Assured Energy Solutions designs and installs energy-efficient lighting, controls and green technology across university and student accommodation estates. Working out of Manchester, the business has delivered programme work for one of the largest providers of on-campus student housing in the UK. 

AT-A-GLANCE

• Industry: Energy-Efficient Lighting and Green Technology
• Scale (Size): SME
• Legacy Replacements: Google to Microsoft 365 migration under labdesk's 365 Accelerator + managed backup and recovery + Microsoft Defender + Cyber Essentials certification + cyber awareness training
• Primary ROI: " Peace of mind knowing that if one of our laptops just packs up, we have a full backup that we can turn to." — Rebecca McKay, Assured Energy Solutions

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PARTNER JOURNEY

• The Challenge: A small team running estate-scale projects wanted one standard everybody kept to, and the Cyber Essentials certification that would open a government framework. 
• The Solution: labdesk migrated Assured off Google and onto Microsoft 365 under the 365 Accelerator, then project managed the business through Cyber Essentials.
• The Result: Assured qualified as an approved supplier on the framework, and has since been approached by companies that had not previously known the business.
  
  
   

INTRODUCTION

Assured Energy Solutions installs energy-efficient lighting, controls and solar across UK estates, working with Tier 1 manufacturers including SITECO and one of the largest providers of on-campus student housing in the UK.  Assured Energy Solutions recently undertook a three-year programme covering more than 150,000 luminaires across 20 universities. 

Rebecca McKay looks after the finances. She is also the most IT-literate person in the business, which is how managing the company's technology came to sit on her desk alongside the ledger.

CHALLENGES

Often found administering the company's finances, "tech-savvy"  Rebecca McKay discovered the team's technology work slowly started piling up on her desk. 

Rebecca understood that managing a company's IT placed significant strain on her other business commitments. Taking stock of those commitments, she set out what an IT partner could help alleviate:

• One standard across every machine: Each person worked from their own laptop, and Rebecca wanted an accessible IT platform everybody could use, instead of reaching across 3 different platforms for 1 IT need.
• A security spend she could check: The antivirus subscription kept recommending further add-ons, and each one was bought on a warning rather than on an IT roadmap of what was genuinely necessary in their unique business.
• A daily check that did not rest on one person: Running and confirming the scans took Rebecca 10 to 15 minutes every day.
• Certification for a framework: Cyber Essentials was the condition of getting onto a government framework of approved suppliers.

CONSEQUENCES

Without a change, Assured Energy Solutions faced several risks across their IT spend:

• A framework opportunity out of reach: Cyber Essentials was the gate for potential business, and without certification Assured could not be listed as an approved supplier.
• Continued excess of £128.30 a month on Gmail alone: Google Mail ran as its own subscription, on its own renewal date, separate from everything else the business paid for. 
• £386 a year on antivirus that kept asking for more: Each antivirus add-on was bought because a pop-up said the business was at risk. 
• £887.42 a year on Microsoft licensing: Assured Energy Solutions had its focus split between 3 IT suppliers, with Microsoft among the 3 spread across that bundle.
• Senior time going on IT routine checks: Every working day, IT maintenance took time Rebecca would otherwise have spent on customers and proposals. 

Rebecca describes it as feeling like there was always another upgrade to buy. What Assured needed was one IT partner who could tell them what was necessary and what was not. 

SOLUTIONS

Enter labdesk. Assured's non-executive director knew labdesk, and the decision inside the business to partner up for their IT  became unanimous.

"He spoke very highly of you, and labdesk ticked all the boxes that we needed. So it was a no-brainer, really. It was something we needed to do, and you absolutely fitted exactly what we needed." 

REBECCA McKAY, 

FINANCE MANAGER, ASSURED ENERGY SOLUTIONS 

Assured leveraged labdesk to:

• Consolidate three separate subscriptions into one Microsoft 365 platform under labdesk's 365 Accelerator, so mail, files and licensing renew together instead of separately
• Move shared work into SharePoint, so a document lives in one clean, organised library rather than in somebody's sent items
• Put managed backup and recovery behind every laptop, so a machine failing stops being a question about what was on it 
• Replaced the add-on antivirus with Microsoft Defender, monitored and updated by labdesk, so cover is confirmed rather than assumed
• Deliver Cyber Essentials end to end, with a named labdesk project manager owning the standard and the deadline

The Cyber Essentials certification carried a commercial deadline, and Rebecca personally found labdesk's project management team especially helpful in securing the accreditation.

"That was something that Hannah did for us. She's an excellent project manager, by the way. She was brilliant." 

REBECCA McKAY, 

FINANCE MANAGER, ASSURED ENERGY SOLUTIONS 

THE RESULTS

• Qualified Assured as an approved supplier on the government framework the business had set out to reach
• Opened the company to buyers who previously had no way of finding it
• Turned security spend from a run of reactive add-ons into a known cost with a certificate at the end of it
• Ended the antivirus routine that had been taking 10 to 15 minutes of Rebecca's day, every day

Partnering with labdesk meant Rebecca was no longer the person who had to hope the company was covered for technology and Cybersecurity. 

"Having Microsoft SharePoint has helped. We share folders rather than emailing… And peace of mind knowing that if one of our laptops just packs up, we have a full backup that we can turn to." 

 REBECCA McKAY, 

FINANCE MANAGER, ASSURED ENERGY SOLUTIONS 

Get Started

See exactly what you are paying for - every licence, subscription and renewal across your Microsoft 365 tenancy, in one list.
Get certified without it becoming your job - labdesk runs Cyber Essentials end-to-end, so you can answer the tender question and move on.
Stop guessing whether you are covered - backup, M365  Defender, and additional Cyber awareness training monitored for you, with a personal IT  project manager.  

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