Industry:Financial Services

Location:London

Acora services provided:• an expanded service desk• change management• capacity management•proactivesystemsmonitoring• disaster recovery •businesscontinuityplanning(BCP)

provisions• IT strategy• solutionsarchitecture

Acora: Case Study Marlin Financial Group

Marlin Financial Group

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At a glance

ChallengeMarlinrequiredafullreviewoftheircoreline-of-businessapplicationstohelpidentifyareasforcostandriskreduction,andtoassessthegeneralhealthoftheirITsystems.

SolutionAcoraengagedwithstakeholdersandkeybusinessprocessandsystemsownersoveran8-weekperiod,anddeliveredacomprehensivereviewwithsomekeyrecommendations.Theseweretoupgradeandreplacecoresystemsandinfrastructureaswellascreateintegratedsolutions.Ourconsultantsthenprovidedaclearlyarticulatedroadmapshowinghowthoseprojectscouldbeachieved,withinarealisticandmanageabletimescale.

OutcomesTheintroductionofthesesystemimprovementshasnotonlytransformedMarlin’soperationalefficiency,buthasalsoprovidedgenuinescalabilityinthecompany’sITsystemsandunlockedtheirlatentgrowthpotential.

Acora’s expertise and experience has been pivotal in helping us to deliver the biggest programme of IT change we have ever undertaken. They provided us with a clear vision of the future and a delivery roadmap that all the business stakeholders could understand and buy in to. Technology is now viewed by the business as one of our major assets. Martin Dunphy Chairman

Marlin Financial Services, a private equity backed business, is one of the UK’s premier financial services companies specialising in the collection and management of group-owned and contingency accounts in all consumer credit sectors. Acora has been working with Marlin since 2006 and in 2010 transitioned Marlin’s IT delivery into a fully outsourced service. More recently, Acora undertook a full transformation of Marlin’s infrastructure and delivered a formal IT strategy.

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Challenge

Acoraengagedwithkeybusinessstakeholdersoveran8-weekperiodanddeliveredacomprehensivereviewwithsomekeyrecommendationsincluding:

• anupgradeorreplacementofMarlin’scoreCaseManagement/CRMsolution

• replacementoftheirin-houseautomated dialling system

• introductionofanintegratedextract,transform&load(ETL)solution

Ourconsultantsthenprovidedaclearlyarticulatedroadmapshowinghowthoseprojectscouldbeachieved,withinarealistictimescale.

Overa6-9monthperiodAcora’sconsultants proceeded to guide the combinedAcora/Marlinteamto

Solution

Outcomes

AcoradeliversOutsourcedITServicestovisionarymid-marketbusinessleaderswhoneedstrategicagilitywithouttheshacklesofhighriskIT.Weprovidethefreedomtoflexfurther,andadaptfaster–fullysupportedbyanexpertlymanaged,outcomes-focussedITstrategy.Becausetrueserviceisaboutflexibility,wemeetourclients’ever-changingstrategicneedswithoutsourcingservicesdeliveredatwhateverlevelfeelsrightforthem.Whenourclientstalk,welisten.Noerror,noconfusion.Justsingular,dynamicservicethatdrivesnewbusinessvalueateverylevelinanewanduncertaineconomy.

Acora: Case Study Marlin Financial Group

Theintroductionofthesesystemimprovements has not only improved Marlin’soperationalefficiency,butthecompany’sITsystemsnowhavegenuinescalability,whichinturnhasunlockedtheirlatentgrowthpotential.Inaddition,Marlin’sITApplicationenvironmenthastransformedfrombeingapossiblelimitationtogrowthintoabusinessassetofsignificantvalue,leavingtheminapositionofrealstrengthforthecomingyearsandkeepingthemfirmlyaheadoftheircompetition.

SpecificallythischangeprogrammehasdeliveredtotheMarlinBusiness:

Inlate2011MarlinaskedAcoratoundertakeafullreviewoftheircoreline-of-businessapplicationstohelpidentify:

• potentialareasofriskreduction•opportunitiesforoperationalefficiency• aroadmapofstrategicandtacticalinitiativesandchanges

identifyandprocuresuitablesolutionreplacementsforthecoreCRMandDiallerplatformsthroughastructuredvendorselectionandnegotiationprocess.Thedeliverablesoftheprojectincluded:

•overallprojectmanagement• analysisandspecificationofcritical

business requirements•designofthetargetsolutionarchitectureincludingintegration andprocessautomationbenefits

• aphasedintroductiontominimisedisruptionandriskandmaximisebenefit

•managementofkeyvendorrelationshipsandactivity

• issueresolutionandriskmanagement

• anenterprise-scaleCRMapplicationfullyintegratedwithahigh-performance,callmanagementsolution

• fullyautomatedapplicationintegrationfromCRMtomultiplesatellite systems via an industry leadingETLapplication

•majorproductivitygainsandoperationalriskreductionthrougheliminationofmanualprocessing

•predictedROIof 450% in year one and over 4,000% overafiveyearownershipperiodincludingallprojectandacquisitioncosts

projected ROI in year one:

450%projected ROI after five years ownership:

4,000%