Accounting & Advisory

Unrivalled flexibility of workplace agility

Accounting & Advisory

OUR PARTNER

HLB is a leading global finance advisory and accounting firm and have enjoyed a successful technology partnership with FutureRange since 2016.

OUR CHALLENGE

HLB have experienced significant growth in recent years. This included a successful company acquisition. As a result, they outgrew their existing on-premises infrastructure. This left them facing a decision to invest in additional internal infrastructure or consider migration to cloud-based services. In addition, the global COVID-19 pandemic meant that HLB were now faced with the added complexity of providing seamless remote working for staff and the associated security risks.

OUR SOLUTION

Working closely with the team in HLB, our experts put together a unique transformation roadmap. Crucially, this addresses the immediate issues they faced. However, we also crafted a way to successfully futureproof the business to manage and assist its continued growth. This included migration of all current servers to Azure Cloud; a hybrid desktop solution to address user requirement; a zero-trust security model to introduce best-practise security measures; and activation of a new security operations centre.

Furthermore, user devices were enrolled and managed via Microsoft’s InTune and Azure Active Directory. While internet-facing applications were made to harness local computer power and a Windows 10 always on VPN was initiated to ensure seamless access to corporate data.

HLB have a complex array of applications, all of which we published via Azure virtual Desktop. The proximity of AVD to their cloud servers now enhances performance. This had led to a smooth, consistent user experience, with applications accessible over any internet connection.

Of course, the introduction of a VPN into any solution brings an added security risk. Along with the standard set of security products for detection and control, our experts added in ThreatLocker application control and ringfencing, to create a fully-secure, zero-trust desktop model. Then, as a final layer of security, HLB leveraged our special operations centre solution to monitor their infrastructure, Office 365 connections and user devices, 24/7/365.

OUR SUCCESS

For the first time, HLB have an unrivalled flexibility of workplace agility. This allows them to continue their productivity and collaboration for the new home/office work model. What’s more, it gives their accountants the freedom to access necessary applications during their many remote site audits. And that’s not all. By collaborating with us, HLB have also:

• Benefitted from ROI
• Adopted a predictable IT spend with full opex model
• Reduced downtime for applications
• Gained peace of mind against data compromise
• Greatly reduced the risk of reputational damage from cyber-attack

THEIR RESPONSE

After significant growth and ever-changing IT demands, we engaged FutureRange, a key strategic partner, to assist with helping us to ensure we have a leading technology platform that is secure and can expand with the business.

From inception to completion, FutureRange provided a dedicated, experienced team who we found extremely approachable and confident in their ability to deal with any issues brought to their attention and understood the complexities and importance of us having a leading system to provide leading services to our clients.

Our platform has been transformative for the business, in that we have a reliable, fit-for-purpose secure IT environment from which we will be able to scale.

FutureRange was the best choice for Zenith Technologies; they stayed with us throughout the entire process of the Citrix project to provide global secure web-based access to our proprietary applications and provided immensely beneficial knowledge transfer to our IT professionals and staff. We feel a very high level of trust and confidence working with FutureRange now and into the future.

John Guerin, Head of IT | ZENITH TECHNOLIGIES

FutureRange stand out in particular because of the support they have given to our firm in scaling up for the challenge of moving all of our staff to remote working during this Covid19 pandemic. In all of our dealings with FutureRange, and particularly during this most challenging time we have always felt like they had our back completely and they have always ramped up their efforts without ramping up costs accordingly.

Leading Irish Law firm

Back in 1997 we required access to HQ applications from our Dublin Office and FutureRange were engaged to implement a Citrix based solution. The project was a success and we have continued to work with Citrix and FutureRange to date, expanding the use of the technology. FutureRange has provided competitive pricing, expert knowledge and on-going support. I would have no hesitation in recommending them as Citrix experts.

Local Government IT Manager

I have always found the staff in FutureRange pleasant to deal with and very responsive to any IT issues we have.

Margaret Wafer, Director of Nursing | Belmont House

For the past number of years FutureRange has helped support Bord Na Mona to realise significant performance increases across WAN connections for key business systems and helped decease our annual IT support costs to remote staff. This is a direct result of our ongoing successful Citrix deployment also enabling secure access to disconnected staff across the WEB by way of Citrix NetScaler and two-factor authentication.

Paul Boland, Technology & Solutions Manager | BORD NA MONA

FutureRange planned and executed our move to Office365 meticulously. Since our initial engagement, I have moved my IT support to FutureRange and have found them equally as impressive and very knowledgeable on all aspects of IT.

Paul Dunne, Business Owner | Hisun Technologies