This growth placed increased strain on its IT infrastructure as demands from the business for faster, reliable and more complex computing solutions became more prevalent. With the strategic approach of its outsourced IT supplier beginning to diverge from AMAL’s ambitions, a radical change needed to occur if the business was not to suffer adversely.

After an extensive period of due diligence, AMAL turned to Intercept and BIS to provide a more robust and scalable environment upon which to grow the business.

The Challenge

Although AMAL has a policy of outsourcing its IT systems, it was becoming increasingly impatient with its existing provider, due to its failure to supply credible solutions for its ever increasing IT needs. The decision was therefore taken that a more forward thinking organisation needed to be found with a proven track record in providing hosted, managed services.

Following a successful Proof of Concept (featuring the key AMAL business applications), Intercept’s ‘OnlineDesktop’ was selected for implementation, in partnership with networking and communications specialist BIS Limited. The whole IT infrastructure was migrated and upgraded in a short time period, significantly reducing costs and delivering a robust environment on which to progress the organisation.

The proven Disaster Recovery capability of the Intercept OnlineDesktop and the ability to access business systems from anywhere – in the office, the Lloyd’s Underwriting Room, at home and whilst away visiting clients worldwide – has greatly enhanced desktop flexibility. All of the current Microsoft offerings are available as well as line of business applications. In addition, bespoke software suppliers to AMAL now have remote access to their applications, enabling them to support any AMAL users needing their assistance.

Andrew Adie, Compliance and Operations Director of AMAL says: “We were increasingly concerned that our existing outsource supplier was unable to provide us with technologically robust answers to our business needs. Intercept’s OnlineDesktop has given us this assurance and, at the same time, provided a much more reliable service at a demonstrable lower cost.”

The Future

Andrew Adie continues: “AMAL is an ambitious organisation which is constantly looking for IT solutions that will enhance its services and efficiency. OnlineDesktop has given us the flexibility to explore a variety of solutions and to upgrade and install new systems on a seamless basis. For example, as a result of growth, AMAL will shortly be moving to larger premises; OnlineDesktop will enable us to do this on a much more streamlined, efficient and cost effective basis than would have previously been possible.

The Solution

With the challenges facing Aegis Managing Agency Limited, Intercept, in partnership with BIS, were able to deliver all aspects of their project requirements. Intercept delivers a comprehensive outsourced application delivery service and business continuity solution via OnlineDesktop, whilst BIS provides a resilient communications network.

By utilising OnlineDesktop, AMAL was not only able to immediately upgrade from Microsoft Office 97 to 2003, (a costly Project in its own right), but updates to all bespoke applications can also now be implemented far quicker than previously achievable. As the solution enables old and new versions of software to run side by side, users can test all updates and immediately ‘roll back’ to previous versions in the event of issues being experienced. This ensures that application down time is kept to an absolute minimum.

In addition to the core solution, AMAL chose to implement OnlineDesktop’s managed BlackBerry service, which enables users to receive their emails on the move, without having to actually log in to OnlineDesktop.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

As part of the core design, a demonstrable Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery solution was an essential requirement for AMAL, in order to satisfy FSA guidelines, which require operational recovery of business data and systems within a defined period. By utilising OnlineDesktop’s DR solution, which replicates business data to a secondary data centre, AMAL is now able to not only comply with these guidelines, but in the event of a disaster, can actually be fully operational again within a matter of minutes.

Data Security

Being answerable to the Financial Services Authority (FSA), AMAL has a strong need for data security. As OnlineDesktop uses the very latest in both Anti-Virus and Intrusion Prevention and Detection technologies, data security is ensured. In addition, AMAL email and web content is filtered and managed and all network traffic is also encrypted to ensure the integrity and security of data is maintained at all times. And as the technology behind OnlineDesktop enables all data processing to take place at the server end, rather than on user devices, data never needs to physically leave the data centres. This means that AMAL no longer has concerns about sensitive client data being removed from the office, further protecting integrity.

Support

OnlineDesktop utilises a number of remote support tools which enable the ‘shadowing’ of both AMAL users ‘sessions’ and also their devices, including both their PC’s and laptops. This means helpdesk staff are able to resolve a high percentage of AMAL’s support calls on the first occasion, maintaining their productivity to the highest possible levels.

Conclusion

Following the implementation of Intercept’s OnlineDesktop, AEGIS Managing Agency Limited now enjoys a more responsive, resilient IT service. Annual IT costs have also been significantly reduced, enabling AMAL to re-direct these savings into exploring new technologies, which can bring further benefits to the business.

Aegis case study (63K)

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