About John Brown Mark Youll

John Brown and Mark Youll (JBMY), are an independent estate agent based in Old Coulsdon, boasting considerable knowledge and expertise of over 90 years in successfully selling Properties in Purley, Coulsdon, Old Coulsdon, Kenley, Caterham and surrounding areas.

They are a highly professional, proudly independent and friendly agent fully understanding the emotional experience of buying, selling and letting properties with a track record of success.

Challenges & Objectives

Following the amalgamation of originally separate John Brown and Mark Youll estate agent businesses, their combined team were left with multiple disparate systems for email, file sharing, and an inconsistent configuration across their aging desktop estate. They had no real ability to work remotely from home or other locations, meaning BCP was an issue. Finally, they had no segregated Wi-Fi for clients or 3rd parties visiting the office, creating an unnecessary security risk.

CARBON IT SERVICES were engaged to provide and enact solutions for the following business critical goals:

• • Migrate all existing email systems into a new single Office 365 tenant to leverage the collaboration and remote working functionality therein
  • Replace as many aging desktops as possible, within the available budget
  • Standardise build and application set as much as possible across all desktops, both existing and replaced
  • Replace existing basic wireless network with internal and segregated customer Wi-Fi, customised to JBMY requirements

Our Solution

CARBON IT SERVICES approached the challenges above holistically, considering both the operating and technical requirements of the business. A discovery phase was conducted, spending a day in JBMY’s office to observe their existing working practices, engagement with their customers and speak to the staff first-hand regarding their experiences, pain points and aspirations, with a number of costed recommendations then presented back to the management team.

Following a further discussion, the following solutions were agreed upon and deployed:

• • Improve Collaboration, Mobile working and BCP/DR

The existing 3rd party POP/IMAP email solution, and an incumbent Office 365 tenant that only covered a few members of staff, were migrated in to a new JBMY Office 365 tenant. With security best practice in mind, we deployed Office 365 Secure licenses which in addition to the standard office SKU’s provide best in class email security with Vade Secure and unlimited backup via Acronis for mailboxes, OneDrive and SharePoint. Given the user base, the Business Premium SKU was selected to ensure all users would have the latest (and a consistent) version of Microsoft Office. This also allowed the users to access their documents remotely through the use of the Microsoft Office mobile apps, which was not previously possible.

• • Desktop Replacement and User Experience Improvement

JBMY chose to replace half of their desktop estate at this time, hence the poorest performing units were replaced. Based on the usage case, which is light office use with the rest of their toolset being SaaS, we selected a “Dell Vostro SFF i3” base unit to which we added an additional SSD for the OS and applications to ensure the best possible experience for the user without excessive cost. The legacy desktops not replaced had the same application set deployed as the new ones, including the latest version of Microsoft Office, to ensure the most consistent user experience possible until the remaining legacy desktops are replaced.

• • Enhanced Customer Experience and Network Security

A single “Ubiquiti UniFi” AP AC Lite Indoor Access Point was deployed to replace the existing in-router wireless, placed in an optimised position for best coverage, which we configured to provide 2 networks (one customer, one internal use only) both isolated from the LAN as no wireless to wired connectivity requirements were identified in the discovery phase.

Results

• • Increased Collaboration, Mobile working and BCP/DR

Immediate improvement in working practices in terms of both collaboration and mobile working, which has as one of the owners has said made the business “Corona-proof” (referring to the COVID-19 pandemic) as far as remote working is concerned.

With all email moved in to one single Office 365 tenant location, all users and shared mailboxes are now properly synchronised and permissioned as required to ensure the right people have access to the right, live information on any of their devices. By setting users up with Microsoft OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams, they have been able to work in the office, on the move or from home without interruption to their usual working practices.

• • Desktop Replacement and User Experience Improvement

Of the desktops replaced, all users noted a considerable improvement in performance and their user experience. Switching between desktops when necessary has been made easier by the unification (where possible) of applications and shortcuts.

• • Simplified, Streamlined Data and Device Protection

With the users’ document stores and SharePoint being uniformly configured, JBMY now have an easy, holistic view of their data, providing them the peace of mind that sensitive information (whether company or customer sensitive) can be easily tracked, audited and controlled. With the addition of Vade Secure, email integrity can be assured, and the security of their devices and work environment protected.

• • Enhanced Customer Experience and Network Security

The new Wi-Fi is faster and the signal stronger than the legacy Wi-Fi and being able to give customers Wi-Fi access has been well received. The owners also have the peace of mind that neither guest nor corporate Wi-Fi can compromise their LAN where confidential documentation is stored.

Future Plans

Like most markets, the housing sector is under incredible stress at this time, so JBMY will continue to leverage the tools we have put in place to help them succeed, regardless of where they are working.

Subsequent to the successful implementations mentioned above, JBMY will be replacing the rest of their desktop estate in the future and working with us to improve the rest of their end point security and IT support.