Working simultaneously on large documents is daily business for the financial advisors at Finance Ideas. This demands a flexible work environment, substantial computing power and optimum connectivity. Finance Ideas transitioned from a physical server to the cloud and Office 365. Not everything went smoothly during this transition, but: “Aster never gave up.”
Several years after Finance Ideas moved from Maliebaan to its current premises on Weg der Verenigde Naties, the organisation faced a critical decision. The physical server in the basement had reached the end of its economic life. “Such a moment forces you to weigh up your options,” recalls office manager Femke Vogt. “Do you replace the server, or do you move to the cloud?”
Complex models
For Finance Ideas, scalability and flexibility have become increasingly important in recent years. Founded in 2004, Finance Ideas provides real estate-related financial advice to housing associations, healthcare institutions and institutional investors, among other things. Their services include calculating plans (mergers, acquisitions), valuing property, preparing forecasts and advising on laws and regulations.
“As financial advisors, we work with complex models,” Femke explains. “This requires a lot of computing power. Moreover, as colleagues, we often work together. We quickly come together to work on the same file. The IT environment needs be set up to support this.”
Expertise
As a result, the company decided to transition to the cloud. Finance Ideas requested several quotes, ultimately choosing Aster. “From the outset, we felt we were dealing with a professional team,” says Femke. “Aster was also very clear about the options; they demonstrated real expertise.”
With Aster as the new IT partner, the physical server was dismantled and all the documents transferred to the cloud. To enhance collaboration among colleagues, Office 365 and SharePoint were implemented simultaneously. However, despite the smooth migration, the initial performance did not meet expectations.
Trust
“Aster worked very hard to identify the problems,” says Femke. “Perhaps they underestimated the sheer volume of documents we had accumulated over the years. At that point, you might say, ‘It’s done, let’s move on with another provider.’ But we always had confidence that Aster would find a good solution.”
After several unsuccessful attempts to resolve the performance issues, Aster and Finance Ideas decided to take a different approach: the thin clients used by the Utrecht-based company were replaced with laptops. This allowed employees to utilise more of their device’s local capacity and work more flexibly.
Never give up
In hindsight, both sides acknowledge that different choices might have been made. Nevertheless, Finance Ideas is pleased with the partnership. “Aster never gave up. Despite the challenges, they remained persistent in finding a solution and were very considerate of our needs.”
Femke also praises Aster’s ticketing system (“it works really well”), their accessibility and the knowledge and experience they bring. “We see Aster as our advisor. The other day, I was discussing security with a colleague and thought: I have Aster for that. I am confident they are professional and can address any issues in that area effectively.”
A new car
Now that all the wrinkles have been ironed out, the migration has been positively received in the workplace. Femke: “Everything has got faster. We have more capacity and greater flexibility. We now work much more frequently on-site at clients’ locations because we can access files from anywhere, on any device, and collaborate on them seamlessly.”
Finance Ideas has made significant strides in optimising its business processes. “The journey was bumpy, but I’m glad we took this path,” Femke concludes. “We’re driving a new car now, and it runs much better than an old banger.”