When the global pandemic hit in 2020 and forced Victorians to work from home, Cecilia Connellan, Transformation Manager at Buloke Shire Council, understood the challenges that this would bring to councillors and staff.

Buloke Shire Council (Buloke) is a rural Victorian council located in Wycheproof, about 4 hours north-west of Melbourne with offices located in Charlton, Birchip, Donald and Sea Lake. The council was yet to start their cloud journey when the pandemic hit and relied on on-premises infrastructure to deliver services to staff and councillors.

Many Buloke staff live in rural locations and on farms, with slow Internet connectivity. To make matters worse, the council did not have a dedicated Internet link and shared Internet services with the local town residents. This made it very difficult for council staff to remain productive while working from home. Cecilia worked with the Victorian government to organise a grant to help the council accelerate their journey to Microsoft 365.

The immediate challenge facing the council was keeping staff productive while working from home, which had been a struggle during the first Victorian issued lockdown. Cecilia knew that the council had to hasten their transformation of key services, such as email and collaboration, to Microsoft 365 while adhering to the Victorian Protective Data Security Standards (VPDSS) guidelines for information security. Additionally, information governance had to be clearly defined, documented and technologically implemented to standardise how Microsoft 365 services were used and information stored.

Delivering the project in the middle of a global pandemic, and the uncertainty that came with it was also a challenge. The entire project would have to be delivered remotely and all communication via video calls. Additionally, the unreliable Internet connection made remote access difficult and impacted key project components, such as migrating mailboxes from Exchange Server to Exchange Online.

Cecilia and her team partnered with Endpoint Focus to design and deliver key services to allow staff and councillors to more effectively work from any location without relying on VPN or on-premises network connectivity. The Microsoft 365 solution included:

The resulting solution provides Buloke with a modern workplace platform, allowing staff and councillors to work efficiently and effectively from any device and any location securely without having to rely on connectivity to local infrastructure. The Buloke team can utilise SharePoint Online for document and team collaboration while following Victorian data security standards through governance.

Buloke Shire Council is a Victorian local government body with its primary office located in Wycheproof, which is about 4 hours north west of Melbourne, Victoria. The council also has offices located in Birchip, Charlton, Donald and Sea Lake.