Laying the foundations for the future with a move to the cloud

*This is an article from CorporatieGids.

With the arrival of a new managing director and business plan in 2017, the desire to be able to work anytime, anywhere became increasingly important, Dirk begins. ‘Issues such as location- and time-independent working were given much higher priority. But it soon became clear that our on-premise systems at the time were not suitable for this, and our servers were also in need of replacement. That's why we looked at how we could best make the move to the cloud.’

Our datacenters

One ICT platform

WSZ collaborates with seven other housing associations on a single ICT platform. "This allows us to rely on each other and learn from each other. The same applies to the transition to the cloud; one of the affiliated associations had already been working with their partner Previder Corporaties for some time. In 2019, we also started an outsourcing process with them, and just over a year ago, the migration was complete. The big advantage of Previder Corporaties for De Zaligheden is that they have many housing associations as clients, which means they know what is going on in the sector and have access to the various industry-specific application suppliers. In our case, they also offer a single point of contact, so that any malfunction in one of these applications is handled by Previder Corporaties. This makes the work easier and clearer for our employees."

Better collaboration

The move to the cloud proved once again to be the right choice when the coronavirus crisis broke out at the beginning of this year. ‘Everyone was able to work from home without any problems,’ explains Dirk. "We did discover that, although working independently of time and place was no problem, “real” collaboration was a bit more difficult. Collaboration was already the next phase in our I&A plan for 2021, for example in the form of Office 365 with Teams and Sharepoint. WSZ therefore decided to bring forward the I&A planning. In consultation with Previder Corporaties, it was decided to carry out the technical migration so that employees could quickly start using video calling and conferencing. And because cameras and microphones are very useful for this, we replaced the workstations with docking stations and provided all employees with their own laptop. In the coming period, we want to focus on making the most of these new possibilities, for example through a training programme."

Great importance

When asked whether the use of the cloud has become essential in 2020, Dirk says: ‘If you want to work anytime, anywhere, then yes. But outsourcing also ensures the continuity of WSZ and relieves us of the burden of support and management. And the latter is very important for small to medium-sized corporations.’

Hybrid solution

Dirk says that choosing a good automation partner who understands the organisation and contributes ideas to the solution is one of the success factors for moving to the cloud. ‘There are several options when it comes to ICT design. It's great when your partner can guide you through the possibilities. WSZ has opted for a hybrid solution that uses both the public and private cloud.’

Foundation for the future

“The steps taken have given WSZ a solid foundation for the future,” Dirk concludes. “In the coming period, the focus will increasingly shift to the adoption and maximum utilisation of the applications. It is very important to get employees on board with this. They will have to get used to the fact that they need to continue to develop their skills in the field of automation, because developments never stand still.”

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