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IT outsourcing: A winning formula for success
Client Situation Our client had grown through an acquisition which had resulted in a number of non-integrated disparate administration, accounting and back office systems being used resulting in high cost IT expenditure. This in turn put pressure on its margins and profitability. Our client had to decide what it should do in rationalising its Information Technology environment as any wrong decision could increase the costs and affect its financial position. In addition, our client recognised that while it was an industry leader in the provision of pension/employee benefit administration services and investment services it was not a leader in the provision of Information Technology and found it difficult attracting and keeping leaders in the Information Technology arena. The IQ Solution The IQ Business Group was engaged as the provider of all its Information Technology Services. As a multi-client provider, IQ has the critical mass of both projects and staff to provide a career progression for Information Technology and consulting professionals who specialise in the Pension/Employee Benefit market. Further they had experience in addressing the multi platform issues which were currently facing their client. IQ undertook a number of strategic initiatives with their client designed to rationalise their environments, as well as reduce IT costs. IQ analysed current and future business needs and provided an application needs map. This was then compared to existing administration platforms as well as all of those available in the marketplace. A commercial decision was made on which administration system would be utilised and a plan established to migrate all ongoing business to this platform. At the same time all satellite systems were reviewed and rationalised and conversion plans established. With the new system architecture established projects were initiated to improve the integration and automation between the selected systems so that as they were converted to the new environment productivity improvements were instantly realised. The conversion to the administration platform was conducted on a phased basis so as to lessen the impact on the day to day business while still setting aggressive conversion timetables. How Did Our Client Benefit? The IQ Business Group was able to implement project teams to address these issues concurrently rather than sequentially. The conversion to the new architecture was completed within two years including the development of integration components between the administration, accounting and back office components. IQ also set in place a documented Information Systems Strategy which is continually reviewed and updated covering applications, environment and proactively manages the adoption of new technology and security features. The major benefit to our client at the completion of the conversion and integration activities was the reduction in its Information Technology costs. These costs were reduced by 65% compared to the expenditure being spent before IQ were engaged. In addition our client is able to access the knowledge and experience of industry leaders in the Information Technology and consulting fields and have them have direct input to their planning.
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