Momenta Case Study

How a co-managed IT service can deliver outstanding benefits

Momenta Group provides global workforce solutions, helping clients keep an agile working model while having access to talent. The company has a two-person, in-house IT team based in London; and decided on a co-managed IT service with Inflection Point in 2021. Momenta Group’s head of IT, Peter Longley, explores the reasons behind the approach and the benefits yielded.

Before Inflection Point

Peter shares some background on the IT set-up at Momenta Group and how he was introduced to Inflection Point: “We specialise in finance industry placements and, as well as our UK base, have opened offices in Australia and the US.

“As head of IT, I deal with the strategy and working with the management team to deliver what they want. I work with an assistant on the front line, looking after contractors across the UK. This is an estate of 500 PCs. We both operate our IT helpdesk.

“We had IT partners in the background already: a firm which supported us with email and web filtering, and a software developer. I began discussing the best way to navigate the changes to IT infrastructure post-COVID with the software developer.

“Fortunately, we were in a good place because we already had a lot of systems in the cloud. But key services were still local to the office, like Active Directory for log-on, and how policies were applied to devices.

“Of course, when the business pivots to having more remote workers there is scope for problems relating to people not logging onto the servers, and policies not being applied. We wanted advice on the most efficient and secure way to address this. The software company said it was not something they could do directly, but strongly recommended my speaking to Inflection Point.”

A can-do approach

Peter continues: “One of the reasons we were happy to choose Inflection Point was that they could facilitate a month-to-month licensing model. This was important because of the way contractors now work with us. We had asked our previous support company to accommodate this and it was not possible through them, so straight away Inflection Point seemed a better fit.

“We began with a multi-pronged approach to migrate all the services which were fixed locally to the cloud. Over the course of 12 months this included migration of files from our servers to Teams, migration of Active Directory to Azure, and Local Agent pushed out to all our devices.

“Inflection Point managed this faultlessly and entirely remotely. I know that without Inflection Point’s help we may well have still been looking for a solution a year on.”

The benefits of a co-managed IT solution

While there are specific projects that we help Momenta Group with, there are several valuable benefits that a firm with Momenta Group’s structure can gain from having a co-managing IT partner. Peter summarises his experience: “The flexibility that a co-managed service provides is one of its main attractions. Around the time that we started working with Inflection Point, my previous assistant left the company. It was just before Christmas and a period of annual leave. This made it impossible to recruit a replacement within a satisfactory timescale.

“I was able to very quickly agree with Inflection Point that they would step in and plug the gap on our helpdesk for a few months whilst we recruited the right person. This was invaluable really, as the business may otherwise have been hamstrung by the lack of IT resource.

“Continuing the point, having that relationship in place means that we can call upon Inflection Point as an overflow service whenever required.” “There is a marginal gain by having one company looking after a range of services, as they can all be itemised on one invoice, streamlining administration. But more significantly, whenever issues emerge, I know I can pick up the phone to Inflection Point and discuss it with them, safe in the knowledge that they can speak to their partners and find the solution.

“On a week-to-week basis the working relationship is very smooth. Conducted almost entirely remotely, we have a weekly call with them to discuss our projects and plan for the future. For instance, right now we are exploring Cyber Essentials Plus, switching our antivirus defences and looking at new helpdesk software.

Further examples of co-management in action

The specific projects we are working on continue, as Peter describes: “As our IT infrastructure has changed post-COVID, our attention shifted to firewalls. Do we need a local resource anymore when we have gone from more than 100 people in the office at any given time to no more than 20?

“Inflection Point recommended a Cisco Meraki solution to better integrate with our wireless system in the office and for ease of management.There was one problem: a nine-month waiting list to get a new one. However, through their network, Inflection Point were able to source a second- hand system which met our needs. It’s just another example of the benefit for a company of our size in having that mix of internal and external IT resources.”

Reflections and advice on pursuing a co-managed IT strategy

Reflecting on the relationship so far, Peter says: “I’ve talked about some of the projects we have undertaken together and the benefits we have received, but I think it is also important to recognise the opportunity cost, had we not decided on pursuing this co-managed IT strategy.

“I estimate our migration to the cloud would have lasted an extra six to twelve months. It would have taken a lot of research from me which I would not have had time to do – so something else would have had to give.

“If we did not have the remote agents installed on all the devices, we would have struggled to achieve everything we’ve done with new clients. And there would have been client expectations that we were not able to meet.

“On top of that, we would not have had the extra perspective that having external experts on your side brings. For the costs incurred, I would go as far as to say that it is a no-brainer for companies like ours to adopt a co-managed IT strategy.”

Top ways Inflection Point helped Momenta Group

• Facilitating a month-by-month service model.

• Migrating files, Active Directory and Local Agent to the cloud.

• Standing in on the helpdesk during a staff shortage.

• Remaining a vital overflow resource during busy times.

• Consulting on future projects including Cyber Essentials Plus.

• Using our network to beat waiting lists on key IT kit.

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