Customer challenges:

The ever-accelerating speed of HS2 means it is crucial for the company to be able to Work with multiple Suppliers across multiple locations, drive down IT cost and give more flexibility to their IT environment at the same time follow the government advice “Cloud first”. We ran an Office 365 migration project moving them from Exchange on-prem to O365.

HS2’s vision architecture vision is:

• A flexible, scalable architecture with regard to increasing and decreasing capabilities while maintaining the ability to deliver IT services to diverse locations.
• Putting down the technology foundations now in order to support HS2’s Information Management strategy.

Solution:

We implemented the following Office 365 services and made them available to HS2’s users:

• Exchange Online
• SharePoint Online
• Skype for Business Online
• Yammer
• Stream
• Sway
• Delve
• Planner
• Teams
• Flow

As Office 365 evolves, the range of products and services available to subscribers are frequently updated and enhanced.

HS2 require Single Sign-On (SSO) access to Office 365. To enable HS2 users to access Office 365 services using their existing Active Directory accounts, Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) and Azure AD Connect will be deployed to provide identity management services and enable the use of federated accounts.

ADFS will provide SSO to Office 365 services using token based authentication. This allows users to seamlessly access Office 365 without being challenged for credentials or the need to maintain separate accounts.

Azure AD Connect synchronises in scope user accounts, distribution lists and security groups from the HS2 on premise Active Directory to the Azure Active Directory cloud environment used by Office 365.

Microsoft Office 365 is a subscription service that encompasses a number of products. Office 365 includes the Microsoft Office desktop suite with cloud-based communications and collaboration services including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Skype for Business Online, Delve, Planner, Sway, OneDrive for Business, Stream, Teams, Office Online and Yammer.

Worked with HS2 to create a new solution blueprint in the Microsoft cloud – resigning old on-site hardware, ensuring fast implementation and achieving full integration with the firm’s existing case management system.

The new cloud environment was designed to deliver greater information security and compliance, improved flexibility and personal productivity, and new tools to enhance internal and external collaboration. HS2 cutting-edge IT services comprise of a virtual server environment within Microsoft Azure and the Office 365 suite of productivity applications including Microsoft Office for all staff. SharePoint Online houses the company intranet and team document storage while OneDrive for Business enables selected files and documents to be shared with customers and partners outside of the business in secure ‘groups’.

With modern laptops machines, powered by Windows 10, enabled the staff to work in any location as seamlessly as they would in the office with access to their files and applications wherever they are.