City & Guilds Group prepares for the future with migration to Microsoft Azure

Staines, UK – 20th March 2018 – City & Guilds Group, the leading provider of global skills development, has selected Ensono to lead the migration of its critical on-premise applications to a managed Microsoft Azure environment. The migration closely follows Microsoft’s announcement in November 2017 detailing how Microsoft Azure will allow customers to run SAP S/4HANA in a secure, managed cloud. This mission critical replatforming exercise will enable City & Guilds Group’s IT strategy to facilitate the broader business plan of diversification through acquisition. The project future-proofs the skills organisation, ensuring it can integrate additional acquisitions and services for enterprise level qualifications, e-learning and executive coaching.

City & Guilds Group have appointed Ensono to migrate applications including SAP, Sitecore, E-volve, Smartscreen and Biztalk, increasing business agility and driving cost savings of well over £1 million a year – helping offset the loss of public sector funding. Ensono’s strategic purchase of Inframon, which has over a decade of Microsoft cloud migration and management expertise and is an award winning Microsoft partner, was crucial in City & Guilds Group’s decision. 

The SAP on Azure migration will help City & Guilds Group deliver a better service to its customers and provide greater flexibility, enabling the organisation to scale up and down as demand requires.

Alan Crawford, CIO, City & Guilds Group , said: “This is City & Guilds Group’s first migration of mission-critical applications to a managed public cloud environment. The replatforming will increase our ability to scale up and down, depending on business needs and as we add new services, courses and companies to our portfolio. In addition to the cost-savings from becoming a cloud-first organisation, the replatforming will also drive innovation across the business. Innovation is at the heart of what we do and this project, with Ensono and Microsoft working as true partners, means City & Guilds Group will continue on the path to becoming the world’s leading skills development and e-learning organisation, with a passion for constant innovation.”

The project provides City & Guilds Group with the opportunity to consolidate the platforms of their group companies in the future, using a technology that is scalable and flexible for future demands and which also eliminates the need to commit resources to over-provisioning. It follows the recent announcement that Microsoft and SAP have joined forces to give customers a trusted path to digital transformation in the cloud, giving businesses opportunity to drive more business innovation in the cloud.

Alan Crawford, added: “We have a long-standing relationship with Ensono and have always found its commitment and passion for delivery second to none. Ensono’s acquisition of Inframon and our desire to migrate to Microsoft Azure, made this an obvious progression in our relationship. Ensono has proven to be a key strategic partner, helping us prepare for the future, whilst remaining competitive, dynamic and cost efficient in the present. City & Guilds Group is fanatical about providing a first-class service to our clients and we have an ambitious outlook for the future. Our partnership with Ensono and Microsoft will ensure that our IT estate is prepared for the growth we will see in the coming years, whilst maintaining cost savings and customer service. This project requires the specialist Azure skills for which Ensono is now known. City & Guilds Group is in great hands and we look forward to working closely with the team for years to come.”

Mark Smith, senior director of the cloud & enterprise business group at Microsoft UK said: “It is great to see this deployment of SAP on Azure following the partnership between Microsoft and SAP announced in November 2017. By moving SAP applications from on premise to the Microsoft Cloud, City & Guilds Group will have greater scale and flexibility as it continues to grow its business globally. Working with Ensono, we are proud to help City & Guilds Group deliver world-class skills and training in over 100 countries and be a part of its plan to save £1m in operational costs.”

Sean Roberts, general manager, Microsoft Cloud at Ensono, said: “City & Guilds Group is making an enormous impact on skills development and training across the globe. As it looks to future growth through acquisitions, it needed to ensure it had the right IT strategy in place, bringing it to the heart of the business. We look forward to continuing to support City & Guilds Group on this transformation journey.”

About Ensono

For business leaders managing lots of complexity or disrupting the status quo, Ensono delivers complete Hybrid IT services and governance, from cloud to mainframe, tailored to each client’s journey. Whether you’re leveraging the power of the cloud or modernizing legacy technologies, you’ll be on track to operate for today and optimize for tomorrow. Named a Top 15 Sourcing Service Provider by ISG, some of the world’s most successful companies rely on us to help them be great at what they do. Ensono has over 1,000 associates across North America and Europe and is in The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For. Our offices are headquartered in greater Chicago. 

About City & Guilds Group

• A world leader in skills education, City & Guilds works with governments, employers, colleges and training providers to deliver workplace relevant qualifications, certification and assessment. Our qualifications are valued by employers across the world, helping individuals and businesses develop their skills for personal and economic growth.
• We operate across five continents – from Johannesburg to Jamaica, Dublin to Dubai – reaching millions of people every year.
• City & Guilds is a City & Guilds Group business. The City & Guilds Group comprises six businesses – City & Guilds, ILM, Kineo, The Oxford Group, Digitalme and e3Learning. Together, these businesses enable individuals, businesses and economies to develop the skills they need to progress. Everything the City & Guilds Group does is about helping people get into a job, develop on the job and progress onto the next job.
• City & Guilds is incorporated by a royal charter and its president is HRH The Princess Royal. Any surpluses made through its work is reinvested into education or used for student support programmes.

For media inquiries, please contact Beth Burghgraef at: [email protected].