General Reinsurance Africa Ltd, the regional office representing Africa for General Re Corporation, an international holding company for global reinsurance and related risk assessment, risk transfer and risk management operations, has outsourced the support of its entire southern African IT management, to global award-winner, network integration and infrastructure management specialist Integr8 IT.
According to the service level agreement, which has been structured to incorporate Integr8 IT`s list of managed services, General Re Corporation has invested in 24/7 proactive national service and support, with a guaranteed turnaround time, to help manage its existing IT infrastructure and systems, and align with the global trend of lowering the total cost of ownership.
"One of the main considerations for Gen Re was to ensure a smooth yet rapid transition between the company`s permanently employed IT staff and the Integr8 IT engineers," explains Christopher Theron, network engineer at Integr8 IT.
"The key objective of the project was to reduce the total cost of ownership. After understanding the Gen Re business, we structured a complete outsource strategy and program to include on-site engineers from the Integr8 IT ranks to support the users. This also allows us to perform crucial day-to-day proactive tasks required to manage a network infrastructure as extensive as theirs and gives them access to over 200 of the countries most highly trained and experienced network engineers."
Gen Re is primarily a Novell-based network that runs on TCP/IP protocol. The company makes use of Lotus Notes as its mailing system because this affords it the high level of security required in their line of business.
"Compaq and Cisco is the preferred hardware equipment of choice and we are going to continue with this global standard. The scope of the project involved national knowledge transfer from intellectual capital, into structural capital that is kept and retained within the company. This task was completed successfully and our client is delighted. Gen Re has been successful in passing on the concerns of their IT infrastructure and the needs of their staff to Integr8 IT to manage and assist," adds Theron.
Integr8 IT joint-MD Robert Sussman describes the company`s involvement and service provision as "very significant and valuable" due to its proven track record to work with global companies in order to maintain a worldwide standard throughout an organisation. This again reinforces its reputation as a long-term IT partner focused on solutions and not product, with the end objective of capturing the essence of structural capital derived from intellectual capital, both on an international and local front.
"We have always followed a strategy of sticking to exactly what we know. We have enhanced this by streamlining our services and packaging an offering known as managed services, which places us on a solid footing going forward," says Sussman. "Companies, international and local, trust results, they trust what they see and experience for themselves. We have never advocated a policy based on promises and guarantees - we like to show clients what they can achieve and then let them make their own minds up."
Share