Business Fuel chooses Resolution Technology to Secure and Manage Microsoft 365
Business Fuel, an innovative financial services provider understands the value of technology and the impact it can have on their business, their customers, and their partners. When their work and cyber security context shifted, they needed assistance to transform their IT platform to support new ways of working and measurable security outcomes. Resolution Technology provided partnership, expertise, and rapid execution to enable the next wave of Business Fuels IT environment.
About Business Fuel
Business Fuel is a growing technology focused financial services firm who value innovation, delivering a high degree of service to their customers, and aligning with best practices in their industry.
Research and development to streamline the customer facing and operational elements of the business is a major focus for Business Fuel. However, the events that unfolded during 2021 highlighted that transforming the core IT platform was a priority that would help deliver on its promises to customers and staff alike.
The Problem
The ability to work remotely and meet security requirements became a major consideration for the Business Fuel team, highlighted by both COVID-19 restrictions and an evolving focus on cyber security in the financial services industry.
Business Fuel needed a roadmap to make their work environment secure, ready for remote work, and they needed to get there quickly.
The Solution
When Business Fuel approached Resolution Technology for proposals to take the business forward, there were several options on the table that would keep the lights on, but possibly would not fulfil their future needs.
At Resolution Technology, we saw that Business Fuel were perfectly positioned to realise a wide range of benefits by uplifting their current Office 365 environment to Microsoft 365 and addressing many of their business challenges on the way.
Resolution Technology presented a roadmap to Business Fuel which included:
- Adopting Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to address device management and threat protection concerns while maintaining the benefits of Office 365.
- Tailoring and Implementing security baselines provided by Microsoft 365 Business Premium, leveraging Microsoft 365 Secure Score and other best practice frameworks (CIS, and ACSC Essential Eight) to drive measurable cyber security risk reduction.
- Addressing remote work scenarios by providing key staff with access to Windows 365 Business, to enable work from anywhere solutions consistent with organisational security standards.
- Replacing the existing on premises PABX phone system With Microsoft Teams Calling, to free the customer contact centre from the Business Fuel office location. The existing solution will remain in place until its current contract is complete, at which time Teams Calling will be reviewed as a replacement.
- Integrating existing critical SaaS applications with Azure AD Premium to enable Single Sign On, Multi Factor Authentication, and streamlined application access.
- Providing ongoing identity, messaging, files, and security management and support based on the Resolution Technology Microsoft 365 Managed Service.
“From the outset of our discussions with Resolution Technology, the focus was on how our business can transform to meet our current and future challenges. The completeness of the Microsoft 365 Business Premium solution stood out as driving value where we needed it, Resolution delivered the plan that made it simple to get from A to B.
— Dan Oxnard, Business Fuel”
The Implementation
Resolution Technology provided a rapid deployment and security uplift project based on our Secure Modern Work design and deployment methodology. This standards based, customisable approach to delivering on a spectrum of Microsoft 365 Business Premium features resulted in a fast turnaround time. From roadmap discussions to completion of the project the elapsed time was less than 4 weeks which included full device enrolment, policy creations, Microsoft 365 tenant hardening, testing, and full deployment.
The project approach was flexible and fast paced, and leveraged Microsoft Teams to facilitate information sharing, questions, decisions and clarity between Business Fuel and Resolution Technology. Resolution Technology were responsible for end-to-end support of the environment during the deployment phase, making it even more important for the support teams to be aware of changes.
“Working with the Resolution Technology project team was easy and the pace at which issues, and questions were addressed was refreshing. Expertise with the Microsoft platform and security principles really came to the forefront throughout the entire project. At no point did we feel uninformed as to the next steps, or what the changes would actually mean for our team.
— Dan Oxnard, Business Fuel”
Enabling workplace flexibility
When Australia was navigating its wave of COVID-19 in late 2021, the plan to use Windows 365 Business was activated for key members of the management team, enabling productivity while in isolation. Previously, the only option would have been to transport a desktop PC from the office to a staff members home, or simply use a home PC. These options had both been identified as inefficient and a security risk during the roadmap sessions.
Business Fuel are considering broader use of Windows 365 as a productivity and security measure, which will also help deliver an even more responsive and flexible work environment.
Ongoing support and Proactive Management
Beyond the deployment phase, Business Fuel was seeking a refreshed and focused approach to supporting the IT platform based on proactivity and deep platform expertise. The Resolution Technology Microsoft 365 Managed Service has been designed specifically to drive ongoing value from customers Microsoft 365 Business Premium investments, coupled with Resolution 10 years of managed services experience and mature services engagement approach. The Microsoft 365 Managed Service is supplemented by additional services to ensure other aspects of the environment such as LAN and Internet connections are maintained, as well as assistance with application integrations such as Salesforce.
The Microsoft 365 Managed Services incorporates a specific support and management solution that encompasses:
- Identity Management – Azure AD and user provisioning, monitoring, and policy maintenance, SSO integration
- Device Management – Microsoft Endpoint Manager policy, Autopilot, security basslines, and compliance
- Email Management – Exchange Online mail flow, recipient management, Defender for Office 365 policy management
- File Sync and Share Management – Teams and Microsoft 365 groups governance, monitoring, OneDrive for Business support, and data management policy
- Defender Threat Protection – Incident monitoring and response, device risk monitoring, Threat and Vulnerability reviews, and policy management
- Service Delivery and ongoing reporting – To measure the success of the support services as well as ensure the Microsoft 365 environment remains secure and healthy
“Our transition to the Microsoft 365 Managed Service has provided a real point of difference in our ongoing relationship with Resolution Technology. It is good to know that with our increased investment in Microsoft 365, the team are focused on managing the environment proactively, as well as helping us day to day.
— Dan Oxnard, Business Fuel”
The Future
Business Fuel are constantly seeking to improve their technology platform, with a view to improving the resilience of their operations and ultimately protect their customers and provide the highest levels of service to clients.
Resolution Technology, via the Microsoft 365 Managed Service and our ongoing strategic relationship will continue to identify improvements which will address security. collaboration, and flexible working goals.
