Close Invoice Counts on Opal for national expansion

Background

Close Invoice Finance is part of the Close Brothers Group, one of the City’s most enterprising and respected merchant banks and a FTSE top 250 listed company.

The company has an innovative approach to product development and prides itself on being able to offer bespoke cashflow solutions to meet individual client needs rather than simply supplying off the shelf packages.

Challenge

Serving clients across the UK, Close Invoice Finance wanted to grow the business and had plans for national expansion. The company was to open a new site in Belfast, as a result, an upgrade of its systems was required.

Critically, the timescale for getting the Belfast site up and running was very tight – only 3 months was allocated for the project.

“We wanted to improve the work/life balance for our employees, however, the remote access we had in place to enable them to work from outside of the office, was proving too slow and unreliable for our staff. It wasn’t practical at all,” commented James Hamilton, Close Invoice’s network manager.

“Opal was our technology partner of choice, it was natural for us to seek advice from them,” explained James.

To facilitate its expansion plans, provide connectivity between all sites and to enable efficient remote working for its staff, Close Invoice required an advanced network solution.

Solution

Following in-depth consultation, Opal recommended Close Invoice Finance implement a VPN and 10Mbps Ethernet circuits to offer complete inter-site connectivity, increased network speeds and enable secure remote access.

“Our new network now runs 20 times faster than before so you can imagine the benefits that brings in terms of efficiency and reliability,” said James. “The Opal solution has also simplified remote access no end. Having a system which enables staff to do their jobs and look after our clients even when they are away from the office is invaluable,” he added.

The new Belfast site was indeed brought online within the allotted 3-month time frame and was up and running without any hitches in April 2007.

“We were very impressed by the speed and ease at which Opal implemented the new, all encompassing system. With the connectivity we have now we are perfectly placed to grow the business even further and add new sites as and when necessary,” said James.

Close Invoice Finance is benefiting from Opal’s expert staff. “With Opal we’re not just a number. It provides a personal service and Opal’s people are always on hand if we need anything at all,” said James. “Since being a customer Close Invoice has received excellent account management and technical support – we wouldn’t switch to another provider”.

ndeed, Close Invoice has ongoing expansion plans with further sites in the pipeline. ”We have complete confidence and trust in Opal and so naturally as new sites come onboard, we will extend our scalable solution,” added James. “Opal has the expertise to understand where you are as a company and where you need to get and does everything it can to help you to get there.”