Taking the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham into the cloud Agilisys is one of the UK s leading digital technology providers. Since 1998 we have been helping forward thinking organisations to transform services that make a difference to millions of people across the UK.
Taking the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham into the cloud Challenge Reduce IT costs by 25% Replace end-of-life technology Reduce building footprint Enable smarter working Deploy a new solution within seven months Solution Transform LBBD s IT estate with a wholesale cloud migration Results Achieved LBBD s objectives of cost reduction, smarter working and reduced their building footprint on time Reduced I.T. support staff by 35%. Improved end user satisfaction Greatly reduced the need for future upgrades and technology refreshes Improved business continuity and disaster recovery 2
3 Challenge A borough responding to spending review pressures Following the 2016 Local Government Spending Review, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) found itself facing two potentially conflicting goals. The council needed to reduce IT spending by 25% and downsize its building footprint, while simultaneously meeting its aim of refreshing end-of-life technology to support smarter working and workforce mobility. These demands were further complicated by extreme timepressure: LBBD had to exit its main data centre by December 2016 giving any solution just seven months to be deployed. LBBD s IT transformation ran the risk of being a lengthy process. The Government funding settlements and resulting historic budget pressures had left the council with a significant technology refresh requirement. Existing IT systems had grown exponentially over many years, resulting in a tangled and complex technology stack of hundreds of applications, servers and storage volumes.
4 Solution Wise council To meet the time, cost and quality of service challenges facing LBBD, Agilisys outlined a cloud-first strategy that would transform and migrate the council s entire IT estate. Agilisys worked closely with LBBD to understand its requirements and the need for change. Crucial to this process was understanding the council s existing IT estate, so that a future roadmap could be developed - including the ideal technology stack and a target operating model aligned to consumption-based pricing. Agilisys also defined a clear business case for cloud migration, supporting LBBD s internal decision-making and ultimate sign-off. The next stage was to rationalise and optimise LBBD s existing IT systems. By ensuring the council s existing systems were fit for purpose, correctly sized and still required - and consolidating or eliminating unnecessary elements - Agilisys made LBBD s cloud migration faster, safer and simpler to manage. As part of this process, Agilisys reduced LBBD s existing servers from 730 to just 236, while also downsizing its application footprint. Alongside this rationalisation process, Agilisys upgraded LBBD s network aligned to smarter working and cloud services consumption, cleaned up the Active Directory data model to enable cloud migration. With all the groundwork in place, Agilisys then migrated LBBD s 236 servers and unstructured data to its IaaS platform. The council s 3300 users were also migrated to a laptop-first Managed Desktop environment based on Windows 10, Direct Access and Office 2016. In addition, these users were migrated onto Office 365 and Skype for Business alongside the council s legacy on-premise SharePoint and Intranet system. By working with Agilisys s expert architects, engineers and project managers LBBD decommissioned its legacy infrastructure and powered down its data centre.
Taking the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham into the cloud 5 To undertake this transformation in only two years is phenomenal Claire Symonds Chief Operating Officer London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
6 Results Transforming IT from constraint to enabler Agilisys proposed, designed, coordinated, planned and delivered LBBD s wholesale cloud migration in just two years, successfully meeting the council s extreme time constraints. Today, LBBD is supported by an agile and highly scalable IT infrastructure that s fully aligned to its smarter working model, building independence and achieving costreduction goals. LBBD reduced its operating costs by 25%, while also driving a 35% reduction in IT support costs. Backed by a cloud-based suite of technologies, LBBD has also significantly reduced the need for any costly technology refreshes and upgrades in the future avoiding potential capital expenditure on the road ahead. significantly improved LBBD s disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities. By ensuring minimal legacy infrastructure was left behind, Agilisys complete cloud solution also enabled the council to reduce its real estate footprint. LBBD now benefits from state-of-the-art IT infrastructure that nimbly scales with demand, enhances resilience and supports true flexible working based upon Wi-Fi, Direct Access and a laptop-first approach. As a result, the council s end user satisfaction has improved significantly, with up-to-date software powering applications on-demand and the potential to work anywhere, anytime and on any device. By centrally deploying all LBBD s applications with no local installations, Agilisys enabled more effective application and licence management. The targeted replication of key applications also
7 LBBD s new cloud reality LBBD now run a cloud-first approach, fully migrating to the Agilisys Community Cloud and moving 3300 users to Office 365. New flexible and mobile working with new collaberative technologies that enhance productivity via a laptop-first approach. Servers consolidated and reduced storage requirements by over 50%, dramatically improving LBBD s cloud business case. Valuable civic building freed up by removal of data centre. Operating cost reducd by 25% and new technologies implemented that reduce need for costly future upgrades.
8 About Agilisys Agilisys, an employee owned organisation, is one of the UK s most innovative and fast-growing IT business software and services providers, helping our clients to transform their businesses through a suite of citizen-centric technology products as well as centres of delivery excellence around the UK. Working for both the public and private sector, we have earned a strong reputation and hold deep domain expertise delivering transformational services in particular within local and central government. For more information about how your organisation could benefit from Agilisys cloud solutions & services visit www.agilisys.co.uk or call us on 0845 450 1131