Transparity is putting the IT in data security for UK charity

UK-based charity Enham Trust supports over 250,000 disabled people to live and work as independently as possible. It holds a considerable amount of sensitive and confidential information, meaning that any kind of data breach would affect thousands of people, a responsibility the Trust takes very seriously.

The Trust’s existing infrastructure was out of date and made it difficult to maintain good data handling practices. The charity was struggling to effectively share policy changes, training documents or urgent updates regarding service users across the business. As such, it wanted to introduce a solution with a focus on improved security, while also making it easier for its teams of workers around the country to collaborate and share information.

Transparity migrated the charity from Office 365 to Microsoft 365, incorporating its existing SharePoint and OneDrive solutions whilst giving it access to Endpoint Manager and Advanced Threat Protection. Endpoint Manager has enabled the Trust to improve productivity and effectively manage its devices and applications across the organisation. As a result, the existing on-premises infrastructure could be decommissioned, with the new cloud-based solution reducing costs and allowing the charity to fully use SharePoint and OneDrive. Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection has also improved security through regular updates to protect against malicious attacks. 

The new Microsoft cloud-based infrastructure has meant that Enham Trust has been able to meet its goal of providing a collaborative environment for its geographically dispersed workforce, enabling teams to easily share information and work together efficiently.

“If the Covid-19 pandemic happened last year we simply would not have been able to operate remotely in the same way we do today,” says Phil Blake, head of IT at Enham Trust. “The systems would not have been able to deal with the demand. Harnessing the power of the cloud, we have been able to continue to operate across all open areas of the business with little to no change in our day-to-day working habits. This, to me, further proves that moving to the cloud was the right choice for the business.”

This article was originally published in the Summer 2020 issue of The Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.