By Insight UK / 1 Nov 2019 / Topics: Cloud
As a specialist engineering inspection business carrying out 3 million inspections a year, 450 of BES’s 600 staff work in the field alongside their clients.
To keep its business operations running smoothly while taking the opportunity to become more innovative in its service delivery, BES identified a need to improve its IT environment.
Formerly part of Royal Sun Alliance Insurance, BES began its transformation journey when it became an independent business in 2015. Having moved many of its systems to the cloud, BES was looking to leverage further benefits from Microsoft Azure in terms of cost saving, scalability and innovation.
With an increasingly complex portfolio of Azure services, it was proving difficult for BES to understand which Azure resources were incurring the highest costs, and what could be done to reduce them. Similarly, BES needed guidance on its licensing and support agreements with Microsoft to ensure it was getting the best value from its IT.
With its cloud migration underway, including plans to move the remaining on-premise systems to Azure, BES called on Insight to optimise its cloud environment.
“Insight has provided great expertise in thedesign of our new infrastructure. They give us theconfidence that we are moving to a new cloud-based design that makes the most of what Azure offers.”
Jonathan Bradshaw - Chief Information Officer, British Engineering Services
As part of its transformation journey, BES implemented a range of cloud only systems, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 for its core business system and Microsoft Office 365 to manage its financial system, customer portal and field force management systems.
BES also developed some bespoke systems and services on the Microsoft Azure platform.
With the aim of creating a core capability of DevOps staff to manage its cloud production services and software applications, BES called upon Insight to provide expert knowledge and guidance on Azure.
Insight’s experienced architects worked closely with the BES in-house IT team to improve and refine the Azure service, following the initial migration. Working with Insight, BES has made great progress in establishing its cloud resource planning and getting its optimisation process up and running.
Insight has also provided the cloud security expertise to ensure that BES’s systems are not only secure in design, but also practice, by applying a series of production tests.
To optimise the company’s Azure spend, Insight worked alongside BES to ensure it has the data it needs to improve its Azure cost management reports.
“Insight has been great at helping us get fine detail reporting so we know where our Azure costs are,” says Jonathan Bradshaw.
Insight’s licensing and buying knowledge enabled BES to get the best price for the Microsoft licences and services they have purchased.
As BES moves its remaining on-premise systems to Azure, Insight will continue to provide BES with the skills of its knowledgeable project staff.
BES is now on track for a full migration to the cloud, knowing that it is making the best use of its cloud resources at the right cost.
Thanks to Insight’s understanding of cloud security, BES has the peace of mind that its systems stand up to rigorous security standards.
Working alongside Insight on its cloud migration, BES enables its staff to work more productively, supports its engineer surveyors in the field and delivers a much better experience to its end clients.
BES has made great progress on its transformation journey, allowing the organisation to continue innovating at a faster pace.
““I have the peace of mind knowing that any time I need expert help, Insight is only a phone call away.”
Jonathan Bradshaw - Chief Information Officer, British Engineering Services
BES has implemented a range of cloud-based systems and is continuing to migrate its on-premise systems to Azure. Insight has provided specialist knowledge to enable BES to make the best use of its cloud resources.
Insight’s cost management support helped BES to rationalise its spend on cloud services and Microsoft licensing.
With a highly effective process in place to optimise its cloud infrastructure, BES is better equipped to innovate its services in the future.
