Delivering Improved Experience and Enhanced Security with Autopilot and Intune

As a global pioneer, Simbec-Orion’s expertise is not just shaping clinical trials – but shaping the future. White lab coats, test tubes and time zones aside, their digital tools need to be secure and managed from one united space.

Simbec-Orion is a Global Contract Research Organisation with over 45 years of experience in human clinical trials. They craft tailored trials for biotech and pharmaceutical partners across Europe, the USA and beyond. Their adaptable and nimble approach means they can mould to the dynamic needs of their clients.

An exciting partnership

At the forefront of scientific breakthroughs, Simbec- Orion has always championed innovative tech to boost its practices and unite its global workforce. And, in 2018, they brought Kascade on board. Through previous relationships and our existing partnership with Dell, they knew that we could elevate them to new heights.

Fast-forward five years, and we’ve become Simbec- Orion’s primary IT partner. And we don’t just deliver solutions and tech; we provide them with a powerful partnership, packed with roadmaps, expert-led strategy sessions, skills, knowledge and unparalleled support across the business.

Working with Kascade is always a brilliant experience. They really know their stuff, and the best part? They’re super flexible and always go the extra mile.

Abel Inglis
Cyber Security Analyst, Simbec-Orion

Shaking things up

While the team at Simbec-Orion was conquering scientific discoveries together, their devices were racking up air miles. With the team spanning four continents, their device management was anything but simple. The process they were following wasn’t efficient: the devices first went to the Simbec-Orion HQ via Dell, and then went out to their users. This was draining resources and burning an unnecessary hole in the budget. Plus, security needed to be considered. How could they secure, patch and have control over 600 devices without a central hub?

What Simbec-Orion needed was a way to configure, patch, secure and possibly wipe any devices, wherever the device was. And that’s where their strategic relationship with Kascade came into play! From years of relationship building and our Microsoft credentials, they knew we would get to the bottom of their endpoint kerfuffle.

A deep-dive discovery day

By this point, we had become an extension of Simbec-Orion’s IT team, but that didn’t mean we pressed the brakes and treaded water. Cue our discovery day! It was a day packed with demos, where we spent time understanding exactly what Simbec-Orion needed, which applications they used, and which were their bread and butter.

We ground down into the nitty-gritty, and this gave our experts the know-how on how we could fine-tune the project for their specific requirements. We knew this was a lot of information to navigate in a day, so we provided a full write-up to clarify what we had heard and what our recommendations were.

“Given encryption tech changing, patch management issues, policy management and deployment difficulties, there were a few issues we were experiencing. Rather than tackle these issues one by one, we worked with Kascade to tackle multiple birds with one giant stone.”

Thomas Potgieter
IT Manager, Simbec-Orion

A dynamic duo – Microsoft Autopilot and Intune

After gathering all the information and putting the puzzle pieces in place, it was clear how Simbec-Orion could better manage their devices. And that’s where Intune and Autopilot came into play. With Autopilot on their side to deploy and reset devices (all through the power of the cloud), they can now send their devices straight to the user.

Once it’s out of the box, it’s ready to go. This means the user gets the enjoyment of pulling off the screen protector (and, let’s be honest, we all love that part of a new device!). And then, when it’s time to kick-start security, compliance and device management, Intune is there for the IT team to manage remotely. And, hey presto: this modern working dynamic duo meant Simbec-Orion finally had remote control without the back and forth!

Everyone loves an upgrade

To get these technologies on Simbec-Orion’s side, the company had to upgrade their Microsoft licences from Office 365 E3 to Microsoft 365 E3. So as the masters of Microsoft, we helped the IT department at Simbec-Orion create a proposal to present to the board, highlighting that, beyond simply allowing Intune, Simbec-Orion now had the opportunity to get even more from their Microsoft investment.

All users now have access to Power BI, allowing them to visualise and analyse their critical data, which has been really impactful across the business. It has given the company more power over Microsoft Teams, provided built-in security and allowed a single sign-on for their SaaS applications.

Smooth sailing

No news is good news when it comes to a key project of this scale! And there was no news on the day because the project was seamless. We upgraded Microsoft licences, and configured and customised Autopilot and Intune, which are now up and running across their 600-device fleet. This puts Simbec-Orion on a smooth path to deploy, manage and patch their devices – with none of those added air miles. But there’s more! They now have the power to lock things down remotely and have even more control over their sensitive data.

“Working with the Kascade experts was great! There were elements that we hadn’t realised would crop up, and the experts knew just what to do to sort it. And a lot of these issues weren’t actually even within the scope of the work, but Kascade was so flexible and understanding – they just got on with it as they knew it would provide the best outcome for us. And to top it all off, our team was able to shadow the Kascade engineers during the project, which was a critical element. The fact that our team members were able to understand the configuration and how it all works has made the future management much easier and better.”