The Business Outcome
- Astute Financial has doubled in size during the last three years. Despite the rapid growth, there have been no infrastructure issues and no system downtime during that period.
- Productivity has improved due to improved speed of access to critical IT systems.
- Customer service satisfaction levels have improved as Astute Financial has been able to leverage additional system features from the VOIP phone system.
- Tablets and smart devices have subsequently and easily been introduced to the business allowing staff to be much more mobile than they were before.
- IT spend is now focused on areas that will improve the business, including application development and training, rather than on just keeping the business running.
- Astute Financial can now confidently and effectively budget for their IT expenditure.
The Challenge
A Surety IT customer for a number of years, Astute Financial had experienced considerable business growth. As a result, they were outgrowing their existing server infrastructure and some IT systems were rapidly approaching their end of life. They were also planning on moving offices.
Other outcomes that Astute Financial wanted included:
- More mobility in their business so that staff could work whilst travelling.
- Less server infrastructure in the new office.
- A more reliable phone system with better features than the one they had.
- The ability to collaborate with partners more easily.
- The ability to expand the IT systems when necessary without large capital expenditure.
- The ability to access remote IT systems more quickly.
Astute Financial told us they wanted a cost effective, high performing system that provided the additional capacity they needed at the time, and afforded them the potential to grow in the future.
They also made it clear they wanted minimal downtime during the upgrade and a fixed monthly support fee with no surprises. Surety IT had no problem meeting their brief.
The Solution
To address the challenges and issues, we implemented our solutions path – a proven process of insight and action that sees us: understand, plan, build, maintain, enhance.
We took a very collaborative and consultative approach and by clearly understanding the issues and challenges that Astute Financial were facing, we were able to plan and build the right solution for them that delivered the outcomes they needed.
The process also allowed us to explain our approach to senior management team and the other key stakeholders in a way that they understood and could visualise.
The solution and support was tailored specifically for Astute Financial. It was reliable, responsive and flexible.
Key aspects of the overall solution were –
- We provided a tailored IT strategy and IT road map that detailed agreed upon priorities, budgets, timescales and responsibilities over a 3 year period.
- A hybrid solution with a mix of hosted and cloud based solutions.
- De-commissioned all on-site server equipment.
- Improved security around critical information assets and IT systems.
- Implemented a new fibre connection for the new office which provided much faster access.
- Implemented a VOIP hosted phone system that utilised the new fibre connection, reduced monthly phone costs and provided the business with a richer feature set.
- Provided the business with a cloud hosted collaboration solution.
The effective management and maintenance of cutting-edge technology is critical to the ongoing success of our business. We needed an easily accessible IT team who could improve efficiencies whilst reducing costs; a team who had the scope to grow with us over time.
Surety IT have delivered on their promises, providing us with an efficient alternative to managing such tasks in-house. They have successfully implemented a complete upgrade of our servers and aided in setting up services to implement sufficient backup recovery, including the establishment of a virtual server network.
During the process Surety IT demonstrated thorough industry knowledge and ensured a consultative approach at all times. The implementation was efficient and without the usual drama associated with such large-scale IT transitions.
Based on our experience, we would have no hesitation in recommending Surety IT for managed IT services.”
Brad Wood, Director – Astute Financial Management