Kempsey Shire is a local government area in the mid north coast region of New South Wales.
The shire services an area of 3,380 square kilometres and is located adjacent to the Pacific Highway and the North Coast railway line. Kempsey Shire was formed in 1976 by the amalgamation of the former Kempsey Municipality and the former Macleay Shire.
Kempsey Shire Council (KSC) had already adopted an innovative approach to their IT strategy with a “work anywhere” mobile approach – and had a number of technology projects underway aiming to drive productivity and efficiency gains.
One example is their implementation of Microsoft mobile tablets/computing devices for frontline and works area staff in order to be more accessible across a wider geographical area, and respond quicker to ratepayer requirements and issues.
The Council needed an ICT partner to implement the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) which they had selected as a solution to manage the Council ICT assets on a broad scale across all WAN connected and mobile sites, as well as a full spectrum Information Rights Management (IRM) solution.
This solution would safeguard and protect Council assets and information to ensure that access and availability to documents was managed in line with Council access policies and the Privacy Act. What they really needed was a holistic solution provider that they could work with across all of the different elements.
It’s the expectation that Council workers are productive no matter the location – in the office, on site or on the road.
The Council had a limited ICT budget that was focussed on their productivity and tablet deployment projects – furthermore, they needed a succinct management experience to allow users to selfenroll their devices for management, and to take advantage of the Council’s growing application store. It was also important for the Council to be able to remotely manage and audit Council ICT assets when not on the Council WAN or LAN.
KSC engaged Insync Technology to deploy the entire Enterprise Management Suite (EMS) to complement their Office 365 and Microsoft identity infrastructure.
Insync worked with the Council to finalise their technical, business and functional requirements – then designed and deployed the solution within this framework, ready for their Windows tablet and Windows Mobile rollout program.
With EMS and its main component, Intune, the Council is able to manage these assets via the same Microsoft tools they know today – but across the entire 4000 square kilometre local government area.
The Intune platform as part of EMS gives the Council massive scale and reliability – something that the Council cannot deliver in the modest ICT budget it operates within. The Intune Platform integrates with the Council’s native Systems Management platform, System Centre Configuration Manager, to provide overall management of all Council devices – servers, desktops, laptops, tablets and phones – regardless of location.
EMS can deploy software to virtually any device – anywhere, any time. The EMS deployment has supported the success of the Windows tablet and phone rollout – and ensures that Council has an enterprise grade asset management solution that protects the integrity and accountability of Council devices and data.
Plans for the Council are exciting. Over the coming months, KSC are looking to leverage its investment in the Enterprise Management Suite to provide a range of self-service platforms for its end-users. These could include self-enrolment of devices, management of software, as well as productivity tools available with Office 365 and the wider Microsoft Cloud – all managed securely and reliably by EMS and from a single identity.
The end goal is a fully integrated productivity and management platform that caters for all Council devices irrelevant of location – to drive productivity and efficiency gains within a secure information management framework. Staff are happy with the ability to access their productivity tools anywhere securely – and also protect their information across a range of personal devices.
It’s the expectation that Council workers are productive no matter the location – in the office, on site or on the road. EMS and the Microsoft Cloud makes this happen.
Marist College