Company Profile

Tower Capital Group, is a personal loans administrator with 30 staff across 4 offices in Isle of Man, Bournemouth, Bristol and Jersey.

Business Situation

Tower wanted their web-based loan applications to talk directly to their backend Loans Administration software (TallyTracker). In recent years the number of loan requests had grown substantially, and the application process needed streamlining.

Payments had become a labour intensive process, involving re-keying and data duplication in spreadsheets, emails and transaction entries.

Tower approached their previous provider to link the HSBC Portal with TallyTracker; but this was not possible given the provider’s shared server architecture.

Solution

Cronus reviewed the client’s data storage requirements, applications and their usage before recommending a fully hosted environment within a secure private cloud. An extensive site review ensured the compatibility of workstation technology and all PC's were secured and patched.

Founded on Microsoft Hyper-V failover clustering, and making use of clustered shared volumes, Cronus created one of the first fully scalable multi-site offshore clouds.

To ensure real value, Cronus chose to implement the Microsoft System Center suite ensuring in depth proactive monitoring, real-time reporting and extensive deployment capabilities.

The client’s isolated infrastructure in the cloud provides their own Small Business Server 2008, SQL 2008 Server, Remote Desktop Server and Threat Management Gateway Server. A dedicated DMZ hosts their customer facing website and securely interacts with their Cronus designed net application for straight through processing.

A migration plan was agreed and took place ensuring zero business disruption, all Microsoft office and 3rd part applications were published to users using Remote Desktop Services; including the client’s own bespoke application.

User feedback was very positive with no noticeable functionality difference, other than being much faster; and all aims achieved.

Shortly after Tower went live in the Cronus Cloud, Cronus was able to implement various web services, linking to the TallyTracker application and providing payment processing functionality to the HSBC portal.

Tower Capital now has a fully functional environment within the fabric of the Cronus Cloud. The flexibility to add and change services is no longer a problem, services that formally require many weeks or months of planning such as Microsoft CRM and Microsoft SharePoint can be switched on in days.

The next phase will see the delivery of Tower Capital's website from within the Cronus Private Cloud in 2010.

Benefits

All the client’s requirements have been met; the business process has been automated and delivered seamlessly, the infrastructure is designed to scale and upgrades such as Microsoft Office 2010 can happen, when required, with no disruption, and Disaster Recovery is built-in.

Jamie Le Sueur, Managing Director of Tower Capital added:

“Cronus delivered a practical and functional loans administration software package which was designed to meet our requirements.”

“Since delivery they have worked continuously to improve system performance and functionality; and in the last 6 months we have moved the hosting of our whole IT system to Cronus. This was carried out seamlessly and with minimal disruption to our staff.”

“Support for our loans administration system and all the elements of the hosted service is very good. It is of great comfort to know that Disaster Recovery, Virus scanning, software and hardware updates and user help desk issues are all dealt with by a professional company, leaving us free to get on with our business.”