CASE STUDY: First Ireland

14.07.2010 As signs emerge of slight upturns in IT spending, Siliconrepublic takes soundings from industry figures about developments in communications and networking - and what role these...

Founded in 1981, First Ireland Risk Management is among Ireland’s largest indigenous insurance brokerages. Owned and operated by its senior partners, it employs 89 staff at offices in Parkgate Street, Dublin, and Leixlip, Co Kildare, serving business and individual customers.

Complete upgrade of the company’s phone

A complete upgrade of the company’s phone and data network, underlying IT infrastructure and data storage systems to enable better access and faster use of the company’s important line of business applications, as well as delivering all-round better service to customers and significant cost savings for the business.

Sheridan says that First Ireland’s telephony bill had fallen considerably as a result of now having a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephony system.“Having the VoIP system gives us options,” she says. “We recently put in a GSM gateway which has made a big difference to our phone bill already, as calls out to mobiles were the most expensive part of our bill. We are now exploring other VoIP options, for landline calls, as well, although bandwidth is an issue there.”

Huge difference

“The new network has made a huge difference,” says Sheridan. “We have seen great improvements in the day-to-day processing of documentation out to clients and it has just speeded the whole process up. We have a very good infrastructure in place now and we are very happy with our hardware. The priority now is to further reduce our telecommunications costs and telephone bills. We are looking at getting more bandwidth at a more affordable cost. We do not have a great DSL service over the existing lines so we are trialling a wireless solution. We are always looking for something better.”