Rolling out Claude AI across Arthritis Australia

Arthritis Australia had an AI policy on paper and wanted a safe, practical way to put it into action. Friendlyware helped refine the policy, then rolled out Claude to every staff member with single sign-on, connected it to the tools the team already uses, and trained staff on site.

The result is one approved AI platform, managed centrally, that staff sign into with their work account and use with their own documents, email and design tools.

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Arthritis Australia is a national not-for-profit that supports, informs and advocates for Australians living with arthritis.

Client Spotlight

The Problem

Arthritis Australia's leadership could see the value AI would bring to a small team, but wanted it adopted on the organisation's terms. They had drafted an AI policy and needed a rollout that matched it: one approved platform, managed accounts, and clear control over what the AI could access.

Without that structure, AI use tends to grow informally, with staff on personal accounts and the organisation having no visibility of what data goes where.

The Challenge

Giving staff a login was the easy part. Making Claude secure, connected and genuinely useful took more work:

  • Security without friction: Staff needed to sign in with their existing Microsoft accounts, with access controlled centrally. Claude also had to work alongside the organisation's existing Microsoft 365 security policies, including country-based sign-in restrictions.

  • Connecting existing tools: The team works across Microsoft 365, Google Drive, Canva, Adobe, DocuSign, SurveyMonkey and Zoom. Each connection needed approval and authentication, and Microsoft 365 required changes to admin consent and access policies.

  • A website that blocked AI: Earlier in the year we had hardened the organisation's website against a flood of bots that was overloading its server. Those same protections stopped Claude from reading arthritisaustralia.com.au.

  • Building confidence: A small team with limited time needed practical, hands-on training to get real value from day one.

The Solution

As an Anthropic Claude Partner, Friendlyware ran the project from policy through to training, in stages over several months:

  • Policy and planning: We reviewed the draft AI policy, provided recommendations, and worked through options with leadership before settling on Claude.

  • Not-for-profit setup: We registered the organisation's Claude account and applied for Anthropic's not-for-profit pricing.

  • Single sign-on: Staff sign in through Microsoft Entra ID, with access managed through security groups.

  • Scripted deployment: A custom script installed the correct Claude desktop app on every computer, with no manual setup per user.

  • Connected tools: We enabled and tested connectors for Microsoft 365, Google Drive, Canva, Adobe, DocuSign, SurveyMonkey and Zoom, and adjusted Microsoft 365 access policies so Claude could connect without weakening them. Staff who needed them also got Claude for Outlook and Claude in Chrome.

  • Website access for AI: We reworked the website's Cloudflare and server rules to let Anthropic's crawlers through while still blocking unwanted bots.

  • On-site training: We ran a hands-on session at the office, then worked through every question staff raised, answered each with examples, and switched on the features that would help.

    Ongoing administration, including licences, usage limits and connector requests, is now part of our regular support.

Outcome

Arthritis Australia now has a single, approved AI platform across the whole organisation. Staff sign in with their work account, Claude is installed on every computer, and it works directly with the documents, email and design tools the team already uses.

Because access runs through Microsoft security groups and the Claude admin console, the organisation stays in control of who uses it and what it can reach. The AI policy is now something the team works within every day, rather than a document on file.

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