Establish a future-proofed environment capable of complying with existing and emerging regulations while providing fast, secure data recovery to ensure responsive customer service under all circumstances. Transferring core applications to a new IT platform, including servers and Open Source operating system, delivering greatly enhanced performance without downtime or disruption.
Done.
Redmayne-Bentley migrated core applications from a UNIX based platform to an Open Source platform based on Linux and Unisys ES7000 enterprise servers – a move made seamless thanks to Unisys technology and delivery excellence.
Enhanced performance without downtime in an IT environment that is more economical and easier to support and grow.
Metrics
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Speed: Transaction speeds almost 10 times faster than before
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Performance: Overnight processing has reduced from 13 hours to 1.5 hours
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Risk Reduction: Greatly improved fail-back and security measures
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On-Time Delivery: No disruption to business as usual
Business Challenge: Lower Costs, Higher Security, Continuous Availability
Redmayne-Bentley is a regionally based stockbroking firm in the UK that was able to grow and prosper during a period of rapid consolidation in the late 1980s because of its innovative business model. The national network that has developed in the past decades comprises self-employed stockbrokers who “franchise” the Redmayne-Bentley name, market strength and shared services. This approach provides a combination of knowledge and trust-based relationships combined with the professionalism and scale needed to prosper in what is now a very different investment marketplace.
Some of the regulations imposed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) present firms with tough challenges, and these have major implications for service levels and the IT systems that support them. Perhaps the most dramatic of these is the need to avoid downtime at all costs. It is a basic requirement that all companies involved in active trading should be open for business whenever the market is active, both in support of their clients’ interests and to deal with their own commitments on time. As Michael Wheeler, Finance Partner at Redmayne-Bentley comments: “The FSA has the power to take drastic action against any member company that is not open for business at the start of trading on the London Stock Exchange. This could eventually lead to the company being effectively closed down, so absolute dependability is a non-negotiable requirement”.
By early 2005, a combination of new requirements was making significant technology change inevitable. Three factors in particular drove Redmayne- Bentley’s management to decide on an investment policy that went beyond a simple upgrade, leading to a true step-change in performance and reliability. The first requirement was for a combination of greater speed and reliability. Though the previous Unisys hardware had achieved exceptional performance - no more than 24 hours downtime in five years - there was a need to set the bar even higher for the future in order to ensure both full regulatory compliance and better customer service standards.
The second need was for stronger fail-over facilities in a climate of opinion that is now better attuned to the possibilities of major disaster or terrorist attack. In particular, it was considered vital to have a back-up site in a physically remote location from the main data centre to improve resilience. Finally, the UNIX operating system that had driven core applications for so many years could no longer be supported. It either had to be completely upgraded with a new supplier or replaced with a new solution.
Solution: A Stronger, More Resilient IT Platform
Unisys, as the firm’s trusted, long-term partner, was asked at an early stage of discussions to look at the options for change and make recommendations for a new approach that would satisfy client needs. These included the requirement for continuity: meaning that even during installation and set-up there must be no break in normal service. The firm must be open for trading as usual on the Monday morning and each subsequent day. No disruption would be permitted.
The need for continuity, however, should not prevent a radical improvement in performance, with major efficiency gains being targeted, permitting transactions to be carried out much faster and at lower cost than ever before.
Unisys believed that the logical next step for Redmayne-Bentley would be to migrate their existing core application, known as MinWin, to a new IT platform using three ES7000/one servers running Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise 9 in place of UNIX. This new configuration was expected to deliver significant performance improvements, combined with operational cost savings over the long term. It would also provide greater security, with two servers onsite at client headquarters in Leeds and the third based at the other end of the country, in Kent, for potential disaster recovery fail-over.
Michael Wheeler comments: “We do not upgrade for the sake of it and we tend not to fix things that aren’t broken. Having said that, the key to long-term success as a stockbroker lies in controlling costs, and ensuring that we have the most reliable systems in place is a fundamental part of this”.
Results: Successful Implementation and No Disruption
Go-ahead for the project was given at the start of 2006, with a go-live target of Monday 23rd June. During this preparation period, the joint Unisys and client team worked closely to ensure successful transfer of the application, to identify any potential problems and to engineer these out of the system. By early summer, this process was complete following a trouble-free period of collaboration. Testing was complete and all key performance indicators were looking good. Once up and running on the new ES7000 servers, all members of the joint Unisys and client team had reason to be confident about prospects for fast and painless installation and launch of the new infrastructure.
Yet hitting the go-live target for a company that cannot afford any downtime at all will always be a challenge. The basic requirement for Redmayne-Bentley was that the new systems should be available at 07.30 on Monday morning (on the scheduled target date), and that the old system could not be taken offline until 17.00 on the previous Friday. There was one weekend available for the final stages of installation, testing and completion: for both Unisys and client staff, it was an intense period of work.
Monday morning came and thanks to the dedication of the team onsite, comprising both client and Unisys staff working closely together, the system was fully functional, operating normally and Redmayne-Bentley was duly open for business as planned.
Users are already noticing the benefits from a near 10-fold increase in processing power, especially in the performance of MinWin and the new utilities available. For example, overnight processing has reduced from 13 hours to around 1.5 hours with valuations being available at the start of business.
Michael Wheeler
Finance Partner
Redmayne-Bentley
Several months later, the installation continues to meet and even surpass the high expectations set.. "Users are already noticing the benefits from a near 10-fold increase in processing power, especially in the performance of MinWin and the new utilities available,” says Michael Wheeler. “For example, overnight processing has reduced from 13 hours to around 1.5 hours with valuations being available at the start of business. This time saving provides us with the opportunity to load more data into MinWin – the strategic enabler for future enhancements to provide more efficient reporting and operations”.
The new IT approach from Unisys has given Redmayne-Bentley a platform for managing its transactions more efficiently and for providing better management information, enhanced customer service and much greater security. Day-to-day costs have been reduced, management control strengthened and, critically, so has the firm’s ability to deal with the unexpected.
New regulations continue to be brought out; the market evolves and changes, while the need to secure operations against everything from technology failure to serious disaster becomes more acute. Though the market remains dynamic and unpredictable, Redmayne-Bentley is now more future-proofed than ever, thanks to the combination of an Open Source operating system and new Unisys technology platform.
The Relationship: Long-Term Collaboration
Redmayne-Bentley is a company built on trust. Over the past 25 years, it has grown to become one of the country’s leading regional stockbroking businesses, with a local presence in communities across large parts of the country. The company deals with clients who choose personal service, offered locally and delivered by people they know and have good reason to trust.
The quality of our relationship meant that we did not consider anyone else for the task of upgrading our systems. The close working relationship between our own in-house team and Unisys was crucial to the success of the project.
Michael Wheeler
Finance Partner
Redmayne-Bentley
Unisys has been the key technology partner to the firm since 1987, providing major elements of the infrastructure, most especially the servers running mission-critical applications. “This year our joint relationship starts its third decade of continuous development and the latest collaboration between us has involved a ground-breaking new project aimed at providing a step-change in performance for Redmayne- Bentley”, comments Richard West, Portfolio Sales Executive, Unisys.
The successful implementation of Open Source at Redmayne-Bentley demonstrates a trust-based relationship that is in robust health. As Michael Wheeler says: “The quality of our relationship meant that we did not consider anyone else for the task of upgrading our systems. The close working relationship between our own in-house team and Unisys was crucial to the success of the project”.
Profile: Redmayne-Bentley
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Industry: Financial Services
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Headquarters: Leeds, UK
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31 branches throughout the UK
