Enterprise Cloud Migration
Case StudyMille Lacs Corporate Ventures
Business continuity and cloud managed services for Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures
Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures (MLCV) was created by the tribal government of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe to manage the business affairs of the Band. They are committed to their vision of building a sound economic future for generations to come. MLCV is a thriving economic force in East Central Minnesota.
Challenge
Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures (MLCV) is active in five lanes of business – gaming, marketing & technology, in district businesses, hospitality, and government contracting services. A few years ago, they recognized there was an opportunity to improve the organization’s technology that was originally created on its tribal gaming network.
Although they were managing diverse and multi-location tribal operations, they were tethered to compliance requirements based on the tribal gaming, state gaming and other regulatory agencies.
“We decided over a year ago to devise a plan. Our goal was to get MLCV and its non-gaming businesses off the casino’s infrastructure,” said Drew McElrath, Strategic Project Manager for MLCV, “As an independent corporation, we knew that moving our assets to the cloud was a game-changer for our ability to provide business continuity critical to our operations.”
Solution
Once the decision was made to move to the cloud, MLCV made several key decisions on what technology to use, along with an implementation plan. They were already operating in Office 365, so choosing the power of the Microsoft platform allowed them to keep a lot of familiar applications, while taking advantage of cloud management and security advantages.
Next, they needed to choose the right technology partner to execute their vision.
“MLCV selected Arctic IT as a partner to help take our corporate office to the Microsoft 365 cloud because of our experiences with them in the Dynamics GP and Dynamics CRM spaces. We continue to partner with Arctic IT because they understand our vision of providing business value through technology innovation,” said McElrath.
Results
The right strategy and the right partner made the difference. They now have the leverage they needed to adapt to a quickly changing business environment. The advantages the cloud provides MLCV include:
- Agility. They can deploy business applications as needs evolve.
- Compliance. Gaming operations are separated to ensure regulatory requirements are met.
- Diversity. The technology allows MLCV to manage a portfolio of businesses with different needs.
- Security. Multi-layered, scaled security allows for peace-of-mind.
- Managed Services. Updates and patches pushed out to every endpoint, regardless of where they are.
With recent world events disrupting every facet of our economy, the time to pivot on technology strategy is now. As tribal enterprise works through the pause in operations, tribes can set up their organizations up for success. McElrath agrees stating, “If you weren’t positioned in the cloud, now is the time to create a plan to help your organization become stronger.”
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