Texaport helps financial experts capitalise on new Edinburgh location

The challenge

In advance of this expansion, Forth Capital approached Texaport, looking to find a trusted partner to provide IT and equipment procurement support for the new premises in Scotland’s capital city, one of Europe’s leading financial services centres. An important factor in choosing Texaport was that it held ISO 27001 accreditation, a critical requirement given the nature Forth Capital’s business where high levels of confidential financial data are held within its systems.

One of the challenging aspects of the move was that it was done in two phases. Forth Capital initially took on a temporary lease at an office in Edinburgh’s George Street while seeking permanent premises. Forth Capital’s fast growth also created a need for a change in how their IT structure was managed. Previous IT support was provided by knowledgeable users but at risk of being lost in the event of those employees leaving the company.

Texaport was brought on board to overcome these hurdles, with the initial focus on getting the client functioning within the temporary premises. An IT network was set up and Texaport also supplied the entire office infrastructure – these included laptops, docks, monitors, and printers. A video conferencing room was also kitted out enabling Forth Capital to access remote meetings, allowing seamless communication with colleagues and clients across the world.

The solution

Digital transformation

Texaport then implemented a management and security policy, helping ensure Forth Capital had robust and easily transferable procedures in place that could be shared with any colleagues joining the company in future.

After opening and successfully operating from its temporary Edinburgh office for four months, Forth Capital secured the purchase of its own premises at Nova House, located on Ponton Street within Edinburgh’s Exchange District, one of the city’s prime business locations.

Texaport were on hand again to design and install data power distribution as well as cabling infrastructure. This included the supply of redundant internet connections, Wi-Fi, a network rack, switching and patch panels. Two video conferencing facilities were also put in place.

The speed of the installation was particularly remarkable, with Forth Capital’s entire office infrastructure and IT equipment put into place and functioning over the course of a lunch break. When colleagues from the company finished their lunch on that day, they headed to their new office, sat down at their new desks and seamlessly continued with their work.

Texaport helped make the move into our Edinburgh premises a seamless operation despite the challenges of having to transition between two locations in a short space of time. This approach ensured that our IT systems ran smoothly throughout while business disruption was kept to an absolute minimum.

Cyber security

Texaport also assisted its client through the process of obtaining Cyber Essentials, a Government-backed accreditation initiative designed to provide base level security controls for businesses of all sizes.

Following on from the IT and infrastructure support provided to facilitate Forth Capital’s successful move into Edinburgh, Texaport has built a close relationship with this client and is now managing a range of key services on its behalf. This includes providing IT support for Forth Capital’s global operations with Texaport expanding its own working hours to accommodate its client’s operating schedule in multiple international time zones.

All of Forth Capital’s computers are patch managed, monitored and maintained by Texaport to ensure they are all running smoothly, and kept free of viruses through the implementation of cloud-managed antivirus solutions which adhere to Cyber Essentials accreditation. Texaport also handles all Microsoft 365 licensing agreements to ensure Forth Capital’s software requirements are all up to date.

The results

As well as managing hosting services for Forth Capital, Texaport has also developed its website ensuring it is fully integrated with its clients’ CRM systems to support business development and lead generation from its Edinburgh office. Further support was also provided through the creation of a business continuity and disaster recovery policy.

Texaport has also centralised Forth Capital’s business data from multiple sources into SharePoint to further improve security, as well as auditing and management functions.