Brotherhood of St. Laurence strengthens its support services with blueAPACHE

Brotherhood of St. Laurence, a social justice organization in Australia, is building a resilient and scalable IT infrastructure with managed services provider blueAPACHE.

Leading managed services provider blueAPACHE has signed a new strategic, three-year IT managed services agreement with the Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL).

The agreement extends an existing five-year technology partnership between the organizations and will allow BSL to further strengthen its outreach and support services to Australians experiencing disadvantage.

Founded in 1930, BSL is a social justice organization that provides critical services to vulnerable Australians. For more than 90 years, the organization has been working to prevent and alleviate poverty across Australia.

With the head office in Melbourne, BSL employs over 1,400 staff to deliver a complex range of social services. Critical to the success of these activities is the organization’s supporting IT and telecommunications infrastructure, and their technology partnership with blueAPACHE.

BSL Senior Manager – ICT, Jason Atkinson, said blueAPACHE had become a true business partner for the organization and exciting projects were now in the pipeline. These projects come at an important time for BSL as the organization realigns its strategic goals after having been awarded new contracts.

“blueAPACHE has helped us to build a resilient and scalable IT infrastructure that will support our activities in the years ahead and reduce operational risk,” said Atkinson. “This new agreement means we can continue to work with a trusted organization that truly understands our operations.”

A new strategic plan

The agreement compliments a new ICT strategic plan that was validated by the BSL Board in late 2021. This plan is designed to guide investment and technology selection during the three-year period and beyond.

Atkinson said the IT support provided by blueAPACHE under the agreement will be vital to ensure BSL can perform from a technology perspective and continue to provide the best possible levels of service to support those facing disadvantage.

The scope of works that will be completed under the new agreement with blueAPACHE includes:

• Network management: blueAPACHE, in collaboration with BSL, will continue to commission a robust national wide-area network (WAN) solution as required and manage BSL’s existing infrastructure to ensure performance and reliability. This will also cover the organization’s VoIP telephony system.
• Infrastructure management: Thorough analysis of resources will be performed on an on-going basis to deliver efficient migration of applications to the appropriate cloud-solution, including blueAPACHE’s trusted emPOWER IaaS platform.
• Extension of end-user communications: Projects will be designed to uplift and extend the use of Microsoft Teams to allow it to eventually become a complete unified communications (UC) platform across the organization. This will enable BSL staff to interact more efficiently regardless of their location and provide superior levels of service to clients and mobility to staff.
• Maturity of IT security: blueAPACHE will assist BSL to continue to develop its security operations platform by incorporating the very latest tools and information management procedures. This, in turn, will ensure that the organization’s entire IT infrastructure is fully resistant and critical data continues to remain protected at all times.
• On-going staff mobilization: blueAPACHE will assist BSL with the on-going management of its growing fleet of mobile devices. This will ensure staff are supported regardless of their workplace location and are able to be agile and responsive to client needs. This applies to all staff, whether they are working in central offices, in warehouses, or out in the field.
• Information management support: During the next 12 months, blueAPACHE will also work to refine BSL’s data capabilities in line with the organization’s on-going commitment to data management. Mechanisms will also be put in place to ensure all data continues to be highly available and secure.
• Asset lifecyle management: In partnership with HPE, blueAPACHE will facilitate a hardware repurposing program to ensure sustainable asset practices are achieved and e-waste is minimized.

On-going cloud adoption
The new agreement will also facilitate BSL’s on-going migration to the cloud. Atkinson said he expects the organization to be fully migrated by the end of 2022.

“We are shifting from being focused on hardware and software to an IT services model,” said Atkinson. “This helps us to reduce our costs while also ensuring we have access to the very best tools and applications that are available.”

blueAPACHE Founder and Managing Director, Chris Marshall, said the company welcomed the opportunity to continue the working relationship with BSL for a further three years.

“It is fantastic to have the chance to support an organization that is delivering so much for Australians in need,” said Marshall. “We look forward to achieving even more and further strengthening our business relationship.”

Rodney Weston, BSL’s Acting Director of Finance, Strategy and Operations, said he welcomed the knowledge, guidance and support that blueAPACHE would continue to deliver under the new managed service agreement.

“Over the years, blueAPACHE has developed a deep understanding of our operations and goals as an organization,” said Weston. “Together we can continue to deliver our programs and services with even greater impact.”