Providing a comprehensive range of IT services for a large organisation, with a mortgage book worth tens of billions of pounds, in a highly regulated industry.
Sentis Managed Services won a contract to create a brand-new IT environment for a financial institution engaged in a process of major change.
This former building society, bank and mortgage lender had mortgage assets of around £40 billion on its books. Following the global financial crisis of 2008, it was one of the financial institutions taken into state ownership, with its mortgage and loan portfolios later sold off to a hedge fund.
With the business having been broken up into its separate constituent parts, the company was left with a legacy IT system originally designed for a much larger business. It became apparent that the company needed a new IT set-up; one more in line with its present-day needs.
The company prepared to put its IT contract out to tender. It approached Sentis’ data centre partner and invited it to participate in the tendering process; the data centre partner, in turn, asked Sentis to get involved and provide a full, turn-key service.
While the tendering process was still ongoing, Sentis was commissioned to take a deep dive into the company’s IT environment, assessing this against the business’ plans, and came back with a set of proposals for a new, more suitable system. The company took on all of Sentis’ flagship products and services, from applications, services and data to managed SOC and advanced cybersecurity tools.
Once the tender was awarded, work began on constructing an entirely new IT environment for the client from the ground up. This included new laptops, smartphones, Microsoft 365 tenancy, file-sharing models and a brand-new virtual server farm.
Advanced cyber threat and detection protection from Darktrace, powered by Cyber AI, and access management software from Duo were layered on top of this IT architecture.
The contract was signed in July 2022, with the project getting underway in August and a deadline set for go-live in the first week of December. The project was completed accordingly, on time and on budget, with 30 million files migrated, 40,000 lines of code developed and 65 members of staff moved from the old IT platform to a new one within only four days, while minimising disruption to the business.
Because the client is a financial institution, it is subject to close oversight from the Financial Conduct Authority and must remain compliant with its regulations. This inevitably added to the complexity of the project.
At Sentis, we don’t believe in ‘standard IT’. We do believe that where IT plays a critical role in the operation of your business, then it’s vital to make sure IT supports your business strategy.
That’s why we work to really understand your business in order to help you get the most from the technology and people available. And because every business is different we understand that what works for one won’t necessarily work for another.
Equally we know that most businesses simply want their IT to work, without getting too involved in the finer detail. So, we take the ‘tech out of technology’ by explaining things in simple terms and getting right to the benefits, without getting hung up on features.
We have a dedicated team of experts in the office and out on the road, offering helpline and on-site support to keep your business moving should your IT let you down. The whole team is totally committed to delivering excellent customer service, without baffling anyone with tech talk.
Our range of technical specialists includes:
- Technical Solutions Specialists
- Implementation Management
- Support Analysts
- Senior Consultants
- Data Centre Specialists
- Project Managers
As an independent company, we are not tied to any hardware or software vendors, so are always able to recommend exactly what is right for you. Our cloud based services are delivered via data centre locations in Leeds, Newbury and London.
Our individual approach, a broad range of technical expertise (in plain English) coupled with excellent customer service and no limitations on the technology we can offer makes Sentis a true partner.
