Azure Migration in Action with Tysers
Hear from Tyser’s Group Chief Information Officer and learn about their Azure migration journe...
Case Study: Tysers
Based at the heart of the world’s premier insurance market in London, Tysers employs over 1,200 people and handles in excess of £2.75bn of annual premiums working with leading (re)insurance markets worldwide to deliver risk solutions to a global client base.
- Service Areas M365, Azure, Fresh, Professional Services, Managed Services, Digital Transformation
- Industry Insurance
- Organisation Size 1,200+ employees
- Completion date January 2022
1,200+
seats migrated to the Microsoft Cloud
50%
reduction in Central London office space requirements
35%
reduction in support incidents
4.98
CSAT score up from 4.5 (out of 5)
Tysers prides itself on providing forward-thinking, nimble solutions and, more than being simply a service provider, acting as a partner and advisor to its clients.
They have offices and representatives in locations around the world to provide risk management solutions at a global level, ranging from their head office in London all the way to the US, Singapore, Dubai, Australia and more. To stay ahead in the mid-tier insurance broking market, Tysers’ services need to be supported by cloud-first, forward-thinking and robust IT infrastructure that enables its people to thrive in a world of hybrid working.
Challenge
Rapid growth from several acquisitions had resulted in the business dealing with multiple teams, platforms, applications and tools, all of which were hampering proper integration and paralysing IT operations.
Group-legacy, end-user compute, and an on-premises data centre environment were both limiting organisational agility, thereby increasing risk and cost, and eroding acquisition returns.
Internal and external communication and collaboration challenges, post-acquisition, were also exacerbated by Covid-19 remote working, and the need to accelerate the solutions to these issues, in the form of a digital transformation roadmap, was even more urgently required.
Following a series of acquisitions, we were struggling with the ability to grow and scale. Our infrastructure was mostly on-premises, which inhibited us from growing at scale. We started looking at how that could be changed to move our infrastructure and apps into the cloud to enable scalability.Steve Jolley, CIO at Tysers
Microsoft Azure was the clear winner for us because of the investment that’s been put into it. The scalability, the ability to manage and maintain it and the licensing model all formed part of why we wanted to
go in that direction. Steve Jolley, CIO at Tysers
Approach
With our reputation for delivering successful digital transformation projects, Content+Cloud was selected by Tysers as a long-term partner to implement a Digital Workplace and guide the integration and transformation of its IT systems.
In addition to selecting Content+Cloud for the project work Tysers had already selected us for their service desk and infrastructure management.
Our team worked in partnership with Tysers to develop a business case outlining the solutions, timelines, costs and long-term benefits of the proposed project. The business case was the primary factor in attaining buy-in at board level for the project.
A clearly defined business change and adoption strategy was put in place to profile and understand end users within the business, which in turn informed the deployment, roll-out and training requirements the business would need. The Tysers ‘Work Anywhere Project’ was then designed to transform the way Tysers’ users could operate, improve security and be an ‘all cloud’ model removing all reliance on on-premise infrastructure.
Solution
- Digitally transformed legacy estate to cloud utilising Azure, Azure Virtual Desktop and Modern Workplace to transform end-user experience and enable remote working.
- Transition of on-premises infrastructure to 100% Azure through the use of Azure Migration tools-based assessment and migration (rehosting) of Windows servers and SQL workloads on Windows servers.
- Migration to Azure of SQL Server 2016 and Windows Server 2016 Standard and 2016 Datacenter, as well as newly provisioning Windows Server 2019 Datacenter.
- Content+Cloud implemented a common support and infrastructure management model supporting legacy systems as well as recently transitioned and transformed Modern Workplace, Azure and business applications environments.
- Modern Workplace communication and collaboration solutions were implemented, and surfaced internally through Content+Cloud’s proprietary intranet solution, ‘Fresh Digital Workplace’
- Following work to reduce the number of applications, the key line of business applications access was then supported by deployment of Azure Virtual Desktop. This enabled fast, secure ‘access from anywhere’ to these applications for users.
- Azure Distributed File System and SharePoint were used to move unstructured file data to the cloud.
- Device as a service (DaaS) was also added to the solution to support the shift to hybrid working amid the pandemic and beyond, as well as enhance the onboarding process for new employees.
- In addition to the dedicated team of six on-site engineers, we appointed Tysers a full-time account manager and a technical account manager to ensure the project maintained momentum.
The Future
With a strong focus on momentum, agility and futureproofing its business, Tysers continues to work with Content+Cloud to deliver its digital transformation into the coming years.
The ongoing services and support we provide are designed to ensure Tysers continues to adapt as it evolves, enabling the organisation to focus on being a data-driven, digital-first and digital-forward business.
Kick-starting its digital transformation also means systems and technologies inherited through any future acquisitions, can be quickly and efficiently integrated.
As a business, we’re very Microsoft 365-oriented and rely on the tools within it, such as Outlook, Teams SharePoint Online, Yammer and Delve. As an extension of this, Azure was the logical choice for our cloud migration, and Content+Cloud has helped leverage our investment in this technology and driven us forward on our digital transformation journey.Steve Jolley, CIO at Tysers
Outcomes
- Tysers is on track to meet its goal of operating fully in a secure, accessible and self-managing Digital Workplace, significantly improving security, experience, and ability to operate.
- There is now a common approach within the business to transforming and securing the way users work, enabling remote working and improving collaboration.
- An Azure-centric approach has led to reduced application footprint and improvement in business continuity.
- Significant improvements in security through full E5 and Azure both for access and management of business information.
- End-user satisfaction has increased across the business, with ServiceNow bringing internal and external teams together.
- The business will see a direct cost benefit over five years, through a 50% reduction in office space requirements.
- Integrated C+C services have enabled licence and vendor rationalisation, also reducing costs.
- The Fresh intranet and Digital Workplace solution has increased group-wide communication and collaboration. Called ‘T-Hub’, it is at the centre of their digital workspace
Products and Services taken
- Fully managed Service Desk
- Full infrastructure management
- Consultancy, planning and implementation
- Microsoft Teams deployment and adoption
- Managed Desktop Service
- ITSM tooling
- Fresh intranet and Digital Workplace solution
- M365 E5 plus support
- Landing Zone Migration to Azure
- SharePoint
- Azure Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
- Azure Distributed File System
- Business change and adoption consultancy
