About Swansea County Council
Swansea County Council is one of Wales’ largest local authorities, responsible for delivering a wide range of services to residents, businesses, and communities across the city and council. Like many councils, it relies on core IT systems to manage critical operations and deliver essential services.
Challenge
Swansea County Council faced a critical deadline driven by a UK Public Services Network (PSN) review. The review identified that one of the council’s servers was out of support and needed to be decommissioned urgently. Without action, the authority risked losing access to the PSN, the secure network that underpins essential functions such as paying benefits and delivering core council services.
With only a short window to respond, recruiting new staff or training team members was not a viable option in the time available. The only way forward was to migrate their portfolio of Oracle APEX applications quickly, securely, and without disruption.
“Our applications needed to be migrated to the cloud under tight deadlines and Namos were recommended as a trusted partner, and they proved invaluable. Without them, the project simply wouldn’t have been done. They delivered when it mattered most, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to anyone.”
Gary Hall, Software Solutions Architect at Swansea County Council
Solution at a glance
- 10 Oracle APEX applications migrated from On-Premise servers to the cloud within tight deadlines.
Real world impact
Among the ten applications migrated, two stood out for their direct contribution to the lives of Swansea’s residents. One of these systems is used to record, place and fund emergency accommodation for vulnerable members of society, including homeless individuals and families in crisis. It is a vital tool for the Housing Department, helping them track clients in need, while also providing performance metrics and usage data, that supports service planning.
A second application acts as a shared platform between the Council, local education institutions and third-party organisations. It records the journeys of referred clients who require assistance in finding employment or accessing further education. The system also generates reports that secure funding for employment programmes and measure their success.
By migrating these applications securely and without disruption, Namos helped Swansea Council safeguard services that provide tangible benefits to the community, from ensuring vulnerable people have somewhere to sleep, to enabling residents to move closer to sustainable employment.
The results
Swansea County Council achieved its urgent goal: All ten Oracle APEX applications were migrated from unsupported on-premise servers, to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, within three months. A phased approach allowed the team to test the process with simpler systems first, before successfully moving even the most complex applications.
The migration ensured the council remained compliant with Public Services Network (PSN) requirements, avoiding the risk of being removed from the secure network that underpins core council functions.
“Namos were recommended to us at a critical time, and from the moment we engaged, things moved quickly. Their consultants have been approachable, responsive, and clearly experts in their field, I can’t fault the way it’s gone. We’ve worked with other companies in the past, but none come close. Quite simply, it’s been a five-star service.”
Adrian Cuthill, Senior Applications Developer at Swansea County Council
