Credit Union

Credit Union SA exist to help South Australians do more with their money, so that in turn they can make the most of their life. It is an approach that – coupled with their proud commitment to strengthening their local South Australian communities for a brighter future – has already attracted over 50,000 members across the state.

As an invaluable service provider to their community, Credit Union SA has no place for downtime. When lockdown requirements were introduced across the state to combat the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020, Credit Union SA’s Infrastructure and Services Team Leader Daniel Kalinovic had to pivot quickly to maintain business continuity.

The Issue

Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, Credit Union SA had only a handful of staff occasionally working remotely – mostly to accommodate personal circumstances. The large majority of staff worked in-house, using desktop computers with multiple monitors. The unprecedented circumstances surrounding the lockdown meant this approach simply wasn’t viable moving forward.

“We had to adjust our stance quite quickly once everything changed. In the past we had been using desktops with just a handful of laptops for work from home. But with the lockdown, we immediately moved to get everyone on laptops that would facilitate a mobile, work from home workforce.” – Daniel Kalinovic, Credit Union SA Infrastructure and Services Team Leader.

“To protect our organisation’s reputation, IP, and invaluable customer data, the devices required all the proper security measures such as VPN and proxy capabilities, as well as the ability to monitor their health and security in real-time. Time really was of the essence.”

The Solution & Project Execution

After consulting with Blackbird IT, Credit Union SA chose to implement 50 HP ProBook 450s powered by Intel® Core™ i5 processors, with HP USB-C docking stations that would allow their staff to connect to multiple displays if necessary. With the organisation already running Microsoft 365 and Microsoft teams, Daniel highlighted that the backend systems were in place for a relatively smooth transition, granted Blackbird IT could deliver the hardware quickly.

“The software we had in place made it pretty streamlined to get all the devices out to staff quickly. We had the ability to do a staged rollout, so the main challenge was going to be getting the hardware in, because we were hearing stories of low stock due to supply issues with the pandemic.”

The Business Outcomes

Since the rollout was completed, Credit Union SA has seen a number of key business outcomes emerge.

• The organisation now has consistency across their device fleet.
• The HP ProBooks are stable, reliable and resilient tools that have worked seamlessly since implementation and will enable staff to continue working remotely.
• The internal IT team at Credit Union SA have further confidence in Blackbird IT’s ability to turnaround orders in an incredibly short timeframe.
• Staff devices are secure, powerful and easily monitored and managed.
• Zero downtime was incurred during the rollout, maintaining Credit Union SA’s reputation with their customers.

“Flexibility and work from home protocols is something we’ve been discussing recently. This project has proven to us that our staff can be just as productive at home as they can in the office. So, it’s definitely made us think a lot and moving forward it’s something that will looked at in depth – offering that flexibility as standard, even when we’re all allowed back in the office full-time.” – Daniel.