We helped Greater Manchester Pension Fund determine whether Microsoft 365 was right for their organisation, with an independent consultancy engagement also involving business stakeholders.

The Client:

Greater Manchester Pension Fund

The Challenge:

Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) is the UK’s biggest local authority pension fund and is part of The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

The GMPF team were evaluating their options regarding licensed Microsoft products/services which were nearing end of life and wanted to understand the attributes and long-term financial impact of moving from an on-premises to a cloud-based solution.

The Solution:

TechAlign’s experienced consultants led a series of workshops involving senior stakeholders and technical colleagues in order to truly understand the current and projected future needs of the organisation, as well as outlining the pros and cons of a cloud-based solution. Following these discussions, it was clear that a cloud option would offer significant advantages for the organisation, based on its activities and external collaboration requirements with member organisations and partners. This was coupled with the realisation that cloud technologies could help meet GMPF’s strategic objectives including flexible yet secure agile working, via Microsoft’s suite of security products as part of Microsoft 365.

The TechAlign team led interactive walkthroughs to showcase some of the capabilities of a cloud-based solution, with constructive discussion relating to the benefits this could provide. This was coupled with discussions around risks and potential considerations when embarking on this journey. The investment required was discussed at length to ensure that the operational expenditure impact of a subscription model was financially sustainable and would offer best value for money.

Following GMPF’s decision to procure the cloud-based solution, TechAlign has continued to support the organisation in the procurement and technical implementation of the solution, in close collaboration with its in-house team.