A case study on consolidating IT providers, hardening a Microsoft 365 tenant, and standardizing cloud deployments for a regenerative medicine organization.
The Client
The Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) supports the development and commercialization of regenerative medicines. Its specialized teams depend on secure access to information and reliable IT support. The team behind Secure Managed Service has supported CCRM for several years.
The Challenge: Too Many IT Providers, Not Enough Coordination
As CCRM grew, managing its IT environment became increasingly difficult. With several vendors handling different technology needs, its internal team had to coordinate the work across multiple providers.
CCRM was also preparing to move more of its infrastructure to the cloud. It had sensitive intellectual property to protect and wanted to strengthen security without adding to its internal IT headcount.
Bringing in more vendors would only add to the problem. CCRM needed one team that could take responsibility for its Microsoft environment and the people relying on it.
The Solution: One Team for Security and IT Support
The work began with CCRM's Microsoft 365 environment. The team hardened the tenant and fixed the vulnerabilities identified through penetration testing. It also introduced device management so CCRM could control which devices access company resources.
Alongside these improvements, CCRM moved to cloud infrastructure with stronger support for secure remote access. Employees also gained ongoing IT assistance, including daily on-site support, rather than relying on separate providers for different issues.
As CCRM's needs evolved, the relationship expanded to include SharePoint management and standardized cloud infrastructure deployments. That standardized approach gave CCRM a more consistent way to support existing operations and bring new locations online.
The Results: Less Coordination, More Control
CCRM now relies on one team for its Microsoft 365 security and employee support. Its internal staff spend less time coordinating vendors, while the people managing its systems already understand how those systems fit together.
With the penetration test findings remediated and the tenant hardened, CCRM's sensitive information sits in a better-protected Microsoft 365 environment. New locations now come online quickly on the same cloud configuration CCRM already runs.
Paul Gasko, Senior Director, IT – ERP & GMP Systems at CCRM and OmniaBio, sums up the arrangement: "There really is no differentiation in the team."
CCRM is a registered trademark of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine. OmniaBio is a registered trademark of OmniaBio Inc. The use of such trademarks, logos and brand names in this publication is for identification purposes only and does not imply endorsement.
