Strategic Business Planning through Office 365 Proof of Concept

AEL Mining Services, a member of the JSE-listed AECI Group in South Africa, is a leading developer, producer and supplier of commercial explosives, initiating systems and blasting services for mining, quarrying and construction markets in Africa and Indonesia. With its head office at Modderfontein in Johannesburg, South Africa, AEL Mining Services comprises of 16 businesses complimented by production facilities and offices throughout Southern Africa. Taking those numbers into consideration, it gives us a standpoint of the amount of time that can be lost from something as basic as a password reset request.

AEL Mining Services needed a solution to apply for security on their shared documents and the ability to use self-service password resets.
With the help of AVeS, a leading Microsoft Gold partner in South Africa, AEL has been able to witness how they can save time and contribute to the productivity of their team by setting up a proof of concept for Office 365 which enables the users to reset their own passwords.

 Our approach to the solution for AEL’s needs was by first setting up a proof of concept (pilot project) for Microsoft Office 365, to eliminate Drop Box and use Azure Active Directory to reset their own Active Directory password. The proof of concept presented AVeS with the opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities of Office 365, in a controlled environment. This is a good risk mitigation strategy and it helps the organization in determining whether the software is suitable for their environment. It provides a hands on experience for IT personnel and users on how easily it can be configured.

The road map to the solution involved the following:

• One Drive for Business and Enterprise Mobility Suite to Microsoft Office 365. By using Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services for single sign on with Azure Active Directory Connect to synchronize on premises username and password to Office 365 Azure Active Directory.

• Applying Right Management Services to the individual client, One Drive for Business as well as give the users an experience of being able to reset their own passwords.

For a corporation the size of AEL, with a number of locations spread across the world, it is important to stay connected entirely as an organization and to be able to perform some actions independently. A technology solution like Office 365 is the right fit. Not only does the product offer great features it is also cost effective.