Support services 50% cheaper than in-house option
Challenges
Several years after a successful upgrade to Wallstreet Suite version 6.5 with SkySparc, the Aktia group had acquired a life insurance and a non-life insurance company that it migrated onto the treasury management system using its own IT resources. Following the migration, some of the processes were not running as efficiently as previously, and certain alerts were not being generated.
The group’s in-house IT department was busy with a number of other prioritized projects, and was unable to respond to the treasury department’s needs. Krister Widd, Head of Middle Office at Aktia, was faced with a choice – either hire in-house dedicated treasury IT support for system maintenance, or retain an external partner company to provide oncall business support. In making this decision, Widd considered overall cost, responsiveness and system expertise before signing up with SkySparc’s Expert Center.
SkySparc takes full ownership of all aspects of system support for our business. They liaise with our internal IT team, and directly with ION, saving us time and effort.
Krister Widd, Head of Middle Office, Aktia
Solution
SkySparc Expert Center gives Aktia a proactive financial and technical partner dedicated to maximizing the availability and usefulness its treasury management and integrated systems. For a low fixed monthly fee, SkySparc maintains automatic surveillance of Aktia’s operations – meaning it knows about any emerging problems before users do.
Aktia has direct phone access to experts with decades of experience. These dedicated consultants are on-hand for time sensitive problem solving, scheduled tasks, enhancement projects and strategic advice.
At Aktia, the Expert Center team’s first task was to install its auto surveillance tools to analyze system performance and identify any operating issues.
“Implementing the auto surveillance was our first priority,” says Widd. “We wanted to be sure that the real-time services were running efficiently. To speed up this process, I would recommend being very clear to your internal IT department about the associated requirements for hardware, firewall and mail server configuration.
Using SkySparc to analyze system processes is a cost-effective way of ensuring system efficiency.
Krister Widd, Head of Middle Office, Aktia
Results
Once the auto surveillance tool was in place, SkySparc made configuration changes to core application and real-time processes – streamlining and ensuring Aktia was using its treasury management system at optimum efficiency.
“Using SkySparc to analyze system processes is a cost-effective way of ensuring system efficiency,” says Widd. “We don’t have the requirement for a fulltime support head-count, so by using Expert Center we’re saving at least 50% of the cost of the in-house support option. At the same time we have the benefit of knowing that our systems are being monitored proactively, and that we have a road map for making operational improvements. Expert Center gives us this.”
Another benefit of the SkySparc relationship is that Aktia can use its allocated time each month for other improvements or enhancements. The Expert Center team has completed a number of other projects for Aktia since the initial system optimization. These include building a pricing interface.
“SkySparc takes full ownership of all aspects of system support for our business,” says Widd. “They liaise with our internal IT team, and interact directly with the vendor. Outsourcing this activity allows us to focus on our core business.”
“A big value I get from the SkySparc Expert Center relationship is that I know I have someone checking all my processes in real time,” says Widd. “They know if we have a problem before we do, and they are very quick at getting to the root of a problem. I also very much value the personal relationship and the ability to pick up a phone and instantly speak with someone who is intimately familiar with our business and systems. It’s a great partnership in terms of the impartial advice we get on optimizing our systems and processes, as well as the timing of our planned improvements.”
