The Client
Our client is a UK-based provider of alternative investment management with over 10 years of history. Their offices are in the City of London.
The IT Infrastructure and outsourced support provision had not been examined for a number of years and a number of concerns were raised. Owing to our expertise in the field, ITD were engaged to audit the firm’s IT provision and provide recommendations for improvements.
The Challenge
Our client had been in their current offices for approximately 5 years and had not reviewed their IT Infrastructure in this time. Considering the future growth of their business, they were keen to perform a comprehensive review and to obtain an assessment of their systems to make certain they were fit for purpose.
Our Approach
• We reviewed our client’s IT strategy and business objectives to ensure that they were aligned with the firm’s planned growth.
• The client had outsourced their IT function to a third party and we reviewed in detail the level of service provided. This included looking at their day to day performance, service level agreements (SLAs), the cost of the service against industry benchmarks, and how business critical issues were escalated.
• We prepared an inventory of the IT infrastructure, applications and systems. We then determined what was suitable for continued use and what might need to be replaced or updated. Several servers needed to be renewed as the manufacturers’ warranties were due to expire.
• We examined and tested the business continuity and disaster recovery plans. We found these to be adequate, but recommended that the physical recovery process could be improved on. It was also necessary to improve on communications with 3rd party suppliers.
• We found that several key software licences were imminently due to expire, so presenting our client with the various options for renewal was a priority.
The Results
We presented our findings to the client. Although we deemed the current service to be adequate, we made a number of key recommendations to improve the support received from their IT provider and to secure their systems to FSA standards.
“ITD were thorough and methodical and made a number of insightful recommendations to improve our IT.”
Our client is a UK-based provider of alternative investment management with over 10 years of history. Their offices are in the City of London.
The IT Infrastructure and outsourced support provision had not been examined for a number of years and a number of concerns were raised. Owing to our expertise in the field, ITD were engaged to audit the firm’s IT provision and provide recommendations for improvements.
The Challenge
Our client had been in their current offices for approximately 5 years and had not reviewed their IT Infrastructure in this time. Considering the future growth of their business, they were keen to perform a comprehensive review and to obtain an assessment of their systems to make certain they were fit for purpose.
Our Approach
• We reviewed our client’s IT strategy and business objectives to ensure that they were aligned with the firm’s planned growth.
• The client had outsourced their IT function to a third party and we reviewed in detail the level of service provided. This included looking at their day to day performance, service level agreements (SLAs), the cost of the service against industry benchmarks, and how business critical issues were escalated.
• We prepared an inventory of the IT infrastructure, applications and systems. We then determined what was suitable for continued use and what might need to be replaced or updated. Several servers needed to be renewed as the manufacturers’ warranties were due to expire.
• We examined and tested the business continuity and disaster recovery plans. We found these to be adequate, but recommended that the physical recovery process could be improved on. It was also necessary to improve on communications with 3rd party suppliers.
• We found that several key software licences were imminently due to expire, so presenting our client with the various options for renewal was a priority.
The Results
We presented our findings to the client. Although we deemed the current service to be adequate, we made a number of key recommendations to improve the support received from their IT provider and to secure their systems to FSA standards.
“ITD were thorough and methodical and made a number of insightful recommendations to improve our IT.”
Address:
8 Laurence Pountney Hill,
EC4R 0BE
8 Laurence Pountney Hill,
EC4R 0BE
Call: 0207 648 4940
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
