Discover how the Dutch training hospital overcame the challenges of adopting the cloud and managing Microsoft 365 for better patient care.

The AvePoint Solution

Franciscus considered other providers, such as Veeam, but found their solution to be both pricier and more complex. The hospital chose AvePoint Cloud Backup, AvePoint’s multi-SaaS backup solution, because “it’s a better solution, and we spend less time having to manage it,” says Tim van Toledo, Project Manager, ICMT, Franciscus Gasthuis & Vlietland.

Prior to Cloud Backup, an admin had to log in to the server and search for the file they needed to recover, which involved multiple steps. With Cloud Backup, admins can log in to the dashboard, search for the document name, and restore it with just a click of a button. This streamlined process reduced recovery times by 85%.

To become a fully cloud-enabled workplace, Franciscus needed to move its legacy content from self-hosted file shares to Microsoft Teams. They used AvePoint Fly Server to streamline the migration. By mapping a source from its on-premises location to the Teams destination, they could run migrations every night and the data would be in the new environment by morning, limiting disruption to the hospital’s day-to-day business operations. The hospital started the migration in September 2022 and expects to complete it by January 2024.

To manage the increasing adoption of Teams, the hospital implemented AvePoint Cloud Governance, which established basic rules for workspace provisioning like naming conventions, owner rules, and inactivity thresholds. This helped the hospital to keep track of new Teams workspaces and maintain control over them as adoption of Microsoft 365 continued.

Even with these rules in place, a new Team was still just a few clicks away thanks to Cloud Governance’s MyHub integration, which enables users to self-provision workspaces following governance policies set by IT. “MyHub is very easy to use, and users love that they can have a Team within a minute,” says Tim.

As Teams usage surged, Franciscus encountered data security issues due to the open and sharing system of Microsoft 365. Staff members were sharing information via Anyone links, sometimes sending them to personal email addresses, without any expiration date. To tackle this problem, Tim's team implemented a new policy in Cloud Governance, mandating the use of an outlook.com email address and the expiration of sharing links.

However, Tim and his team understood that implementing policies after the fact was not enough. They needed a solution that could help them get ahead of these concerns before they appeared. With AvePoint Policies and AvePoint Insights, the hospital can proactively identify potential risks, monitor user activity, and get insights into Teams usage to drive secure collaboration.

Tim says, “As a hospital, we need to be aware of the type of data we have, its sensitivity, and whether it contains patient information or other personal data. AvePoint gives us this information, helping us stay in control of our data and keep up with growing cybersecurity concerns and the changing data privacy landscape.”