Genesis Investment Management achieves business continuity with Teamsolve
Genesis Investment Management LLP is a specialist manager of emerging markets equities for global institutions.
Genesis had been running Microsoft SQL Server in house for a number of years and had recently deployed Oracle 10g Release 2 Database to underpin their mission critical back office and trading application, SimCorp Dimension. Their internal staff had vast skills in relation to Microsoft SQL Server but Oracle was a whole new entity to the organisation. Genesis knew that they would require the skills of an Oracle specialist to offer day-to-day support and reduce the risk to the organisation.
Colin Cloves, IT Manager at Genesis Investment Management explains, "We had over twenty years plus experience of Microsoft SQL Server however our experience of Oracle up until the appointment of Teamsolve, was in relative infancy. We needed a Trusted Oracle Advisor who could give us that extra level of expertise over and above that offered by other Oracle service providers. We're happy to say that with Teamsolve, we have that".
Facts, Not Opinions
At the outset, Genesis engaged with Teamsolve to conduct an independent Health Check on their Oracle environment. The output from the Health Check gave Genesis absolute clarity on their environment and a range of options with which to move forward, based upon a series of facts from an independent Oracle specialist. This information also armed Genesis with independent best practice advice to refer to when entering into discussions with application vendors.
2nd Line Support with 24x7 Monitoring
Genesis were delighted with the Health Check report that Teamsolve produced and engaged Teamsolve to provide database support for their Oracle environment. Although their primary requirement was to provide additional support to their internal team during business hours, Genesis required Teamsolve's 24x7 monitoring capability for FSA compliance and to alert the business overnight of any issues that could affect the availability of systems for the next trading day.
Service Transition Made Easy
Transition of support services for Genesis ran smoothly thanks to Teamsolve's meticulously planned, proven transition process", states Colin, "The transition of support services ran smoothly thanks to Teamsolve's clear, detailed processes which leave nothing to chance. Additionally, the level of communication at the start of the support and throughout our transition was excellent, giving us the confidence in Teamsolve's ability from the outset. It was a good basis on which to start the relationship".
Genesis has the Comfort Factor
"We have a strong relationship with Teamsolve and we have come to regard them as our Trusted Oracle Advisor", says Colin. "In addition to an unbiased Oracle technical viewpoint, Teamsolve provide us with the comfort that our Oracle systems are available and performant and that we have skilled technical expertise on hand to respond to any issues that we may encounter".
Relationship Building for Optimum Business Performance
Teamsolve prides itself on its unique named Primary and Secondary DBA Rotation Policy, enabling our technical team to fully understand the nature of our clients' business and build trusted relationships whilst ensuring no single points of failure.
"We are particularly impressed with the way that Teamsolve allocates a primary and secondary DBA to each client", says Colin. "For us, it's meant that we've developed a close working relationship with our allocated DBA team who we can contact straight away, as opposed to being passed around whilst waiting for an individual with knowledge of our systems to be tracked down - as was the case with some of our previous suppliers. Our DBA team at Teamsolve understand our environment, our people and our business which provides an excellent level of continuity and a documented and clear audit trail from which to work".
"There has also been an excellent level of communication and continuity with the DBA team and Teamsolve's on-site Consultant. It's refreshing to have Consultants that retain our business knowledge and are able to get straight to the job in hand thus maximising the time spent on site to its full potential, without the need for repeated familiarisation sessions or generic briefings on each site visit".
Weekly Analysis Enables Long-Term Trend Analysis
As part of the tailored support contract SLAs, we receive detailed, week-by-week management reports. "These reports, in addition to providing weekly analysis of issues and current status, help us to make better business decisions and identify long-term trends such as ensuring our capacity planning is on target", says Colin.
Trusted Advisor Going Forward
"We are impressed with the level of service and the relationship with Teamsolve", says Colin. "Within our business they are definitely viewed as our Trusted Oracle Advisor due to the level and variety of Oracle skills, both in terms of business-as-usual support and key strategic IT decisions moving forward".
For further more information on Genesis Investment Management LLP, visit www.giml.co.uk