How financial services

companies can cut costs & meet

compliance using the cloud

How financial services companies can cut costs &

meet compliance using the cloud

Compliance and regulatory issues facing the financial services sector continue to grow relentlessly. The FCA,

MIFID, PCI DSS and the EU Data Directive are very clear about the requirement for cutting-edge call archiving for

all customer facing staff, and secure, compliant credit card payment solutions. To date, firms have met these needs

through heavy investment in disjointed, outdated technologies that eat up significant capital on a continuing basis.

However, cloud based technology now means there is a more secure, seamless and cost effective way to tackle these

issues.

In this e-guide, you’ll learn how financial services company, IFG Group Plc, accessed all telecommunications

requirements including business and contact centre telephony, FCA & MIFID compliant call archiving, call encryption

and PCI DSS compliant credit card collection through a single, integrated cloud platform and discover the outstanding

business and financial gains they achieved.

By removing a complicated, disjointed telephony infrastructure and replacing it with a

single, integrated cloud solution, we were able to automatically meet all our Central Bank,

FCA and PCI DSS compliance and remove at least 30% of our previous communication

costs. We found no other vendor that was capable of delivering such a solution.

Gary Owens, CEO, IFG Group Plc

The SEC have strict requirements around data security and the ability to archive

and retrieve calls instantly. We had concerns that as well as having to invest in new

telephony systems per office, we would also require separate in-house state of the art call

compliance archiving systems.

Rich Corbett, General Partner, Palm Street Capital LLC

A diverse financial services company with multiple

communication and compliance requirements

IFG Group is a financial services company with 1,000 employees headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The IFG Group has

major operations in the UK and Ireland with full market listings in both London and Dublin. The company offers a range

of financial solutions, including pensions administration and independent financial advice, across four key businesses;

IFG Corporate Pensions, IFG Private Clients, IFG Trustee Service and IFG Self-Administered Pensions.

IFG needs

To meet rigorous compliance and security requirements:There was a growing need to seamlessly meet key Central Bank, FCA, MIFID and PCI DSS compliance

requirements. With MIFID regulations requiring the recording of all calls, meeting compliance was continuing

to become even more complex and expensive. Security requirements also meant the ability to encrypt calls

was a crucial need going forward.

To simplify business communications and drive down costs:IFG sought to resolve the headache of managing up to 13 different complex, costly disjointed on-premise

telephony and call archiving solutions across all offices. The company previously used multiple external

providers and internal staff to support the different PBX, contact centre, call archiving systems and software

solutions as well as different carriers per country.

To allow the integration of telecommunications with core I.T. systems: IFG wished to have the ability to integrate telecommunications with their core I.T. systems if ever required,

especially their CRM system and data analytics tool, in order to avail of end-to-end intelligence and control.

To address telephony single point of failure: IFG urgently needed to address multiple single points of failure around the telephony disaster recovery

strategy. Despite all the investment and support contracts in place, the company recognised that they were

exposed to systems failures leading to their offices having to face frequent downtime.

Case Study - IFG

Seamlessly addressing industry security & compliance regulations.

IFG are now seamlessly meeting all Central Bank, FCA, MIFID & PCI DSS compliance requirements

automatically & efficiently around their telephony system. The Solgari cloud platform offers a highly

sophisticated and secure call recording solution.

IFG automatically meets all regulatory requirements around call archiving, fully integrated with the Cloud

PBX and Contact Centre telephony solution. Solgari offers fast search capability for audit purposes: date,

time, customer, agent and transaction. Resolves dispute resolution by replaying any part of any call; as

far back as IFG need.

Military grade security - bullet proof protection from hacking exceeds compliance requirements. Voice traffic

is completely encrypted using TLS (Transport Layer Security) and SRTP (Secure Real-Time Transport

Protocol) to ensure the highest level of security. All archived calls are also encrypted.

The outcome

From both a data security and call recording point of view, the Central Bank and other

governing structures put a huge emphasis on quality. Solgari ticks all boxes for all IFG

regulation and security requirements as all our compliance requirements are met

automatically.

Gary Owens, CEO, IFG Group Plc

One integrated, intelligent, cloud based telephony solution to deliver on all IFG’s needs.

IFG implemented the Solgari cloud platform, enabling them to access all telecommunication services, compliance and

security requirements on a single vendor platform. From multiple providers and support contracts, IFG moved to an

outsourced cloud solution that met all requirements and adopted an internal ‘IT lite’ approach.

The solution

Removed requirement for separate telephony disaster recovery site.

Ensure business continuity by diverting calls to different locations or devices with no loss of functionality in

the event of an office being shut down for whatever reason. With the telephony platform now in the cloud,

IFG is always live and the service can be delivered to any device in any location as long as there is an

internet connection.

Users have their extensions enabled on smart phones, laptops and even in some cases home offices with

IP Phones. With the Solgari cloud platform, the same extension is available everywhere, removing the

reliance on a phone on a desk in a particular office.

Zero capital costs, lower operational costs and lower calls costs. Overall telecoms costs down 30%.

IFG cut out investment in 13 different complex, costly disjointed on

premise telephony solutions across all offices. There is no requirement

for separate PBX, contact centre and different carriers per country.

Instead, all Cloud PBX, Contact Centre, Call Routing, Call Archiving,

PCI DSS IVR and telco requirements are delivered via one integrated

solution.

No further CAPEX, maintenance or support costs around

communications. The Solgari cloud platform is a fully managed and

supported solution.

There are far lower office call costs and even reduced mobile call

charges. One single communications platform now provides all calls,

on all devices across all locations at platinum wholesale call rates.

Potential to seamlessly integrate core I.T. systems telecommunications

IFG now have the potential to integrate their telecommunications with database systems in the future when

the need arises. The agile Solgari cloud based platform enables integration with every IT system that

has a published API. The platform is easily integrated with several CRM vendors such as Salesforce,

Microsoft Dynamics and Bullhorn and a wide array of data analytics vendors including Qlikview.

Moving your telecommunications services to the cloud is a simple,

fast, smooth implementation

Switching to Solgari’s Integrated Cloud Communications Platform is a remarkably smooth transition. No need for

expensive on-site engineers. ‘Ready to go’, pre-configured IP phones can be shipped to your users, wherever they are

located. Once the phones are plugged into your LAN, they are ready to go. You could alternatively choose to use a

“softphone” option - the choice is yours, cloud communications platforms are built to be flexible.

There is no downtime and only very minimal input required by your team. Planned over a few weeks and

implemented in a few days, moving to the cloud could not be any easier.

To learn more, call +44 808 238 9584

or visit solgari.com

Solgari has developed the technology, network and partnerships to deliver the world’s

first complete enterprise cloud telecommunications solution.

Solgari’s incredibly innovative solution and approach delivered on every single key

requirement we put to them. We now have all the functionality we need at a lower cost.

The installation of the cloud platform for us was seamless. All we had to do was work with

the highly competent Solgari team.

Gary Owens, CEO, IFG Group Plc

Ready to switch?