Azure Migration in Action with Tysers
Hear from Tyser’s Group Chief Information Officer and learn about their Azure migration journe...
Case Study: Inigo
Formed in 2020, Inigo is an award-winning start-up, specialising in a select range of high-risk, high-capacity insurance and reinsurance lines, exclusively through the broker intermediary market.
- Service Areas Microsoft 365, Azure, Professional Services, Managed Services, Cyber, Digital Transformation
- Industry Insurance
- Organisation Size 150 people
- Completion date June 2022
1
weekend to deliver multiple platforms
9
months to go cloud-first
150
employees served
Inigo wanted to enhance its already-established business model using modern cloud-based technology to enable competitive advantage.
In March 2021, Inigo acquired Starstone Underwriting Ltd from Enstar Group Ltd and Stone Point Capital. Following this acquisition, Inigo needed to migrate the users and IT assets from their old Enstar Office 365 platform into a new tenant. This required building a bespoke Microsoft 365 package from the ground up, including new Microsoft 365, Azure cloud and managed service architecture.
Inigo was determined to achieve a best-practice, cloud-first architecture based on the Microsoft platform. Achieving this goal within the desired timescale required careful planning, design, and execution skill.
Challenge
To support Inigo’s growth and business strategy, a fast and effective build was required – one causing minimal disruption to business operations within a nine-month timeframe. Inigo also needed to get from A to B as efficiently as possible – with clear end-user communication, adoption support and engagement.
Migrating and transitioning to a fully managed operational model within this deadline required careful and considered planning, design and configuration. Traditional hardware was not the answer. With the pandemic putting supply chains under considerable pressure, the project would have been impossible to complete on schedule.
At the inception of the company, Inigo also lacked the internal resource, so opted to source a partner capable of delivering change on this scale.
A cloud-first strategy was essential for us, as we wanted to harness new technology quickly and at scale, while offloading the resources and management effort associated with hardware and on-premises technology.Erdal Atakan, Chief Information Officer at Inigo
Working with our technology partner Content+Cloud, we adopted Microsoft Azure cloud technology, plus a breadth of cloud services, including SaaS, PaaS and IaaS. By outsourcing the implementation and management of our infrastructure, we were able to go from a standing start to being a truly cloud-first organisation in the space of nine months.Erdal Atakan, Chief Information Officer at Inigo
Approach
Inigo’s search focused on securing a technology transformation and business change partner that could lead their evolution and act as a one-stop shop to ensure a seamless transition to a fully managed cloud environment.
Content+Cloud was chosen for its many years of experience in successfully managing clients through divestiture projects and working with highly compliant organisations, including within Inigo’s own financial services and insurance sector.
Furthermore, our extensive knowledge of Microsoft services and cloud technologies, alongside our understanding of the timelines and roadmap to deploying services, was an essential requirement. We were able to present a model approach that would transform, evolve, secure and support Inigo’s technologies.
Our approach sought to reduce or eradicate risks, give the most efficient route to migration, and guide the strategy for IT, supported by managed services. Inigo’s own people were at the heart of our planning. Working together with the insurer’s internal teams, our business change experts ensured Inigo’s change champions understood the reasons for change and the benefits it would bring. Content+Cloud’s expertise was coupled with flexibility, enabling us to correct our course where necessary and work collaboratively with Inigo.
Solution
We delivered an end-to-end solution with Microsoft 365 and Azure, aligning with the requirements of the build schedule and ongoing operating model. This included the following technologies and steps:
- Detailed pre-migration discovery and readiness assessment
- Design and configuration of the tenant in Microsoft 365, with zero-trust security by design
- Efficient and secure migration to the new tenant with our Azure Landing Zone
- Enrolment of Inigo devices into Intune management
- Deployment and configuration of Microsoft 365 E5 including Teams Phone, SSO and Office apps
- In-project transitioning to Content+Cloud’s managed services, including service desk and security support (NOC and SOC)
Outcomes
- Inigo received a new IT infrastructure, in line with best practices for information security and governance
- Inigo was able to launch both its policy and claims administration platforms on the same weekend, thanks to careful coordination
- A full suite of managed services was put in place to ensure Inigo had the best support moving forward
- The entire project was completed seamlessly and on time, averting any risk of delay going to market
- Inigo now benefits from increased agility, enabling it to quickly experiment with new technologies, adopting and deploying these where suitable
- Greater resilience has been established, removing the risks associated with on-premises infrastructure, such as outages
- A new, trusted partnership was established based on a shared vision and clear objectives
Products and Services taken
- Microsoft 365 E5
- Azure Landing Zone
- Sentinel
- Azure Virtual Desktop
- Surface devices
- Teams Meeting Rooms
- Teams Phone
- Azure Data Services
- Managed SOC
- Windows Defender (Endpoint and Cloud)
- New Commerce Experience licensing
The Future
Inigo is now benefiting from a range of managed services, while Content+Cloud continues to work in close partnership, evolving its support to meet the needs of the business.
Future plans include increased consumption of Azure, particularly its data and AI capabilities (for example, Inigo has been experimenting with data-lake technology using Azure Databricks and Synapse).
We also look forward to working with Inigo on harnessing technology to deliver its environmental and social governance goals. Inigo is planning to monitor the environmental impact of its cloud footprint utilising the tools in Azure and benefiting from the significant investment Microsoft has made when it comes to reducing its carbon emissions.
Ultimately, a core business goal is to use data as a differentiator. By operating a cloud-first model, and harnessing the advanced tools across the Azure platform, we can dedicate our energy and resources to creating ever more advanced propositions, powered by data.Erdal Atakan, Chief Information Officer at Inigo
