How AMVIA Modernised IT Across Proactive Personnel's 30+ Branch Network

The Challenge

Proactive Personnel is one of the UK's established national recruitment agencies, with a branch network spanning more than 30 locations. The business had grown organically over many years, and its IT infrastructure reflected that growth — a combination of different hardware generations, inconsistent software configurations, a mix of cloud and on-premises systems, and no central IT management capability.

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Legacy authentication protocols (IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Exchange ActiveSync, MAPI) do not support MFA and remain a frequent attack vector — Microsoft data shows: (Microsoft)

68% of IT leaders in the CoreView survey report attackers attempting to access their Microsoft 365 environment every week, every day, or constantly.

The practical consequences were significant. Staff at different branches had different experiences — some had newer laptops and fast connectivity, others were working on ageing hardware with slow broadband. The helpdesk model was reactive: issues were reported, logged, and eventually resolved, but there was no proactive monitoring to identify problems before they affected staff. IT costs were difficult to forecast, with a mix of per-incident fees, break-fix hardware costs, and ad-hoc software purchases.

Security was also a concern. With no centralised device management, the security posture varied significantly across branches. MFA was not enforced, patch compliance was inconsistent, and there was no visibility of whether all devices had functioning security software.

The Approach

AMVIA proposed a phased IT modernisation programme across three phases. Phase 1 focused on deploying the managed service foundation: RMM agents across all devices, managed antivirus replacement with Microsoft Defender for Business, and centralised patch management. Phase 2 addressed connectivity — replacing the most problematic branch broadband circuits with better-performing alternatives and deploying managed routers for centralised network visibility. Phase 3 delivered the Microsoft 365 migration — moving from on-premises email and file storage to Microsoft 365 Business Premium, with SharePoint replacing on-premises file servers.

The phased approach meant that improvements were visible to Proactive Personnel's management team throughout the programme — not only at the end. Each phase delivered measurable outcomes before moving to the next.

The Technology Deployed

The full technology stack deployed across the Proactive Personnel estate included: AMVIA's RMM platform with automated patch management across all devices; Microsoft 365 Business Premium for all branch staff — replacing on-premises Exchange, file servers, and a mix of individual Office licences; Microsoft Intune for device management and compliance enforcement; Microsoft Defender for Business configured with AMVIA's security baseline policies; Conditional Access policies enforcing MFA for all Microsoft 365 access; and managed broadband upgrades at branches where connectivity was identified as a primary productivity constraint.

The Microsoft 365 migration was conducted branch-by-branch, with mailbox migrations scheduled outside business hours and SharePoint document library migrations completed over weekends to minimise disruption. A 30-day parallel-run period at each branch allowed staff to familiarise themselves with the new environment before the legacy systems were decommissioned.

The Outcome

The impact on day-to-day operations was measurable within weeks of the managed service going live. Proactive patch management and standardised security configurations significantly reduced the security risk exposure across the branch network. The centralised visibility provided by AmviaIQ meant that AMVIA could identify and resolve issues proactively — before they were reported by staff.

The migration to Microsoft 365 eliminated the maintenance overhead associated with on-premises servers and simplified the IT environment considerably. Branch managers could access files and email from any device, anywhere — supporting both in-branch and remote working patterns. The Teams deployment improved internal communication between branches, reducing reliance on phone calls for internal coordination.

The helpdesk experience improved materially. With standardised hardware configurations and automated patch management, the volume of reactive tickets fell, and the remaining issues were simpler to resolve because AMVIA had full remote access and context for every device. Staff satisfaction with IT support improved significantly in the months following the programme completion.