Background:
A national healthcare organization focused on providing high-quality healthcare services to communities across multiple regions. Before engaging RKON, the healthcare organization operated as three separate IT entities, requiring an M365 migration. These structural silos hindered seamless collaboration, operational efficiency, and cost optimization. As a returning client from a previous RKON engagement, they once again entrusted RKON to develop secure, customized IT strategy and execution plans tailored to address their unique challenges.
Challenge:
The healthcare organization’s independent entity operations created numerous challenges. For location 1, inter-tenant collaboration issues arose, with guest accounts being used for Teams collaboration. Over 900 accounts across the entire organization accessed Citrix environments and relied on single sign-on (SSO) for EPIC, which led to double M365 licensing costs. Furthermore, the renewal of an Enterprise Agreement (EA) for M365 licenses required a migration to the organization’s tenant, resulting in increased EA licensing costs while canceling source agreements. Teams Voice was also highly complex, as it had been managed by a third party and required compliance with historical voicemail retention policies. Location 2 faced similar inter-tenant collaboration issues and reliance on guest accounts.
The organization attempted a migration from on-premises Exchange Mailboxes to M365 accounts, which was only partially completed. A public folder migration was also underway, but slow to progress. Additionally, portions of accounts were already in the organization for Citrix and EPIC SSO, further contributing to duplicate licensing costs. Like location 1, location 2 also had EA renewal and migration requirements that added complexity. These challenges had a direct impact on business operations. The double licensing costs created significant financial overhead, while inefficient collaboration across entities hampered productivity. Existing inter-tenant collaboration solutions were neither seamless nor cost-effective, necessitating a more proactive approach.
The Solution:
RKON proposed a comprehensive holistic solution to address these challenges. This involved a full cutover migration of all accounts, data, and domains to the organization’s tenant. The telephony infrastructure was reconstructed to integrate Teams Voice, ensuring compliance with historical voicemail retention requirements. RKON also worked closely with the healthcare organization to address dependencies, such as the public folder migration.
RKON drove the project from strategy, to execution, to support phases while managing an accelerated timeline due to upcoming EA license renewals. RKON proactively addressed stakeholder communication gaps and unforeseen complexities. For example, RKON partnered with a third party to manage the specialized telephony requirements of Teams Voice.
The Outcomes:
Cost Savings: Consolidating all accounts under a single tenant eliminated double licensing costs, resulting in significant financial savings. Enhanced Operational Efficiency: Collaboration across entities became seamless and secure, allowing for scalable IT operations. Compliance Readiness: Compliance with historical voicemail retention was ensured, reducing risk of client data being leaked and breaching HIPAA and other compliance regulations. Reduction in Labor: Unified communication channels fostered a more cohesive and productive workforce, while license management became simpler, reducing administrative burdens.
The M365 migration had a substantial impact on the organization’s business processes long-term. Alignment between entities improved, creating a more integrated and efficient organizational structure for secure growth. RKON completed the migration in record time within the EA renewal window, meeting critical deadlines and saving the organization significant licensing costs for years to come.
About RKON
Operating as a security-first IT advisory and cybersecurity firm since 1998, RKON partners with private equity and enterprise organizations to deliver end-to-end solutions—from strategy to execution to managed services. Our expertise lies in anticipating challenges, mitigating risks, and architecting custom IT solutions that enable businesses to innovate with confidence, adapt quickly, and operate seamlessly.
To do this, RKON provides IT solutions in three stages: first building an advisory practice that sends the strategy in the right direction; an execution practice that ensures the vision is turned into reality; and a management practice that keeps the vision on track as IT evolves to best serve the business. Where other see challenge, we see opportunity.