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FTG’s Federated Excellence Delivers One of the Most Remarkable Public Sector Transformations in the World
The City of Cape Town placed its trust in First Technology Group (FTG)’s specialist divisions to guide an entire metropolitan government from ageing on-premises systems such as Exchange 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Skype into a fully modern cloud-first Microsoft 365 E5 environment supporting more than 30 000 users.
This transformation was achieved in only twenty four months through the coordinated expertise of FTG’s federated structure.
The scale of the modernisation is extraordinary. The work included the migration of 31 921 mailboxes and 94.1 terabytes of mail data representing more than 20.6 billion messages. Nearly thirteen thousand mailboxes were archived to Exchange Online. Over 38 000 identities were moved to Microsoft Entra ID, and more than 23 000 devices were enrolled into Microsoft Intune, and processing 27.5 million SMS messages and 3.1 million bulk emails each month, with uninterrupted availability for both City staff and external customers.
To extend secure access and strengthen workplace flexibility, the programme also implemented Windows 365 to replace the legacy on-premises VDI system.
This upgrade delivered secure access to internal systems from any location, improved onboarding speed, reduced infrastructure overhead and elevated the overall user experience.
These changes directly support a more modern digital operating model, as highlighted in Microsoft’s public statement relating to this project.
This achievement demonstrates the strength of FTG’s federated "Top Gun" model.
The programme was delivered end to end under a unified governance framework involving 2 796 project tasks, more than two thousand approval signatures and over four hundred planned change communications. Thirty five specialists from three of FTG’s most advanced divisions collaborated seamlessly throughout the engagement.
BUI, First Technology Western Cape and Galdon combined their capabilities to deliver a single cohesive outcome.
The project was delivered using FTG’s own in-house expertise, with no reliance on third party contractors.
The City of Cape Town's Zero to "Hero-5" transformation now stands as one of the most comprehensive public sector Microsoft 365 E5 transformations anywhere in the world that no other partner globally can match.
With this modern foundation in place, the City of Cape Town is now fully prepared for the next phase of its digital journey, including the adoption of secure and responsible AI capabilities across the city.
The move to Microsoft 365 E5, Entra ID, Intune and Windows 365 gives the City the identity, security, data governance and device management baseline required to confidently embrace AI-powered solutions as they evolve into the future.
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