The Challenge

Breaking Free from Technical Debt

Archers faced significant operational and financial challenges under a traditional IT support model that included legacy on-premise applications. Their IT environment was hindered by ageing infrastructure, security immaturity, and a critical lack of IT strategic direction:

• Legacy Anchor: Their essential line-of-business ERP application dictated a restrictive environment requiring outdated Citrix XenApp/RDS architecture, which meant they could not fully modernise their endpoints or cloud presence.
• Performance and Stability: The previous cloud/Citrix environment was aged, which resulted in poor application staging performance and instability across the network.
• Reactive Management: The focus was on ‘keeping the lights on,’ which resulted in a lack of proactive governance or future-forward solutions across cloud, security, and communications.
• Unpredictable Costs: Archers experienced unexpected fluctuations and “bill shock” related to storage and operating costs, lacking the ability to accurately budget for their technology consumption.

"The nature of the managed services agreement means that blueAPACHE is continuously looking for better ways for Archers to run their operations and suggesting modern solutions".

The Solution

Strategic Modernisation by blueAPACHE emPOWER Managed Services

Archers engaged blueAPACHE to provide a comprehensive, fixed-price emPOWER IT-as-a-Service solution designed to deliver stability, predictability, and a clear path for future modernisation, despite the constraints of their core application. The solution consolidated infrastructure, networking, and support into a single, accountable framework.

blueAPACHE delivered a wide-ranging managed solution across all layers of the Archers environment, including:

1. Cloud and Application Infrastructure Modernisation

blueAPACHE migrated Archers’ entire virtual environment into the Award Winning, highly available, ISO27001-certified emPOWER Cloud IaaS.

This move was crucial as it allowed blueAPACHE to decommission legacy server assets, including replacing servers running the end-of-life Windows Server 2012, thereby immediately mitigating high-level security risks.

2. Managed Wide Area Network (WAN) and Security Uplift

To eliminate network bottlenecks and address security vulnerabilities associated with a previously shared firewall, blueAPACHE implemented a private MPLS Wide Area Network and modern network security suite.

The operational outcomes included:

• Multiple site-specific data links were upgraded to improve speed and latency of internet and application data, for example from 20/20Mbps to 400/400Mbps Fibre.
• New FortiGate CPE appliances were deployed at each of Archers’ Queensland offices, connected to a hosted FortiGate High-Availability Firewall Hub with Unified Threat Protection (UTP) in the emPOWER Cloud. This provided dedicated, robust security, web filtering, and intrusion prevention.
• FortiClient EMS VPN was deployed for secure remote user access, ensuring consistency and manageability for remote workers.

3. Proactive Governance and Support

The nature of the managed services agreement means that blueAPACHE is continuously looking for better ways for Archers to run their operations and suggesting modern solutions.

Examples include:

• Proactive Microsoft Teams calling implementation and moving Archers from an aged unreliable legacy VOIP/PBX solution. This includes significant cost savings and access to live support versus lengthy call centre wait times through a legacy telecommunications provider.
• Implementation of Microsoft Intune to deliver “zero-touch” hardware provisioning for new devices and standardise the desktop experience across the organisation.
• Implementation of formal account governance, which means an Account Executive, Service Delivery Manager, and Portfolio Engineer are continuously facilitating monthly operational and quarterly business reviews focused on Continual Service Improvement (CSI).

Value and Results

The Power of Predictability

The transition delivered stability and control, fundamentally changing Archers’ relationship with their technology.

The business outcomes include:

1. Cost Predictability

By migrating to a managed IaaS platform and optimising licensing, blueAPACHE successfully removed unnecessary costs and reduced the likelihood of unplanned storage spend and ‘bill shock’.

“blueAPACHE was able to stabilize our spend and make it much more predictable via an opex service model. Most notably, the move to Microsoft Teams provided significant savings in licensing and made it easier for our business to communicate cross-channel and in remote settings.”

Nicky Lonergan, Archers Representative

2. Operational Stability and Security Maturity

Archers achieved greater system performance, application resilience, and a significantly enhanced security posture across legacy and cloud that was managed by in-country experts. This improved Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) and reduced the impacts of any system outage.

“We now benefit from access to the blueAPACHE technical team who have experience across application virtualisation, MDR, and Microsoft platforms. This allows us to tap into that expertise for advice, remediations, forward planning and security resiliency.”

Patrice Armagnacq, Archers Representative

3. Clear Strategic Direction

The shift to a proactive IT management structure allowed Archers leadership team to focus on future improvement rather than fighting immediate crises.

Proactive items implemented via the governance cycle include starting the journey towards ISO 27001 alignment and completing a security assessment for future AI capabilities like Microsoft Co-Pilot, while providing a roadmap for innovation.

About emPOWER Managed Services

blueAPACHE defines itself not as a transactional IT provider, but as a strategic business partner dedicated to long-term client success through its emPOWER Managed Service model. This comprehensive framework provides a single point of accountability for all IT needs, encompassing everything from 24/7 global support to security operations, cloud infrastructure hosting, and strategic technology roadmap planning.

For organisations like Archers, constrained by legacy applications but demanding modern security and performance, blueAPACHE's Managed Services offer the consistency, strategic maturity, and cost-efficient consolidation necessary to turn IT from an operational challenge into a powerful platform for business resiliency.