SCC Makes IT work for Skills Funding Agency

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) is a Government agency that invests approximately £3.6 billion each year into adult training programmes. Their aim is to support people in finding jobs, or improving their career prospects through the development of key skills.

With the aim of optimising their IT infrastructure and driving cost savings while maintaining business continuity, the SFA began a project to disaggregate their IT services into a multi-vendor environment.

Béatrice Lightfoot, Chief Technology Officer said: “We were working to very tight deadlines and a very tight financial budget so we were looking for a partner that was able and willing to rise to the challenge.

“SCC demonstrated that they understand our technical requirement; that they had the technical capability we were looking for and that they were value for money.”

SCC was able to provide a seamless datacentre transition with minimal business impact.

“We were able to carry on with business with no disruption, which was our main objective”

SCC also implemented various core infrastructure upgrades, such as installing a new network and improving their storage capacity.Having moved their operations to SCC’s datacentres, SFA is now able to securely host their business applications via cloud using the Sentinel by SCC platform.

Béatrice Lightfoot added: “Another benefit is the value for money. We were looking for a significant reduction in our operating costs and we have achieved it.

“We also took the opportunity to simplify our IT estate. It’s a bit like when you move house and you want to declutter. We should have done it years ago.

“I’ve been delighted to on-board SCC. This was a very difficult challenge and SCC has risen to it.”