To achieve its priorities and vision, Bristol City Council needed to update its systems and technology to be able to work more collaboratively and efficiently. The council engaged Microsoft Industry Solutions and committed to a complex cloud modernization. The program involved migrating 54 workloads to the cloud and orchestrating nearly 500 ecosystem partners and staff to deliver a foundation for innovation.
“Working with Microsoft has given us an opportunity to look at our entire approach to delivering IT services, to reshape our way of thinking and the culture of the IT department. It has turned us from a department which hasn’t always been able to meet the demands of a modern local authority to one that can offer real solutions and drive innovation across the entire business.”
Simon Oliver, Director of Digital Transformation, Bristol City Council
Bristol is a diverse city in southwest England, with more than 90 languages spoken and a population of just over 463,000. Bristol City Council is the unitary authority and is responsible for a wide range of services including taxation, waste management, education, libraries and museums, highways and travel, registration of births, deaths and marriages, anti-social behavior, social care and health, and parks and recreation.
The council had systems and software that weren’t agile or mobile-friendly. Lack of a unified, dynamic platform provided little opportunity for its 6,500 workers to collaborate as effectively as they would’ve liked.
“The council was historically deeply dissatisfied with its IT systems and processes. When we wanted to innovate or move quickly, our IT systems held us back. This meant the staff weren’t able to offer the innovative solutions required of them,” says Simon Oliver, Director of Digital Transformation at Bristol City Council.
The IT Transformation project team looked for platforms that would ensure adequate security controls and compliance with modern security standards while delivering improved services to internal customers and citizen services on a leaner budget.
“The vision for Bristol City Council is huge and ambitious. We want to look at every aspect of what we're doing, such as how we deliver services and the outcomes, and ensure we are doing the right things as efficiently as possible for the benefit of our citizens, the city, and our staff,” explains Simon.
One cloud modernization, 54 workload migrations, and nearly 500 ecosystem partners
After evaluating globally recognized contenders, the council engaged Industry Solutions to implement and orchestrate a complex cloud modernization that involved the migration of 54 workloads across three clouds. The collective team of nearly 500 ecosystem partners, Industry Solutions, and partner delivery organizations all came together to ensure the success of this massive modernization project.
"We partnered with Microsoft in February 2019 through our Cloud Navigator Program, which refreshes and replaces our entire technology foundations. And it includes all the things you'd expect from a technology refresh—end-user computing and moving to the cloud. We've used Dynamics for CRM, SharePoint, and Power BI," says Simon.
Built on Azure, with Microsoft Power Platform, Dynamics 365, and Office 365, the Bristol City Council team deployed Dynamics for CRM. In parallel, Industry Solutions began implementing a best-of-breed data platform and integrations with other solutions and toolsets to increase productivity and efficiency.
Collaborative capabilities, task management, and progress tracking, including Microsoft Teams, came online just as COVID-19 became widespread and all but 40 of 4,000 Bristol City Council computer users began working remotely.
"Working with Microsoft has given us an opportunity to look at our entire approach to delivering IT services, to reshape our way of thinking and the culture of the IT department. It's turned us from a department which hasn’t always been able to meet the demands of a modern local authority to one that can offer real solutions and drive innovation across the entire business,” explains Simon.
Unified Support is the cornerstone of knowledge transfer
Bristol City Council also relied on Microsoft Unified Support and Microsoft FastTrack services for knowledge transfer, training, and adoption. Simon has been quite satisfied with the professionalism of the Unified Support team.
"We moved to Unified Support because it gave us the enhanced support and the training opportunities to uplift our staff to where they need to be and increase our capabilities, increase our usage of the platform, and drive greater efficiencies and benefits from the toolsets we've bought," says Simon. “Whichever services we use, we get quality professional advice and guidance. Industry Solutions is a trusted partner, and it doesn't matter whom we liaise with within the organization; we get the same level of professionalism, courtesy, and drive to do things better.”
Discovering the art of the possible
Bristol City Council sought to implement a wholesale platform upgrade to ensure a strong roadmap and support for future innovation. Working with Microsoft offered the Bristol City Council an opportunity to modernize its infrastructure and reshape the culture of the IT department and arguably the wider business.
“We've really challenged colleagues at Microsoft to find innovative ways of using those platforms. We've given them our challenges. We've given them our ambitions. And they've come back with use cases from other cities around the world. They've explained the 'art of the possible,' how we can do things, and they've given us a really solid roadmap of opportunities to consider," says Oliver.
Prior to this complex cloud modernization, the IT department found that the IT infrastructure blocked progress. Now the council has a foundation that allows the IT department to innovate and set the stage for true digital transformation, the next step in providing citizens a fairer, healthier, and safer city.
"As our ambition grows and we see new ways of doing things, we will benefit from the fact that when we go to Microsoft it really feels like we're now in a partnership that hasn't just delivered a large-scale transformation program and then stopped,” says Simon. “It feels like we've built a partnership for the future, and actually, we're now able to drive a digital transformation right through the council into the city and to the citizens."
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