Private equity firm spinoff successfully deployed a robust IT system with zero downtime
Who
A highly successful private equity firm with in excess of $4 billion under management.
We met the firm during the banking crisis of 2007. It had recently been decided that the firm would separate from their parent company and become an entirely independent business.
Background
The
Engagement
We were asked to extract the firm’s data from their parent company’s environment — and port them to new systems of their own (which we were to design and implement). The new independent systems would have to offer a similar level of sophistication to those used in their parent company’s environment.
Extracting a business unit from a major corporation is no small feat under any circumstances. However, the firm’s management placed an additional requirement: there was to be absolutely no downtime. Twenty-four to 36 hours of downtime over a weekend is considered normal for this type of operation. The firm wanted zero.
The Challenge
The Scope
Extracting the firm’s data from their previous environment was a massive job that required careful planning and coordination — as well as working with dozens of people within various departments of the parent company including IT, compliance, real estate and risk management.
Additionally, the job required us to establish entirely new technology systems for them, including email, file management, business continuity and voice communication. We also had to port all existing data to those new systems so that the transition would be seamless to the end user.
By all standards, the project was a success. It was completed on time, with no downtime and no loss of data. DMS now manages the firm’s technology systems on an ongoing basis.
The Results