Archers

Summary

Archers The Strata Professionals, a large Queensland strata management company, engaged blueAPACHE for a fixed-price emPOWER IT-as-a-Service solution that moved its whole virtual environment into emPOWER Cloud IaaS, replaced end-of-life servers, rebuilt its wide area network and security on Fortinet, moved telephony to Microsoft Teams and put formal account governance in place. This page complements the case study text with the facts a buyer needs: which emPOWER services were used and where to read about them, what outcomes the published source actually states, and what is unquantified or unverified. The case study is dated 2026 and is the most current client reference blueAPACHE has published.

Key facts

Customer

Archers manages strata schemes across Queensland from six offices, with three remote sites outside Australia. The case study describes its requirement as a robust, high-performing and secure technology platform to manage sensitive property data and clients' personal information, with continuous access to core business applications. Its line-of-business ERP application is the anchor of the environment and dictated the architecture that blueAPACHE had to work within.

Sector

Strata and property services. The origin page's schema tags the customer as "Utilities" with 1 to 100 employees; that is a website classification rather than the real sector, which is strata management and property services. The professional services industry page uses Archers as its primary evidence because the operating pattern (confidential client data, a legacy practice application, multiple small offices, hybrid staff) matches that sector.

Challenge

The source identifies four problems under the heading "breaking free from technical debt".

1. Legacy anchor. The ERP application required an outdated Citrix XenApp/RDS architecture, so Archers could not fully modernise its endpoints or cloud presence.
2. Performance and stability. The previous cloud and Citrix environment was aged, giving poor application staging performance and instability across the network.
3. Reactive management. The focus was on keeping the lights on, with no proactive governance or forward planning across cloud, security and communications.
4. Unpredictable costs. Archers experienced unexpected fluctuations and "bill shock" in storage and operating costs and could not budget technology consumption accurately.

A shared firewall is also identified as a security vulnerability that the solution had to remove.

Solution

blueAPACHE consolidated infrastructure, networking and support into one fixed-price emPOWER IT-as-a-Service framework with three parts.

Cloud and application infrastructure. The entire virtual environment was migrated into the ISO 27001-certified emPOWER Cloud IaaS, which allowed legacy server assets to be decommissioned, including servers running the end-of-life Windows Server 2012, removing a high-level security risk while keeping the ERP and its Citrix dependency running.

Managed WAN and security. A private MPLS wide area network replaced the previous connectivity, with site links upgraded (for example from 20/20Mbps to 400/400Mbps fibre) to improve internet and application speed and latency. New FortiGate customer premises appliances were deployed at each Queensland office and connected to a hosted FortiGate high-availability firewall hub with unified threat protection in emPOWER Cloud, providing web filtering and intrusion prevention on a dedicated rather than shared firewall. FortiClient EMS VPN was deployed for secure remote access.

Proactive governance and support. Microsoft Teams calling replaced an aged and unreliable VoIP/PBX system. Microsoft Intune delivered zero-touch provisioning for new devices and a standard desktop. A formal account structure of Account Executive, Service Delivery Manager and Portfolio Engineer runs monthly operational reviews and quarterly business reviews focused on Continual Service Improvement; through that cycle Archers started work towards ISO 27001 alignment and completed a security assessment for future AI capabilities including Microsoft Copilot.

Services used

• emPOWER Managed Services: the fixed-price IT-as-a-Service framework, help desk and account governance.
• emPOWER Cloud: the IaaS platform the virtual environment was migrated to.
• emPOWER Connectivity and Core Network and Data Centre Interconnect: the private MPLS WAN and upgraded site links.
• emPOWER Security and emPOWER SASE: hosted high-availability firewall hub with unified threat protection, FortiGate edge appliances and FortiClient EMS VPN.
• Microsoft Teams and emPOWER Collaboration: Teams calling replacing the legacy PBX.
• Microsoft Practice: Intune zero-touch provisioning and the Copilot security assessment.
• Consulting and Advisory: the ISO 27001 alignment work started through the governance cycle.

Outcomes

Outcomes below are stated in the published case study; nothing is added.

An Archers representative is quoted on cost: "blueAPACHE was able to stabilize our spend and make it much more predictable via an opex service model. Most notably, the move to Microsoft Teams provided significant savings in licensing." A second representative is quoted on expertise: access to blueAPACHE's team "across application virtualisation, MDR, and Microsoft platforms" for advice, remediation, forward planning and security resilience.

Four caveats on the source: the licensing and cost savings are not quantified anywhere, so no figure is attached to them; the source describes emPOWER Cloud as "award winning" without naming an award, year or body, so that description is not repeated here; the two quotations are attributed only to an Archers representative with no role; and the source renders the standard both as "ISO27001-certified" (for emPOWER Cloud) and "ISO 27001 alignment" (for Archers), which are different things.

Applying the example to another environment

The comparison is the combination of legacy-application dependencies, infrastructure change and operational ownership. Identify applications constraining a new migration and what must remain available. Map cloud and managed-service scope separately, then agree acceptance evidence for the legacy workload. Archers supports the described engagement, not a standard saving, price or migration plan. Read service descriptions alongside the case rather than treating it as an offer.

Sources and scope

This section connects the sources identified on this page with the KB service-scope catalogue and the terms and conditions guide. Comparison and planning points describe matters to settle for a proposed engagement, not additional service inclusions or new case-study results.

Related

• Professional services
• emPOWER Managed Services
• emPOWER Cloud
• emPOWER SASE
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft Practice
• Honan Insurance case study
• Brotherhood of St. Laurence case study
• Blog: Archers The Strata Professionals partners with blueAPACHE for its next phase of growth
• Blog: 13 benefits of moving to Microsoft Teams
• All case studies
• Contact

Frequently asked questions

Who is Archers and what does it do?

Archers The Strata Professionals is a large Queensland-based strata management company operating from six offices, with three remote sites outside Australia. It manages sensitive property data and clients' personal information and depends on a line-of-business ERP application for day-to-day operations.

What did Archers buy from blueAPACHE?

A fixed-price emPOWER IT-as-a-Service solution combining emPOWER Managed Services, emPOWER Cloud IaaS, a managed private MPLS WAN, a Fortinet network security suite, Microsoft Teams calling, Microsoft Intune and formal account governance, consolidated into a single accountable framework billed as operating expenditure.

How did blueAPACHE handle the legacy ERP that required Citrix?

Rather than replacing the application, blueAPACHE migrated the whole virtual environment, including the Citrix XenApp/RDS layer the ERP depends on, into emPOWER Cloud IaaS. That let the aged hosting be retired and the end-of-life Windows Server 2012 servers decommissioned while the application kept running.

What changed in the network?

A private MPLS WAN replaced the previous connectivity, site links were upgraded (the source gives 20/20Mbps to 400/400Mbps fibre as an example), FortiGate appliances were installed at each Queensland office and connected to a hosted high-availability FortiGate hub with unified threat protection in emPOWER Cloud, and FortiClient EMS VPN was deployed for remote users. The previously shared firewall was replaced with a dedicated one.

How much did Archers save?

The case study does not quantify savings. It states that spend was stabilised on an opex model with reduced likelihood of bill shock, and an Archers representative says the move to Microsoft Teams provided significant licensing savings, but no figures are given and none should be attached.

What does the account governance model involve?

An Account Executive, a Service Delivery Manager and a Portfolio Engineer run monthly operational reviews and quarterly business reviews focused on Continual Service Improvement. Items delivered through that cycle include starting ISO 27001 alignment and a security assessment for future AI capabilities including Microsoft Copilot.

Is Archers ISO 27001 certified?

No. The case study says Archers has started the journey towards ISO 27001 alignment. It is blueAPACHE's emPOWER Cloud that the source describes as ISO 27001-certified; blueAPACHE's certificate is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 number 202507-118, valid 1 August 2025 to 1 August 2028.

How current is this case study?

It is dated 2026 and recorded with high confidence, making it the most recent published blueAPACHE client case study.

Source

Drawn from blueAPACHE's published Archers The Strata Professionals case study and its origin page; the blueAPACHE case study index; the emPOWER Managed Services, Cloud and Connectivity brochures; and the ISO 27001 certification record and verification register. Cost and licensing savings are not quantified in the source and are not estimated here.

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