Crowe U.K. LLP is a leading audit, tax, advisory and risk firm with national presence to complement its international reach.

The firm is also an independent member of Crowe Global, the eighth largest accountancy network in the world, which gives them global reach and the ability to work seamlessly with their clients wherever they are based.

There are more than 1,000 people working across Crowe U.K. nationally. Until the pandemic, when the firm moved overnight to remote working, most staff were office-based.

Crowe needed external support for their on-premise SharePoint infrastructure. They have a great team of developers in-house but had always relied on partners to manage SharePoint admin and infrastructure. There were also knowledge gaps in certain areas which needed to be filled. The initial requirement was for Core to react to SharePoint issues as they arose and provide support on a break/fix basis. “We don’t get that many issues”, says Adrian Morris-Young, National Head of Technology Development at Crowe. “But when we get them it’s important that they’re fixed quickly.”

• Support for existing SharePoint infrastructure
• Cloud migration and Microsoft 365 support
• Roadmapping and recommendations for migration to the Microsoft cloud
• Strategy meetings and workshops to plan for potential future projects

Core was introduced to Crowe by their longstanding software supplier, Bytes. Crowe had meetings with two potential partners before making a decision.

“We had meetings with both and concluded that Core was the best fit for us”, Morris-Young explains. “It was their approach: it was a mixture of professionalism, a range of potential services, a longer-term view in terms of a roadmap, and the general friendliness; and their willingness to come in and speak to us.”

While Crowe’s initial requirement was SharePoint support, the services Core provides to Crowe have evolved over time. Recently, Crowe has been on a roadmap to move some of their infrastructure into the cloud and use elements of Microsoft 365. With this in mind, the support contract was changed so that Crowe could get maximum value from working with Core.

• Phase 1: SharePoint support contract
  

  Crowe chose Core to provide SharePoint support on a break/fix basis.
  

• Phase 2: Renewed support including Microsoft 365
  

  SharePoint support contract was renewed and amended to include support for Microsoft 365, as Crowe prepare to move to the cloud.
  
  

• Phase 3: Quarterly Trusted Partner Advisory Meetings
  

  
  Core attend quarterly Trusted Partner Advisory Meetings which are bespoke for each session and consist of strategy conversations across the Microsoft 365 platform.
  
  

• Phase 4: Workshops as needed
  

  Core deliver a range of workshops to Crowe around specific areas of interest.

Crowe has expert support for their existing SharePoint infrastructure and are making their vision of moving to the cloud happen. “We’re comfortable we have someone who can help take us on the journey into the cloud”, Morris-Young says.

When issues arise that Crowe can’t resolve in-house, they have engaged with Core. “When certain problems have occurred, Core have either been able to fix it, give a resolution for us to fix it, or give a recommendation of what we should be thinking of doing.”

Looking to the future, Crowe would like to work more closely with Core on development projects. “We’d like to utilise Core as an additional development resource and develop solutions that our internal team could do, but don’t have the time to.”