Reducing Support Costs Using Halian’s Managed Services

Introduction

In the fast-paced world of Investment Banking, keeping the wheels of commerce in motion is critical, and system downtime, as well as causing general disruption, can have a major affect on profitability. Halian in partnership with Sun Microsystems now supply round the clock support for the global systems of a leading city investment bank. 

Background

A London based investment bank had been operating its own internal support which was limited to office hours. However, working in a live trade environment and operating on an EMEA-wide scale, they were receiving an increasing number of out of hour calls and so recognising the need to expand existing support levels approached Sun for a solution.
Sun chose Halian’s Managed Service solution because of their proven record of accomplishment in delivering value added managed services. They were also able to extend the right level of technical knowledge, experience, services, and support to provide the right solution to the customer.

Solution

Halian’s Managed Service Solution offers a range of IT services and support that enables the bank’s internal resource to utilise their more in-depth company and sector knowledge to add value to the business.
Following an initial transition phase Halian is now providing a Managed Service 24 x 7 x 365 specifically tailored to meet the operational requirements of the investment bank. The company will be working with Sun over a three-year period to provide comprehensive support that will help to maintain and improve the banks service to both their internal user and business community.

A Halian Service Delivery Manager oversees the team to ensure continuity and provision of the highest possible services, in line with the exclusively designed service level agreement for the bank.
The team has a wide remit that includes 1st line troubleshooting on software products, working with Sun delivery to support all stages of their projects, from production through to user acceptance; as well as carrying out routine UNIX administration tasks and support.

Routine proactive maintenance in the form of application of software patches, monitoring, and reviewing system capacity and all system logs helps to reduce the likelihood of system failure. Whilst other administrative tasks carried out by the team include preparation, alteration, and management of UNIX scripts to automate repeated administration tasks and also detection, triage and resolution of Solaris™ operating system and storage incidents including root cause analysis.

Continuous monitoring of client incident management systems and regular participation at client service delivery meetings ensures that Halian are able to provide services that support the customer’s business needs now; as well as provisioning for the right level of future support.

Outcomes/Benefits

Early results from the provision of the Halian Managed Service solution mean that the bank has been able to significantly reduce the number of out of hour calls to its employees, reduce its costs, and benefit from a number of value added services. The Halian team have already set to work in delivering proactive support, implementing a number of patches, and carrying out a successful software roll out. Halian is considered an integral part of the bank’s operation and with Sun is recognised as a trusted and strategic partner to the company.

Dan Lewis, Account Manager at Sun said: “Halian have once again demonstrated their value as a trusted partner by working with us to provide a cutting edge solution to this leading city investment bank. They have even gone outside the scope of the service to bring in additional skills and expertise and so are providing a truly value added solution.”

The provision of Halian’s Managed Service solution means that the bank is able to provide the customised support and IT services on a 24 x 7 x 365 basis across their EMEA operations.