.jpg?height=800&name=health-care-worker-checks-senior-woman-s-blood-pre-2026-09-22-00-21-19-utc%20(Medium).jpg)
Client Overview
Industry
Recruitment
Company Size
<10 employees
The Challenges
The Care First team has been Innovate’s customer since 2017, supported by their Helpdesk ever since to keep operations running and users productive.
However, Care First Recruitment was still operating on legacy technology that included a Parallels-based virtual desktop infrastructure and hosted email services. The incumbent system also made it impossible to host any video meetings which became increasingly popular at the time.
While the setup had supported business operations, it increasingly presented limitations in terms of performance, scalability, security, and modern collaboration tools.
.jpg?height=1000&name=doctors-discussing-medical-notes-in-hospital-hallw-2026-09-22-17-01-21-utc%20(Medium).jpg)
The Solution
In response to evolving operational needs, remote and hybrid working models, and the demand for secure and seamless user access, the organisation had initiated a strategic technology migration. The goal was to transition to a more modern and integrated solution leveraging Microsoft 365 on physical laptops, managed centrally via Entra ID.
The reasoning behind this choice was:
- Enhanced Productivity: Microsoft 365 offers industry-standard productivity tools such as Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive, enabling better collaboration, communication, and document management.
- Security & Compliance: Entra ID enables robust identity and access management capabilities, including conditional access, single sign-on (SSO), and multifactor authentication (MFA), aligning with best practices in data security.
- Operational Efficiency: Moving to laptops would remove the reliance on virtualised desktops, reducing support complexity, and improving the end-user experience with faster boot times, and native device capabilities.
- Future Scalability: This transition would lay the foundation for scalable, cloud-first operations that can more easily accommodate business growth and changes in workforce structure.
.jpg?height=1000&name=healthcare-worker-with-senior-patients-at-a-table-2026-09-22-18-23-47-utc%20(Medium).jpg)
Key Takeaways
Challenges
- Legacy Parallels-based virtual desktops limited performance and scalability
- Hosted email with no video meetings or modern collaboration tools
- Growing need for secure, seamless user access
- Risk of disruption during the migration
- Technology needed to support business growth
How Innovate Solved Them
- Decommissioned the virtual desktops and deployed Microsoft 365 applications on corporate laptops
- Migrated email to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online and rolled out Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive
- Provisioned identities and managed devices via Entra ID, with conditional access, SSO, MFA and security policies
- Thoroughly planned the project, with particular focus on security and access control
- Scalable, cloud-first infrastructure backed by proactive Helpdesk support
Business Outcomes
-
Faster boot times, native device capabilities and reduced support complexity
- Seamless communication, collaboration and document management for remote and hybrid working
- Robust data security aligned with best practice and secure access from any location
- A smooth migration with no interruption to the business
- Confidence to expand the Executive Search division while staying focused on recruitment rather than IT
Recent Blog Posts
Visit the blog
Oct 6, 2026
Trust Is Earned. Accountability Is Measured.
Whenever I speak to our customers, it’s clear that an established relationship, communication and trust are the key characteristics they valued most when working with ...
