Case Studies

Medium Business Example

The Customer

The Company is a medium sized firm of Insurance Brokers and Independent Financial Advisers operating from sites across the North-West. There are some 27 employees across the sites and turnover is approximately £15M. They place insurance on behalf of clients who are generally made up of SME businesses. Their suppliers are the various insurance companies and financial houses that trade within the UK.

The Requirement

The business was incepted in 1994 and IT was a major consideration from the outset. They needed an efficient and high profile trading platform to transact business with insurance companies and other financial institutions, as well as needing an effective data management and communication system to allow effective trading with their clients. Over the past decade, technology has evolved at a rapid pace within the insurance sector and as an intermediary, the company needed to be at the forefront of these developments to maintain a high standard of service delivery at effective pricing.

The appointment of Envision Technologies as their external IT department was a major initiative. The company needed someone with the skills and knowledge to liaise constantly with the many third-party software providers that were essential in allowing them to trade with their suppliers. The maintenance and enhancement of their in-house systems was also becoming work-critical and a failsafe IT partner was essential. Envision Technologies were, and remain, involved at every stage, from planning and budgeting right through to installation.

The Solution

Both the Company's offices in Manchester and Burnley received similar infrastructure upgrades. Each office had a quite rudimentary network already in place - PCs linked via coaxial cabling - that was to be completely replaced by CAT5 UTP cabling and a dedicated HP LC2000 server running Microsoft Windows NT4.0 Server. This server provided centralised file storage and anti-virus protection using Computer Associate's eTrust InoculateIT software, secure internet access, email/calendaring functions via Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 and, most importantly, daily backups of all data using Computer Associate's ARCserve 2000 software.

The Company also took the opportunity to standardise the software utilised throughout their distributed user-base by installing the Microsoft Office 2000 software suite and Computer Associate's eTrust InoculateIT anti-virus protection software on all PCs.

Shortly after modernising the I.T. infrastructure, the Company deployed a UNIX-based insurance brokering software suite called Misys. Envision were tasked to manage the deployment of this application throughout the Company, including installing dedicated application servers at the Manchester, Burnley and Liverpool offices, along with the associated terminal emulation software on all PCs.

The Outcome

Envision Technologies have given a cohesive I.T. infrastructure which performs effectively throughout their four offices. Their hands-on and business-like approach has also meant that they have stayed well within budgets. The Company are implementing significant changes year-on-year, not least in 2004 when they have installed a totally new insurance trading platform. Envision Technologies have been instrumental in ensuring that all the changes that were made, were made for the improvement of the business, and that such changes have been controlled with their own personnel being involved as project managers.