This is an internal case study. Unlike most stories on this page, the client here is Grassroots IT. We believe that to genuinely help our clients get more from their technology, we need to walk the same path — identifying inefficiencies in our own business, then solving them with the same tools and approach we bring to client engagements.
This story is about what happened when our Service Delivery and Digital Solutions teams turned their attention to one of our own recurring frustrations: recruitment. It’s a practical example of what’s possible when you start with a business problem and let the right technology follow.
Recruiting for a specialist IT role is hard enough. But for James Keinzley, Service Delivery Manager at Grassroots IT, every recruitment drive came with a hidden problem — one that had been quietly costing the business for years.
Grassroots IT had been working with a trusted external recruiter to source candidates — someone who knew the business well and had a strong feel for the culture. But high-volume recruitment is a challenge for anyone. In one recent round, more than 600 people applied for a single role. Of those, roughly 300 were never screened at all — not a reflection of anyone’s effort, but simply a reality of the sheer volume involved.
“For us, what it meant was 50% of the possible candidates didn’t even get a look in,” James explains. “And considering we were struggling to find people that were good for the role at that particular time, we were really concerned that we’d just miss really good candidates purely because they ended up on the wrong side of the draw.”
This wasn’t a new problem — it’s one that affects businesses across the board whenever candidate volumes spike. The process was sound: brief the recruiter, trust her filter, receive a shortlist. But with no visibility over the broader candidate pool, the team had no way of knowing what they were missing.
With a new recruitment drive approaching — and a particularly specific brief — the team decided it was time to do something about it.
The idea came out of a Level 10 leadership meeting, where the team was reviewing their recruitment strategy. They considered several alternatives — running their own LinkedIn campaign, creating a dedicated careers page, or bringing the recruitment entirely in-house — but ultimately decided the funnel itself wasn’t the issue. The screening was.
“We decided it’d be better to still keep the same funnel, but apply a different filter to it,” says James. “That’s when we had the idea of running something through AI.”
Initially, the team explored a Microsoft Copilot-based solution. James had already started manually copying and pasting resumes into Copilot to assess them — a process that worked, but was time-consuming and still required significant manual effort. Sulaiman Arshad (Sully), a Digital Solutions specialist at Grassroots IT, saw a faster path.
“It was an issue that kept coming up and being discussed repeatedly,” Sully recalls. “And one day I said, I feel like we can set this up pretty quickly in Power Automate.”
“Any manual steps that people are taking, they should stop and think — can this be automated? Because that can significantly improve any business’s efficiency.” — Sulaiman Arshad, Digital Solutions Specialist
The key insight was to treat it as a business problem first and a technology problem second. Rather than fitting the workflow around a specific tool, Sully assessed what the process actually needed — consistent, criteria-based screening at scale — and selected Power Automate as the right platform to deliver it.
The solution is built entirely within Microsoft Power Automate, using tools that Grassroots IT’s clients already have access to as part of their Microsoft 365 licences.
A dedicated careers email inbox was created as the single destination for all applications. From there, an automated flow handles everything.
When a new application arrives, the flow:
The AI component is powered by Microsoft AI Builder — a set of pre-built AI models that sit natively inside Power Automate and draw on the same underlying technology as Microsoft Copilot. Rather than connecting to an external AI tool or requiring any custom model training, Sully was able to configure an AI prompt directly within the flow. The prompt reads the full text of each application — cover letter and resume combined — and makes a reasoned judgement based on the criteria it has been given. It doesn’t just keyword-match; it interprets context, weighs up alignment, and produces a category and a reason, the same way a person would — just in seconds, and consistently, across every single application.
The AI prompt was built using the job description as its foundation, with additional hard-pass criteria layered on top — for example, candidates must be based in Australia or New Zealand and hold the right to work. Candidates in the Maybe category are reviewed manually before a final decision is made.
The tagging feature — which labels each application with a specific reason such as “strong MSP match” or “tech stack mismatch” — was added by Sully after observing that team members were applying their own notes manually. It was a small but significant improvement that made reviewing faster and more consistent.
The entire build was able to be completed by Sully within one day.
The impact was immediate. Of the first five interviews James conducted using the tool’s shortlist, every single candidate was someone he would have hired.
The tool has shifted where time is spent, and that shift matters. Around eight hours of manual effort were recovered in the first week alone — time that had been spent copying and pasting applications into Copilot by hand. More significantly, every hour James now invests in the process is focused entirely on strong candidates. There’s no wading through unsuitable applications, no uncertainty about what might have been missed. The screening work is done before he even opens an email.
“Every recruitment run I’ve done so far has been tedious and time consuming. But this time, the time I’ve been spending has actually been more meaningful.”
There was also a result nobody had anticipated. One candidate was flagged as a Maybe — not because of a skills gap, but because the AI identified them as significantly overqualified. The candidate had held high level management roles at global corporations, with salary expectations well beyond the role on offer. The system had spotted a risk that James hadn’t even thought to build into the criteria.
“That was probably the most surprising thing,” James says. “That it actually picked up on overqualified, as opposed to just underqualified. That was something I hadn’t even thought about, let alone built into my logic.”
“Make the time to invest in the solution. You’ll never get time to put the energy into that if you don’t create the time. And the solution is what creates the time.” — James Keinzley, Service Delivery Manager
The current tool was built as a proof of concept for a single hiring round. But the team is already thinking bigger. James and Grassroots IT’s leadership have discussed building a permanent “bench” — a careers page that stays open year-round, continuously collecting and screening applications across multiple roles, so that when a position does open up, qualified candidates are already waiting.
“We could use this to start building that database up,” James says. “Level ones, level twos, level threes, finance and admin — have this as a back-end recruitment machine running off our website.”
Sully sees similar potential for Grassroots IT’s clients. The base solution is already built. With some configuration around specific roles, screening criteria, and existing HR workflows, it could be adapted for any business managing high-volume recruitment.
By building a purpose-fit automation using tools already available in Microsoft 365, the Grassroots IT team transformed a longstanding recruitment bottleneck into a streamlined, consistent process. Key outcomes included:
Full solution built and live in under a day, using existing Microsoft 365 licences
For James, the most important takeaway isn’t about the technology — it’s about the mindset required to get started.
“There are a lot of problems that businesses have where they think ‘there’s got to be a better way’. They don’t even know where to start — they start Googling, or they ask in Copilot. But it’s worth having a conversation with your MSP or your digital solutions team, and saying ‘I have a business problem, how can we solve it?’. Even a 15-minute conversation can lead to a solution like this.”
“We had no idea what the outcome would be or what the actual end technology solution would be. We just knew that we had a business problem. And by just having that discussion, we turned out a solution that didn’t take as much time as we thought it would to uplift the quality of what we’re doing.”
The lesson? The solution is almost always simpler than the problem feels. You just have to make the time to look for it.
Talk to the Grassroots IT Digital Solutions team. You don’t need to know what the technology looks like — you just need to know what’s slowing you down. We’ll take it from there.
Learn more about our Digital Solutions services
Multicultural Communities Council Gold Coast (MCCGC) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to providing support services to culturally and linguistically diverse communities in the Gold Coast area for over 40 years. Beneath MCCGC’s organisational umbrella, they oversee two distinctive community-focused brands: MCCGC’s Community Programs team and CURA Aged Care Services.
The MCCGC’s Community Programs team aid individuals in their settlement journey, bolsters their overall wellbeing, tackles mental health challenges, facilitates employment prospects, navigates the intricacies of the NDIS, offers cultural training, empowers them through capacity building, champions their rights, and fosters community connections. CÜRA Aged Care Services is wholeheartedly committed to enhancing the lives of seniors in Southeast Queensland and Northern New South Wales. CÜRA empowers them to age gracefully, maintain their independence in the comfort of their own homes and link with their community.
The MCCGC team of 190 staff, fluent in over 45 languages, has assisted clients from more than 43 countries, reflecting MCCGC’s commitment to diversity and cultural understanding.
Stuart McFarlane joined MCCGC as CIO in 2022, finding an organisation without a digital strategy or IT leadership. The incumbent IT provider offered basic operational support and lacked the expertise to guide strategic improvements. IT systems were inefficient and vulnerable, with inadequate identity management, poor cybersecurity practices, and insufficient backup and redundancy.
Staff struggled with outdated equipment and software, hindering their ability to serve clients effectively. McFarlane’s challenge was to transform MCCGC’s IT into a strategic enabler. Before launching a transformation program, he assessed the organisation’s technology capabilities, staff skills, and digital maturity.
McFarlane’s critical insight was the need for a trustworthy IT partnership, not a service provider. Grassroots IT was selected for its proven expertise working with mid-market non-profit organisations, and its proven track record of offering strategic guidance for long-term improvement rather than just reactively solving daily fires.
Together Grassroots IT and MCCGC formulated a plan to rationalise systems, apply appropriate technologies, and address urgent vulnerabilities. The partnership approach brought strategic dialogue, versatile expertise, and access to specialised resources needed for a successful transformation.
Following a thorough assessment of the existing IT infrastructure, Grassroots IT and MCCGC prioritised improvements based on strategic goals and potential impact, working to implement several key initiatives such as:
Importantly, the partnership focused on appropriate, right-sized solutions rather than over-engineering with expensive enterprise-class tools and unnecessary complexity. Optimisation for a mid-market organisation brought big results without unnecessary capabilities and costs.
“We can achieve great things for our business when we let our digital partner join the conversation. Grassroots IT has a contributing and guiding seat at our table.” – Stuart McFarlane
MCCGC had already embarked on migrating some of its services to the cloud, but the existing on-premises infrastructure was proving troublesome due to not being integrated with Azure Active Directory. This situation meant users were forced to manage separate identities and credentials for cloud and on-prem systems, causing unnecessary complexity for end users and IT support staff.
To help consolidate user identities, Grassroots IT worked closely with MCCGC to properly integrate their legacy on-premises Active Directory environment with Azure AD utilising Azure AD Connect synchronisation. This integration allowed user accounts and password credentials to be synced between the cloud and on-prem systems. Users were transitioned to unified cloud identities with matching UPNs, eliminating the frustrations of duplicate accounts and credentials across cloud and on-prem and providing enhanced security and improved user experience.
This unification of cloud and on-prem Active Directories set the foundation for future initiatives that will fully deploy Microsoft Entra ID and permanently retire all legacy Active Directories.
The assessment uncovered several security gaps in the existing MCCGC environment, including unchecked backup access, inadequate firewalls, poorly protected VPN, and lack of endpoint encryption. Grassroots IT worked closely with MCCGC to close these gaps, implementing a series of security solutions to protect the organisation better.
Solutions implemented included:
Executing these strategic security initiatives allowed Grassroots IT to systematically remediate vulnerabilities through integrated solutions protecting the expanded attack surface and providing a proven, right-sized foundation for ongoing cybersecurity improvements. Further ongoing initiatives will expand Microsoft Intune and Azure AD capabilities for strengthened identity, access, and data protection.
“Our partnership enables us to respond to cyber threats without being hindered by contractual issues. We have prioritised protection over anything else.” – Stuart McFarlane
MCCGC’s aging on-premises infrastructure posed significant risks including unstable systems and constrained performance. Outdated core switches and Wi-Fi infrastructure led to poor connectivity and limited adoption of mobile devices and data-dependant cloud services. Endpoints were running outdated operating systems that were unsupported and posed security and compatibility issues.
To address these infrastructure risks, MCCGC executed several key upgrades:.
These crucial infrastructure improvements helped stabilize unreliable systems, enhanced security protections and boosted end-user productivity. Ongoing initiatives will fully retire remaining on-premises servers by migrating file services and applications into the Microsoft cloud including SharePoint Online and Azure.
A key objective in the IT transformation was improving the experience for MCCGC staff, who rely on technology every day to serve clients. When Grassroots IT took over support, the end user experience was frustrating for staff, with inefficient, outdated tools hindering productivity.
Problems frequently encountered included unreliable network connectivity, lack of remote access, forgotten passwords for multiple systems, and severe delays in resolving support tickets. These issues resulted in staff workaround and waste, taking time away from assisting clients.
MCCGC has empowered staff with improved technology by modernising core infrastructure and platforms. Upgrading network components enhanced connectivity, while cloud identity integration simplified access through single sign-on. Migrating file services and applications to the cloud made content securely available anywhere.
Ongoing initiatives will further optimise user productivity by consolidating remaining legacy platforms into cloud services and adopting cloud productivity tools like Microsoft 365 to centralise document collaboration and communication.
Just as importantly, Grassroots IT has focused on improving support experiences by resolving issues rapidly. Quick responses to tickets and outages have rebuilt trust and confidence in IT support. Resolution times have improved from months to hours thanks to effective monitoring tools and support processes.
Through this user-focused approach, Grassroots IT has transformed technology from a hindrance into an enabler for MCCGC’s mission. Staff are now equipped with the tools, access, and support needed to focus fully on client outcomes.
Over 15 months leading the digital transformation, Stuart McFarlane and Grassroots IT has overseen tremendous improvements, including:
From a technology perspective, Grassroots IT helped MCCGC establish foundational cyber protections and resiliency, allowing the expansion of cloud services. By collaborating closely, they transformed IT from an Achilles heel into a strategic asset supporting broader digital maturity. Staff are empowered with technology tools to enable their mission rather than hindered by unreliable infrastructure.
The successful strategic partnership between Grassroots IT and MCCGC serves as a model for how smart organisations turn around problematic technology environments by investing in both infrastructure and expertise. With the guidance of a trusted advisor and the organisation’s leadership, IT can be elevated to support business goals effectively.
Stuart concludes: “You can’t do that if you don’t have the right partner. By cooperating with each other, MCCGC has managed to transform IT.
With Grassroots IT by our side, we feel assured that our Cloud First approach will pave the way for our organisation’s expansion and digital sophistication.” – Stuart McFarlane
Registered training organisation Churchill Education have relied on Grassroots IT for Managed IT Support and Cybersecurity since 2008. Randall Smith, CEO of Churchill Education, said he appreciates the proactivity shown by the Grassroots IT team. “They fix things that I didn’t even know were broken, so that I don’t have to try and be across every detail,” he said. “I know Grassroots IT will have it sorted ahead of the game.”
“The team at Grassroots IT are great at adapting systems to work with us, rather than forcing us to fit the systems,” he said. “They also conduct regular cybersecurity reviews – in fact, we have one underway at the moment.”
Of course, cybersecurity is not a “once and done” proposition. It’s an arms race between IT providers and cyber criminals to stay ahead of the game, continually requiring new tools, techniques and strategies. In March 2022 Grassroots IT are delivering a cybersecurity assessment for Churchill Education to ensure their systems are as secure as needed.
Randall said that Grassroots IT set Churchill Education up with Microsoft Sharepoint, a system that works very well. “We have some specialised software but Grassroots IT has made everything integrate correctly,” Randall said. “We had a hybrid model with some data in the cloud and some in the office but the transition to the cloud went very smoothly.”
“We have remote workers and Grassroots IT have set up their systems so that everything is secure and runs well,” he said.
“We had a server room that cost us money, so we moved into the cloud — including moving historical files so that our business could continue seamlessly. It was a well-planned transition.”
Randall said he appreciates the responsive service he receives. “Everyone wants to feel like the number one client, and Grassroots IT do treat us that way,” he said. “They’ve grown with us but you never feel like you’re stuck in online chat or just a ticket in the system.”
“They have the personal touch and you can always just pick up the phone and talk to someone,” Randall said. “I don’t even buy a laptop without contacting Grassroots IT to get things set up properly.”
“From day one we have had a strong trust in what Grassroots IT are doing, and they’re yet to let me down,” he said.
When the Port of Darwin was privatised in 2015, this massive change affected their entire business operations from top to bottom. Craig O’Connor, the Head Of Technology & Information Systems at Port of Darwin, selected Grassroots IT to assist with four main areas for the Port: Managed IT Support, Microsoft Office 365, Azure, and Security.
Having worked in IT for 20 years – 95% of those in a managed service environment – Craig said he has been impressed with the level of customer service from Grassroots IT. “When you ask for something done, you know it will be done,” he said. “They never respond with ‘that’s not in scope’ – instead, they work to understand the problem and figure out a way to make it work.” Craig said Grassroots IT’s proactivity also impressed him.
“The Grassroots team don’t just do what they’re asked to. If they can figure out a better way to achieve the outcome than what we’ve asked for, they will say so,” Craig said. “We find that very valuable.”
As part of the privatisation process, the Port of Darwin needed to migrate from the Government’s internal exchange email to Microsoft Office 365. Craig said this was one of the smoothest transitions he had ever experienced. Grassroots IT set up the 365 environment, synced it with their AD – a complicated process since the new email addresses and usernames were different – as well as planning the data migration with the Port and actioning PST exports and imports. Craig said the process felt deceptively simple. “At first, because Grassroots IT made things so simple, I was asking ‘What am I not getting here?’ or not seeing here,” he said. “Now that I’m used to their very really high standards, I realise this is simply the Grassroots IT experience.” The Port of Darwin now has a consistent email experience with Office 365, allowing them to take advantage of other elements of the Microsoft Office 365 platform. The Microsoft 365 platform helps the Port defend against advanced cyberthreats and simplify their IT management with a single solution. It provides access to information for those who need it, and keeps out those who don’t, while enabling seamless collaboration.
Craig said that being confident in their IT supplier was invaluable to his work in a management role. “Because your eyes don’t get dragged down into the weeds, you can think more strategically,” he said.
George Blake, the IT Manager at Westside Corporation, has worked with many MSPs over the years. But he says there are few that deliver like Grassroots IT. “Grassroots IT are second to none with their knowledge of systems,” George said. “They have skilled staff – not people learning their way on my time. Their high end employees are very good.”
“They understand that I want a pre-planned approach to get my staff involved, not just leave it to people to figure it out themselves,” he said.
“They are responsive and they help me to keep IT under control.”
“Grassroots IT have an interest in our business, and they take the time to understand our strategy,” he said. “They then implement accordingly with the end goal in mind.”
George said that in his experience, IT must be a partnership between the MSP and the client. That’s exactly what he gets from Grassroots IT.
“Grassroots IT are an extension of our team,” George said. “Actually, it’s more like they’re a part of our team.”
“You know IT is working if no one is talking about it,” he said. “With Grassroots everything runs well; they take the time to understand what I need.”
“It’s definitely one of the better engagements I’ve experienced. “
Installing new IT solutions is another area where Grassroots IT have shone. “You can’t just leave it to someone who isn’t engaged and expect a good outcome,” George said. “How the installation is managed is critical — you need people who will engage with the business for implementation and Grassroots IT do that.”
Commercial & Industrial real estate agency Madsen Property have relied on Grassroots IT for Managed IT Support for many years, also recently working with Grassroots IT to migrate from legacy in-house systems to Microsoft 365. Madsen Property Principal Ken Madsen said Grassroots IT made sure that Madsen Partners’ IT works all the time, when they need it.
“In our business, IT is crucial, since a lost opportunity can be very costly,” he said. “We’ve worked with Grassroots IT since 2009. They handle everything to do with our IT, I don’t have to worry about it.”
“You could say that technology and I are ‘difficult friends’,” Ken laughed. “But Grassroots are serious about making it easy for humans to have seamless reliable IT.”
“Ben has cut through the nonsense and he and his team look at the problem, and tell me ‘This is what you need’. That’s very valuable,” Ken said.
With their ageing in-house servers approaching end-of-life, Grassroots IT recommended making the move into the Microsoft 365 cloud platform. Not only would this move save money by not having to replace the ageing servers, but it would enable a whole new way of working.
“We weren’t in the cloud, so we needed to change,” Ken said. “Grassroots IT helped us with a migration to Office 365.”
The move to Microsoft 365 would prove timely, allowing Ken and his team to embrace a remote working model that enabled them to continue working without disruption through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The last two years of the pandemic with Madsen Partners working as a distributed team has reinforced that everything Ben said was correct,” Ken said. “Very rarely are we down. Actually in the last few years, we’ve had no problems whatsoever.”
“Partnerships are important to us, and Grassroots IT have given us absolutely no reason to change,” Ken said. “I’ve met some of the team personally, and they all feel reliable and trustworthy.”
“I’d definitely recommend Grassroots IT. It all just works smoothly.”
