Humanitarian organization transforms technology to continue transforming lives

With the help of Microsoft 365 and Enterprise Mobility + Security, Human Appeal has lowered its overhead, centralized documentation, and improved security. The solution has also helped improve communication, offering clarity and transparency throughout the organization.

“Microsoft Teams has helped us immensely, especially during these difficult times while staff members are working from home. Teams is user-friendly and very effective, and it provides a platform where all Human Appeal staff members can meet and continue to work like they were in the office,” says Ibrahim Sani, IT Support Analyst at Human Appeal.

Moving to the cloud to help ensure mission continuity 

In August 2019, Human Appeal connected with Valto, a Microsoft Partner Network member with Gold competencies, to adopt several Microsoft solutions, including Microsoft Defender for Office 365 to scan email attachments, implement conditional access controls, and for use with Intune to manage devices remotely. 

Over an eight-week period, Human Appeal rolled out applications in phases. In the six months that followed, Human Appeal and Valto provided training and adoption for various teams. After moving all documents from a local file server to SharePoint and Teams, Human Appeal was ready to go remote in March 2020. 

“As the COVID-19 lockdown was approaching, our CEO, Directors, and employees felt very confident that Human Appeal would be able to continue business as usual because of the recently implemented measures, such as SharePoint, Teams, Microsoft 365, and Enterprise Mobility + Security,” says Ihsan Aljafri, Head of Systems Development at Human Appeal.

Increasing security while saving time 

Before implementing Microsoft tools, Human Appeal dealt with a high volume of malicious attempts to penetrate its network. These attacks came in the form of spam, phishing emails, and unsafe attachments—about 300 every day. 

Human Appeal adopted Intune, Azure Active Directory, and Microsoft Azure Information Protection to reduce malicious attempts, which have decreased by 90 percent. The solution has increased security and decreased the amount of time Human Appeal staff spends trying to keep the organization’s systems safe. For example, with Intune, Human Appeal can wipe and secure devices remotely, and it can turn on Teams and SharePoint for staff members to use on their own devices. Using Intune, Human Appeal is confident that all its users, whether office-based or in the field, can access data securely.

“Multifactor authentication and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint are great security features to add to Office 365. 90 percent of data breaches start with email, leading to data loss and business disruption. Implementing multifactor authentication and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint added a layer of protection to provide resilience against unauthorized access to our Office 365 system, and it drastically reduced our risks for phishing and malicious attacks,” says Mohammed Alqaisia, IT Infrastructure Manager at Human Appeal. 

“The key benefit is our ability to engage effectively with the workforce no matter where they are in the world,” says Steve Fish, Global Procurement and Logistics Manager at Human Appeal.

Saving time and money, streamlining communication

Communicating with and providing support for staff and volunteers in their field offices was becoming increasingly difficult because of a patchwork of systems containing information and forms needed to do their work. These challenges caused frustration and used valuable time that could better be spent furthering the organization’s mission.

Human Appeal needed a solution to increase communication, consolidate data, and bridge the gap between field and office workers. With help from Valto, it moved to the full suite of Microsoft 365 E3, including SharePoint, Teams, Power Apps, and Power Automate.

And as it turns out, the organization had implemented the right solutions at the right time. The Microsoft 365 and Enterprise Mobility + Security measures together with SharePoint and Teams helped Human Appeal staff continue working from home with minimal interruption during COVID-19. SharePoint provides a central communication hub for staff in various countries and user groups, providing a time savings of up to 15 to 30 minutes for each Human Appeal staff member every day.

Microsoft Teams is now the staff’s primary communication tool across the organization, decreasing email use. Teams meetings and chat give all the departments at Human Appeal secure access to the documents that they need. Additionally, the Teams Mobile app allows staff to always be flexible and reachable despite irregular working patterns, worldwide locations, and time differences. Staff use Teams to share screens, record meetings, video conference, and to integrate with Outlook calendars and SharePoint storage.

“Microsoft Teams allows Human Appeal colleagues to collaborate in a more effortless way because of the interoperability with all the other Microsoft products, such as Outlook, Calendar, and SharePoint, which takes the hassle out of using other services for meetings, document storage, and working with each other online,” says Bilal Mahmood, Junior Business Analyst at Human Appeal. 

By consolidating infrastructure and removing previous products it no longer needs, Human Appeal has reduced its overhead by 80 percent. The organization merged its files into one convenient location, replacing all file servers with Teams and SharePoint. Now, volunteers and staff have easier, faster, and more secure access to important data and can focus on supporting and helping more people.