IT infrastructure to IT-Outsourcing service provider

The safe, convenient and future-oriented solution

FINAD AG, based in Zurich and Vienna, specializes in asset management and financial advisory services for private investors. Since its foundation in 1976, FINAD AG has been steering its customers and their assets through critical phases as well. In 2014, FINAD decided to outsource its entire IT infrastructure to redIT’s data center. Thus, redIT acts as FINAD’s IT-outsourcing service provider – Learn everything about the cooperation in the following success story.

Customer

When Alfred Schwarzenbach and Miguel Steiner founded FINAD AG in 1976, they were far ahead of their time. At that time, the first thoughts on market portfolio theory had already been published. However, these new insights were not yet accessible to private investors. At the same time, the first derivatives conquered the market and shrank the time horizon of investors from decades and years to days and hours. In the same decade, the Western world was hit hard by the oil crisis. As a result, stock markets lost up to 50 percent. For stock investors, a seven-year dry spell followed. In this increasingly complex and volatile environment, Alfred Schwarzenbach and Miguel Steiner realized that independent and transparent advice for private investors was of great importance. With FINAD, they translated their insight into a business model that complements traditional asset management with contemporary advice and an individual, diversified and consolidated asset organization. Today, FINAD is a financial services company headquartered in Zurich with a branch office in Vienna, making it internationally active. Around 30 employees work at FINAD AG.

Initial situation: Increasing demands on IT

With the increasing internationalization of FINAD, the demands on the company’s IT infrastructure also increased. Central calendars, uniform document management or uniformly regulated security standards were just some of the challenges involved. All in all, the constantly growing requirements necessitated a fundamental renewal of the IT infrastructure. Specialists from redIT were called in for this project. After an initial inventory, they recommended outsourcing the entire IT infrastructure. The FINAD managers were initially skeptical about this proposal.
initially with skepticism. In the course of further consultations, however, it became apparent that such a solution offered a variety of advantages. Martin Hartmann, the manager responsible for FINAD’s IT, recognized the new opportunities associated with outsourcing: “I saw the opportunity for the company to drastically reduce our expenses for supporting internal IT and to focus more on my job as a portfolio analyst within FINAD AG again. ” In addition, it was possible to demonstrate during the course of the consultation that the processing of FINAD data by redIT’s external professional data center can significantly increase security. This in comparison to conventional in-house solutions.

Challenge: Lack of innovation & technical complications

For a financial institution like FINAD in particular, moving its IT infrastructure off-site is a process of considerable consequence. In addition to internal constraints, a whole host of industry requirements and legal regulations must be met in order to make such a solution a reality. In addition to outsourcing, other challenges had to be overcome. The numerous applications and programs had to be centralized via appropriate interfaces. One goal here was to make the three core systems CRM, portfolio management system and document management available centrally and separated to the branches.

Solution: Outsource IT infrastructure to IT-Outsourcing service provider redIT

Outsourcing the FINAD IT infrastructure to redIT’s data center was anything but routine for everyone involved. “redIT did not know all systems and stakeholders” describes Mr. Hartmann the initial situation, “but they dealt with it intensively and helped to look for the suitable solutions! In this project, redIT was able to contribute its competencies as an IT-GU in the best possible way.”
For FINAD, a solution was realized in the redIT data center, through which all specific requirements of the financial institution can be covered. The decisive factor for the success of the current solution is primarily the fact that FINAD can guarantee its customers the highest level of data security thanks to the outsourcing to the redIT data center.

Conclusion: Flexible and modern work possible through IT-Outsourcing service providers!

«In retrospect, the switch to the outsourcing system was easier than we thought», summarizes Mr. Hartmann. The employees also quickly got used to the new situation. Above all, they appreciate the new freedom to use the system from anywhere, to have quick access to all relevant data. «For us, the chosen solution is more secure, more convenient, future-oriented and, according to our internal cost accounting, even more economical!»