Challenge
During an era of heightened customer demand and market competition, small financial services companies are increasingly looking to be ahead of the curve by offering innovative and efficient services to an ever demanding, global customer base.
Company Confidential, a privately held Financial Service firm specializing in family asset management and investment services was meeting its business goals, but soon realized an opportunity to grow operations outside their current market. This unique opportunity came with some inherent obstacles most of which could be resolved by choosing the right technology partner. Specific IT requirements included the setup of a small IT infrastructure in another city with 15 connected users, email and Blackberry service, data storage and daily backup of all transactions and files to a secure location.
Penta Solution
Penta’s
approach to this challenge was met through its expertise
in the Application Service Provider (ASP) model of
service. The solution called for a dedicated Citrix
server to be hosted inside Penta’s world class, secure
data center (in Geneva) loaded with Microsoft Exchange,
Blackberry and MS Office Applications. To provide an
added layer of workplace connectivity between the two
locations, Microsoft SharePoint Server was also added to
the solution offering.
Results
From a cost
standpoint alone, Company Confidential will enjoy
savings of approximately 40% over a three-year period by
utilizing an ASP model of service as opposed to housing
a traditional IT department. Additionally Company
Confidential’s employees can now better serve their
customers’ needs by accessing a centralized repository
of collateral materials including business forms,
brochures, estimates and client information via a secure
connection. From a communications standpoint, the
Enterprise Blackberry service connects to the Exchange
server allowing email users to access their emails in
real time, request and receive appointments – all within
a secured environment.
Lessons Learned
The shift
towards outsourcing IT infrastructure and services to a
trusted ASP partner (versus establishing an in-house IT
department) can lessen the technical and financial
burden to a company while providing a vast contribution
to operating efficiency and resource management.
