Working in partnership with Incline IT, Arches Housing has successfully completed the migration of its on-premise servers to the public cloud.
Seamus Harkins, data services manager, Arches Housing, said, “At 30-strong, we are a small team with big ambitions to develop 400 new homes across our region by 2028. Much of the funding for this growth has to come from reinvesting our surpluses. To see this materialise, we all need to work as productively as possible so that we can continue to be a lean organisation that delivers value for our tenants.
“A key part of facilitating high levels of productivity is giving our staff choice and flexibility. By mobilising our entire workforce, they can all be productive wherever they are.”
Cloud was identified as an enabler for the company’s objective to facilitate remote working as well as providing a sound foundation for future technologies, such as automated workflows, that could deliver further efficiencies. Furthermore, because cloud removes the requirement for capital expenditure, is scalable and minimises the risks associated with on-premise setups, it also matched Arches Housing’s focus on value for money and risk mitigation.
The project was originally planned and contracted before coronavirus struck; when the pandemic began unfolding, Arches Housing wanted the migration to be accelerated because it would enhance business continuity and enable a simple transition to home working. As a result, the six-week project was actually completed by Incline IT and Arches Housing within three weeks and enabled the housing provider’s whole team to transition overnight to working from home.
Harkins said, “One of the biggest benefits we had in migrating to the cloud was that it allowed our wider team to focus on our tenants when they needed our support more than ever. Our staff didn’t have to spend time on the phone to our helpdesk getting set up to work from home – it all just worked.
“As for the IT team, we’ve been freed up from having to think about server maintenance, upgrades and all those other time-consuming tasks. Instead, we’re working on more strategic initiatives for the organisation that will ultimately improve our tenants’ experience and deliver efficiencies which support our growth programme.
“Looking ahead to further unpredictability and economic disruption, we’re confident that we can rapidly adapt to different ways of working, thanks to the flexibility of our new IT system.”
