Enfield Council Partners with Sungard AS to Transform its IT - Fast!

Seamless migration of complex hybrid IT infrastructure to a new provider within an aggressive timescale

Enfield Council's contract with an outsourcing provider was ending earlier than expected by mutual agreement and the local authority urgently needed to find a new provider capable of smoothly migrating its cloud-enabled applications to the Microsoft Azure cloud and hosting the remaining legacy systems – some dating back 30 years - in a secure, resilient environment. With the non-negotiable contract exit deadline fast approaching, the council knew it needed to act quickly. It admits it had demanding requirements.

Seamless migration of complex hybrid IT infrastructure to a new provider within an aggressive timescale

Enfield Council's contract with an outsourcing provider was ending earlier than expected by mutual agreement and the local authority urgently needed to find a new provider capable of smoothly migrating its cloud-enabled applications to the Microsoft Azure cloud and hosting the remaining legacy systems – some dating back 30 years - in a secure, resilient environment. With the non-negotiable contract exit deadline fast approaching, the council knew it needed to act quickly. It admits it had demanding requirements.

We were looking for a technology partner we could trust who would be flexible, work at a fast pace to meet our tight timeframe and give us a simple migration route. The transition from the incumbent supplier to the new provider had to be absolutely seamless, and, of course, keeping our data centre up and running throughout, without any interruptions whatsoever, was a top priority.

The council turned to Sungard Availability Services – already a trusted partner of Enfield Council, having provided disaster recovery services to the local authority for two decades. Councillor Dino Lemonides, Cabinet member for Finance & Efficiency at Enfield Council explains, “We chose Sungard Availability Services because we cannot afford any interruption to services and need a seamless transition. Not only do we have zero tolerance for downtime but any decline in performance is equally unacceptable.”

Sungard AS and Enfield Council worked closely together, holding bi-weekly workshops, to develop a requirements specification and plan to migrate Enfield Council’s complex hybrid infrastructure, up to OS level, to Sungard AS. “Sungard AS was the only provider able to meet our somewhat challenging timeframes,” says Councillor Lemonides. “For example, they needed to be capable of taking over our data center from the incumbent in an ‘as is state’ within a six-week period. Sungard AS was also willing to participate in three-way negotiations involving them, the council and the incumbent supplier. In short, they had to be extremely flexible in terms of delivery, negotiations and the technology.”

Retaining agility was essential as the government’s austerity programme means that Enfield Council cannot enter into any long-term contracts. Opting for a pay-as-you-go Sungard AS enterprise cloud solution, coupled with managed hosting services, allows the council to pay only for what it uses, gives it the flexibility to scale up or down as necessary and, importantly, avoid any upfront investment or long-term financial commitments.

Sungard AS cloud consulting experts are helping Enfield Council with its Azure design and ensuring a smooth transition of its complex IT environment from one provider to another.

As the project progressed, the council adjusted its strategy several times and Sungard AS, in turn, needed to frequently adjust its own plans to accommodate the changes. These included bringing new applications such as SAP Financials and Microsoft Lync (a forerunner of Skype for Business) onto the Sungard AS enterprise cloud.

Flawless execution leaves employees blissfully unaware of the switch

The IT transformation program is still underway but the first phase of the program has been completed on time and within budget. The switchover from the incumbent to Sungard AS at one minute past midnight on the appointed date was seamless – employees were completely unaware it had occurred. Sungard AS and Enfield Council continued close co-operation to complete the ambitious IT transformation program, which will give the Council a resilient, flexible foundation needed to deliver efficient, cost-effective services to the borough's citizens.

We now look forward to continued close cooperation between our two organizations to complete our ambitious IT transformation programme, which will give us the resilient, flexible foundation we need to deliver efficient, cost-effective services to the borough's citizens.