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AANNEX Solutions perform full IT upgrade to enable an increase in productivity.

The Business Problem

One of the Financial institutes approached AANNEX with numerous issues and concerns with their aging IT systems.

AANNEX created an IT audit and recommendations report that identified several key elements that could be improved to help the business be more efficient, improve system security and reliability while at the same time reducing the risk of downtime. The key points highlighted from the review were:

• The Server hardware was several years old and not supported by the manufacturer.
• Financial Institute must keep all data for up to eight years, this entails backups of yearly accounts and email, however, no central backup strategy was in place and email was not archived.
• Several Computers were running Windows XP which no longer supported by Microsoft and therefore not patched with security updates.
• Financial institute (our customer) did not have remote access to the IT system, but this is a function that was needed by the business.
• Due to the rural office location, power cuts are common, and with an on-premises IT system, this caused business disruption on a regular basis.
• There was no business class firewall in place to secure the network from intrusion.
• Work load migration to hybrid Cloud with 45% Re-host, 20% Re-factor and Re-platform and 35% move to SaaS based solution(i.e. 0356 email, Office suite,  backup and archiving, SharePoint, dynamics)

The Challenges

One of the key drivers was to keep capital expenditure to a minimum and keep the costs firmly in the expense column allowing easy budgeting without having to worry about changing the IT system every few years.

As an IT strategic partner, AANNEX helped North American Financial institution to determine the best options to cost effectively resolve all IT issues and refresh the IT infrastructure at the same time. 

“At all stages I have felt confident in AANNEX’s ability to deliver a secure and workable solution. My staff were supported throughout the transition and the project was completed with minimal disruption.”

The Solution

AANNEX proposed a Cloud based solution rather than upgrading the current IT systems. The solution we recommended resolved all issues and importantly did not require a capital outlay, which was the preferred solution by the clients. By utilising a Cloud based system option, Our Customer staff can work remotely from an alternative location when power cuts happen, thus allowing business functions to continue.

The System is based on a Windows Server 2016 Remote Desktop  Services platform allowing our customer’s applications to be accessed from any Internet enabled computer anywhere in the world. This server platform was housed within AANNEX’s Cloud.

During the systems migration project, all outdated Workstations were replaced with Thin Clients and a Microsoft Office 365 licensing plan entitle our Financial customer to install the latest Microsoft Office software on up to 5 devices per user. All email communications are archived for an unlimited amount of time using the same Office 365 Solution.

The End Result

The outcome of the project for Our customer is a new Cloud based IT system to drive the business over the next 3-5 years with reduced IT management complexity. The IT system has been migrated to an easily accessible central platform that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

AANNEX successfully planned, managed and delivered the IT systems refresh project and deployed new hardware, software and licensing plans, which consisted of the following key deliverables:

• Deployment of Cloud Infrastructure
• Data transfer from existing server
• Migration of email services to Office 365
• Installation of a Remote Desktop Based Cloud Infrastructure during working hours with minimal disruption
• Deployment of new Thin Client Terminals
• Installation of Firewalls and data encryption in rest and motion to protect the local network and secure data between the customer and the Data Centre.
• Decommissioning of legacy Server and workstations
• A central backup strategy was put in place to ensure all data was backed up as per the client’s legal requirements
• Unlimited Archiving of all email communications

David white CIO at the Financial services at North America.

“Our outdated system was an increasing worry. It is a relief to know that we now have a reliable, fully maintained, and supported system. The ability to remote access our systems via the internet has been a valuable tool.”