SUMMARY
CLIENT
Located in the heart of Yorkshire, Blacks Solicitors offer a wide range of legal services to both their commercial and private clients.
PROJECT
With the introduction of the new work from home rules, it was urgent for Blacks Solicitors to move to a cloud-based service which would allow all their staff to work from home, while gaining access to their office desktop.
SOLUTION
We moved over 180 members of staff to the Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) Machine. This allowed for secure remote working and implemented stricter backup and disaster recovery procedures.
Introduction
Being recognised as a Leading Firm in The Legal 500 UK and winning Medium Law Firm of the Year at the Yorkshire Legal Awards in 2018, Blacks Solicitors offer a wide range of legal services to commercial and private clients across Yorkshire. Offering their clients the highest level of legal assistance while understanding their needs and the sectors in which they work in. Blacks Solicitors continuously grow with 25 partners and a strong team of 180 staff members.
Challenge
Blacks Solicitors began working with Edmondson’s IT 3 years ago. With the announcement of a lockdown and businesses being required to work from home, the pressures on Blacks Solicitors' staff working in a virtual environment were increasing. The need to migrate over 180 staff and lockdown coming closer, Blacks Solicitors was looking for an IT Service Provider who could assist with providing a solution that would allow them to work remotely and securely.
Solution
Thanks to Edmondson’s IT’s Microsoft Partnership and our expert engineers who have a vast knowledge of the Microsoft platforms, we knew the perfect solution for the ever-growing firm. We moved all members of staff to a cloud-based Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) Machine, which allowed for secure remote working and implemented stricter backup and disaster recovery procedures. Blacks Solicitors now had access to the Windows 10 and 11 desktops from the comfort of their own home thanks to the flexibility of AVD and FSLogix. With access to their day-to-day applications, office products, and print sharing, all members of staff could experience the same level of productivity as they did in the office. The ease of use of the Azure portal helps Blacks to enable security features, add new users, and implement desktop apps with just a few clicks.
AVD’s Data resiliency was a huge benefit to Blacks’ daily operations. Knowing that the configuration had built in failover should a data centre go offline and that data was securely backed u and monitored on a daily basis The Edmondson's team also migrated Blacks' entire infrastructure, including the Domain Controller, File and Storage Sharing, and Print Services. The Domain Controller helped manage authentication requests and verified users, improving Blacks’ security and eliminate any future security vulnerabilities.
Throughout the process of moving the Blacks Solicitors’ team to remote working, Edmondson’s IT maintained a close relationship with Blacks, working closely with them to make sure the environment was exactly what they needed.
what were the key outcomes?
Secure remote working environment
Edmondson's IT helped create a secure remote working environment for all staff at Blacks, ensuring they could access their office desktop from the comfort of their own homes.
Cloud
The cloud feature helped not only with keeping their data secure, but also helped with data backup issues. The feature also allowed them to access this data from anywhere, at any time.
Better system management
The migration of their entire IT infrastructure, allowed Blacks to better manage their systems, giving them complete control and awareness of how their systems are operating.
Saved thousands annually
The benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop meant they could close an entire physical office in a prime city centre location and allow staff to work from home saving thousands annually.
Long-term investment
Blacks' investment in AVD was beneficial not only during lockdown, but also as lockdown restrictions were lifted as they transitioned further into remote work.
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