Specializing in magnetic components such as transformers and inductors
Excited overjoyed young business couple standing in front of table
We helped LineThemes, a Home Care and Support service provider, move all their internal systems from five slow servers in their head office to Microsoft in the cloud, saving them time and money and improving collaboration.
Background
LineThemes provide care and support to people in their own homes across North East Scotland, Tayside and Perthshire. Their email, data and databases were all run from 5 ageing servers all located in the head office in Aberdeen and the whole business depended on the four branch offices all connecting to the head office via VPN in order to operate.
The VPNs were often slow, and sometimes they didn’t work at all, causing frustration in the branches. The result was that branches and therefore employees suffered down time, creating inefficiencies within the organisation, and the risk of employees working and saving data on their local machines, creating different versions of documents. As a regulated service this was clearly a risk requiring immediate attention.
The Solution
21Lab’s team recommended moving entirely to cloud based servers to solve the connectivity issues caused when trying to connect to the physical servers by VPN.
The first candidate was their email, which, as a mature service, is simple to move online to Microsoft 365.
The next step was to move all documents and data to the cloud using Microsoft Sharepoint.
The final stage was to move their applications to the cloud. Alto advised the client and approached the software provider who moved them to the subscription based online version.
Once all the data was migrated we provided early life support to make sure they were able to use the new systems. We established that they were happy with the new system before decommissioning all the old servers.
The Challenges
It can take a week or two to move data using internet connections that aren’t great, which is not ideal when you are running a business. We therefore came up with a less disruptive plan.
Using clever data migration tools we migrated all the data in advance. Over one single weekend we cut the access to the servers so that nobody could make changes.
We then carried out what is known as a delta sweep, where the tools check to see what changes have been made and pick up any extras since the main migration – a much smaller and faster job.
Although there is a one off cost for the tools of around £10 per person, it is a lot more cost effective than doing it manually which would take at least a week, and would involve consultancy fees for that period while impacting on the ability of the business to operate properly.
The Result
As they were still using Microsoft products, the new system felt familiar. However, the way they worked was transformed. Collaboration has been the biggest benefit: multiple people can access same spreadsheet at the same time, make changes and everyone can see the change immediately. Nobody needs to wait or send files to each other.
We are delighted with the support and strategy 21LAB provides LineThemes and would highly recommend them as an IT partner.
Tung Phan – Managing Director, LineThemes
As Microsoft are always updating, securing and improving the software, there is never any need to upgrade – they always have the latest version.
Now that everything is centralised in the cloud there is not need for a VPN and head office is no longer the single point of failure. So the team can work from home just by logging in using a standard internet connection.
Another positive is reduced energy consumption. 5 servers use a lot of electricity, and the reduced bill is a bonus.
