Ergo wins ‘IT Project of the Year’ ICT Excellence Award
Ergo, have been awarded the accolade of ‘IT Project of the Year – Private Sector’ at this year’s ICT Excellence Awards. The award was presented at a gala dinner in the D4 Berkeley Hotel, Dublin, on Thursday May 20th.
Now in its tenth year, the ICT Excellence Awards represent the most respected business accolade in the technology industry. The IT Project of the Year is awarded to the company responsible for delivering an outstanding application of enterprise-level business technology. It was bestowed upon Ergo for their development of an eBroker online channel portal solution delivered to Investec Ireland. The solution built on the Microsoft .NET Framework and SQL Server 2008 Enterprise edition provides Investec with a solution to support corporate clients, direct customer and broker network channels in the delivery of a flexible and reactive service to its clients.
The solution enabled Investec deliver on a key business goal which was to empower brokers through automation and to cut down on paperwork and time-intensive transactions. In addition to this, it was critical that brokers could securely access up to date customer account information and produce client documentation. Upon completion of the initial phase of the project Investec sought to leverage its newly built channel to extend further service offerings to the UK & Irish market. With the portal providing efficient and cost effective support for brokers, the next step towards market expansion was direct client access.
Investec sought to offer a broader range of services and improved self service capabilities direct to their customer base. Upgrading its account access facility to accommodate new account applications and money transfers meant that Investec could service customers directly via the online portal. There was also interest from Investec’s Capital Markets division to provide an online FX trading facility on the platform.
The online channel portal provided Investec with a fast-track entry into the UK & Irish Markets, while minimising the administrative overhead on internal staff. Their broker network, corporate and customers could, in the main, service their own needs online, allowing Investec to grow in the UK and Irish market place with a minimal operational cost base. The expertise of Ergo, working with a customer with a strong strategic objective, has resulted in a project coming in on time and on budget, a model example of an organisation harnessing technology to deliver business benefits and achieve competitive advantage in the volatile and highly competitive financial services marketplace.
According to John Carroll, IT and Operations Manager with Investec, the solution offered significant functionality to their broker community. “Customers are more empowered and from our perspective, from an operational standpoint, it lightens the load,” said Carroll. “Instead of a customer calling in and asking for a post-dated statement, they can actually run the query for themselves. It’s very much a win-win situation.”
Upon receiving the award, Marc Murphy, Sales Director of Ergo Software Solutions, said: “This is great news for Ergo and we are all really proud of this achievement. We have delivered powerful solutions for numerous customers but the Investec solution was one of our most ambitious and most exciting projects to date. Winning this award serves to concrete our position as a software solutions provider that can offer real value and quality, as well as transparency, to the IT financial services sector.”
