About Adthera Bio
Adthera Bio is a biotechnology firm based on brilliant ideas and curious capable minds, partnering with biotech’s and academic centres they bring novel advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) based on genes, tissues, or cells for human use to market and patients. In short: Adthera Bio uses cell therapy ideas to make medical inventions for patients in a regulatory compliant and quality managed system.
The Challenge
Adthera Bio was eager to enhance its IT infrastructure and chose OneMSP to facilitate this change after encountering significant challenges with their incumbent IT provider. Issues like slow response times, inadequate support, and hidden IT charges—which are critical for a growing biotech company—were adversely affecting daily operations and processes.
In scenarios such as this, it is common for the relationship between the client and the IT provider to deteriorate, leading to a loss of confidence in the provider’s capabilities. Some providers may attempt to safeguard their interests by locking clients into lengthy contracts or deliberately complicating IT issues with technical jargon to confuse and overwhelm their customers.
Consequently, customers who are deeply dependant on their incumbent IT provider for managing their data, communications, and systems often feel trapped, fearing that their provider might exploit this dependency to their disadvantage.
When Adthera Bio approached OneMSP, one of their primary concerns was the potential disruption their existing provider could cause to their IT infrastructure and business during the transition.
Primary Solution
To address the issue and foster a new level of trust and transparency with a managed service provider, OneMSP developed a streamlined IT solution that returned control of the network, Wi-Fi, and overall digital destiny to Adthera Bio, effectively mitigating any risk of unfavourable actions by their previous provider.
Phase 1:
The project commenced with an intensive discovery phase, where OneMSP conducted a thorough assessment of Adthera Bio’s existing IT landscape. This was pivotal for identifying the essential components and preparatory steps required for a smooth transition to M365.
Key Milestones:
Defining Key Stakeholders: Identifying and engaging key personnel from both Adthera Bio and OneMSP was crucial. These stakeholders were involved in decision-making processes and ensuring alignment with strategic IT goals.
Authorising Partner Access: OneMSP was granted access to M365 tenancy, particularly to the Global Admin (GA) account, which enabled them to manage configurations and settings centrally.
Deploying Datto: To secure data during the transition, Datto backup solutions were deployed on all machines, ensuring data integrity and quick recovery in event of an incident.
Scoping the M365 Environment: A detailed blueprint of the desired M365 setup was developed, outlining the required services and configuration settings tailored to Adthera Bio’s needs.
Phase 2:
With this robust framework in place, OneMSP began the onboarding phase, transitioning the Adthera team to the Microsoft Business Premium environment. This upgrade eradicated any remaining legacy profiles from devices and across the infrastructure. It also included reducing the number of global admin roles and deactivating the accounts associated with their former IT provider.
An initial step in the integration process involved evaluating Adthera’s Microsoft Secure Score, a metric that assesses an organisation’s security posture by analysing various elements within its IT environment. A score below 60% indicates a vulnerability to security threats, signalling a need for implementing industry-standard security measures to safeguard data and systems against cyber-attacks.
Adthera Bio’s worryingly low initial score of 35% revealed significant vulnerabilities due to poor practises by their incumbent provider, highlighting an urgent need for enhanced security measures. OneMSP prioritised essential elements, technical controls, and configuration adjustments within Microsoft 365 and PowerShell. Progress was monitored and reported in weekly meetings, which helped raise their security score significantly to 83.46%.
The low initial security score was partly due to a standard licencing strategy which restricted the company to basic security defaults. This included limited multi-factor authentication and inadequate system or endpoint defences. Additionally, the restrictive licencing had prevented timely application updates, further exposing the organisation to potential security risks.
Phase 3:
OneMSP implemented Microsoft Defender for Office 365 to enhance the security of Adthera Bio’s email communications, alongside Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on all company devices. This comprehensive security suite includes features such as Safe Links, Safe Attachments, Impersonation Protection, and Web Filtering. Additionally, conditional access was enabled for all users, with all new policies being thoroughly tested and approved by stakeholders prior to implementation.
All company devices were successfully onboarded to Intune and Azure, where they adopted the latest Adthera Bio IT policies. Each device was meticulously set up and rigorously tested by OneMSP to ensure optimal functionality and compliance with security standards.
Moreover, OneMSP bolstered business continuity for Adthera Bio by enhancing the protection and security of the company’s SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange investments. This was achieved through the configuration of AvePoint backup solutions within their new Office 365 environment, enabling faster and more scalable protection.
Additionally, OneMSP implemented a premier cloud service to centrally manage Adthera Bio’s email signatures. This solution allows the company to maintain a consistent and professional appearance across all email communications, unifying and controlling email signatures throughout the organisation.
Adthera Bio has since transitioned into an ongoing managed service phase, offering comprehensive support that includes round-the-clock IT assistance, routine IT health assessments, continuous monitoring by Security and Network Operations Centres, and future initiatives aimed at enhancing cyber security, business productivity, automation, and strategic IT planning.
We have equipped three new Adthera Bio hires with hardware preconfigured with Autopilot. Upon signing in with their work emails, their devices are automatically enrolled in Intune which seamlessly integrates and deploys necessary security configurations and applications, ensuring that each device is secure and fully equipped with all the essential tools required for their roles.
Conclusion:
The phased approach adopted by OneMSP facilitated a structured and efficient implementation of Microsoft 365 at Adthera Bio. By meticulously planning each phase, engaging with stakeholders, and focusing on robust security measures, the initial IT project was completed successfully, significantly enhancing Adthera Bio’s IT capabilities.
This case study exemplifies the critical importance of structured project management in complex IT deployments and the transformative impact of cloud solutions like Microsoft 365 on modern business operations.
Adthera Bio now enjoy limitless IT and are maximising efficiencies through automation and digitisation.
See their story here.