Financial services

Case Study:

Support for growth at Blue

15 May 2008

Blue Financial Services needed to maintain, control and manage its growth across South Africa. It worked with network technology specialist Integr8IT to create a flexible, dependable IT system based on Microsoft technologies.

South African-based Blue Financial Services had experienced rapid business growth, with profits after tax increasing by more than 355 per cent within a year of its listing on the JSE AltX exchange. Intent on capturing the largely underserved credit market in Africa, the company has branches in Botswana, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Lesotho and Namibia, with plans to add more African countries to the list before the end of its next financial year.

The company’s success captured the interest of shareholders and customers alike, but it also left the business with a serious challenge: how to maintain, control and manage its growth. With more than 150 branches and 800 staff throughout Africa, this wasn’t going to be easy.

The first step was to improve basic communications and efficiencies between branches so that the company could boost response times to its client base. “We were experiencing slow e-mail between branches and wanted to improve security on all our systems,” says Dave van Niekerk, CEO of Blue Financial Services. “This included improving control over desktop computers and Internet access. Shared resources and branch-level back-ups also needed bolstering. As a microfinance institution with a fresh, dynamic approach to the financial services market, we believe that a flexible, yet dependable IT system is key to distinguishing Blue from market stereotypes.”

Working with Microsoft partner and network technology specialist Integr8IT, the Blue Financial Services team conducted an audit of its IT environment in mid-2006, selected products in September of that year, and began rollout in November, shortly after the company’s AltX listing.

Because its business works on tight turnaround times for client loan approvals, e-mail and collaboration speed is of utmost importance to Blue. Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 was chosen to improve e-mail performance and give staff the benefits of a global address book, shared contacts, task and calendars, and public folders.

The team rolled out Microsoft Server 2003 with Active Directory at all existing branches to enable the greater levels of control required by the JSE Limited’s listing requirements as well as good corporate governance practices highlighted in the King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa (2002). This also provided extra security and enhanced resource sharing. Because Active Directory is scalable, the company has established a platform for future growth – one that specifically allows for mass management of IT systems and less downtime.

“Users are now fully mobile, using the RPC over https protocol, mobile devices and notebook computers that can connect to the organisation form almost anywhere in the world,” says van Niekerk. “Additionally, e-mail can now be backed up in a central place and archived for the mandatory five-year period.”

An ISA Server is being used to improve security for Blue’s Internet users, and to monitor and control Internet usage at branches. “We implemented SQL Server as the platform for the customised reporting system that Integr8IT developed for us,” says van Niekerk. “We are also using Windows Terminal Server to give users across the continent access to our debtors system, thus bypassing the need for a database server in each country.”

As a large and rapidly growing financial services company, Blue’s business is time-critical. It offers a one-hour turnaround time for loan approval – a service that has given the company a valuable edge over its competitors. The Microsoft solution facilitates this through fast, efficient and reliable inter-branch communications. “In particular, the shared mailbox feature in Exchange allows the approvals team at head office to monitor incoming applications and to ensure speedy processing,” says van Niekerk.

“The shared calendars and task lists are updated by personal assistants so that senior and executive level management have 24/7 access to their mail and calendars while on the road. This means business-critical decisions can be made on the move. Additionally, the distribution lists and the global address book allow staff to be in constant touch with each other, which is especially important for teams that are spread out across various sites.”

The fact that users have access to a live database, rather than an offline one, means they are working with reliable and accurate client data and can provide a more precise, more immediate and more valuable level of customer service. it also means that critical company data is backed up at a central location, which minimises risk of data loss or damage.

Van Niekerk emphasises that risk management is a concern for any business, but especially in the local finance industry where Blue is now the third-largest business of its kind. “Central storage and back-up, tighter security protocols and controlled Internet access that also protects hackers and competitors, have provided the level of security and peace of mind we were looking for,” he says.