Hope’s Promise, a nonprofit supporting adoption, orphan care, foster care and pregnancy services, strives to make every child’s story matter. Staff effortlessly juggle paperwork, client calls and the care of children and families, yet even small tech hiccups slowed their work progress. “Our staff just want their computers to work. They don’t need to know the technical details,” said Kaye Ferguson, Director of Operations for Hope’s Promise. Aging on-prem servers and scattered files made it hard for international staff to access information. To find a better way to ensure secure, reliable access for everyone, Hope’s Promise turned to long-time partner Anchor Network Solutions.
How Pax8 Helped
Anchor Network Solutions recommended Microsoft Azure to provide secure scalable access tailored to Hope’s Promise’s needs and budget. The migration consolidated core apps like OneAccess, set up Azure AD and streamlined workflows while keeping staff desktops familiar.
“The migration took several months. Anchor had to prepare things in the background to make sure the move went smoothly,” said Kaye Ferguson.
A significant portion of the project involved behind-the-scenes file preparation and renaming to ensure compatibility with Azure. The team used scripts to identify files exceeding 200 characters, reviewed inventories with the client and modified file names to prevent migration issues.
Andy Harper, Manager of Technology Alignment at Anchor said, “IT can make systems work but non-technical users can’t be expected to do what we do. That’s why we focused on migrating them to Azure AD while keeping everything familiar. Too much change at once can overwhelm users so maintaining a consistent desktop experience was key to adoption.”
With all files securely in the cloud international teams could finally access shared folders without delays. “We were excited that international staff could finally access folders for sending reports which previously had to go through U.S. staff,” Kaye added.
Anchor ensured OneDrive integrated seamlessly with workflows and with Pax8 support on call any issues with Azure or Office 365 were quickly resolved, helping staff continue working efficiently throughout the migration.
