimately the competitive advantage of their business.

If you want to know more about Cloud enablement workshops, please get in touch and we’ll get a day booked in our innovation suite when you can see if everything you’ve just read is a fair reflection of the value we squeeze into a single meeting.