InTechnology, the outsourced managed data services provider, has launched a joint initiative with CODA, the finance systems specialist, to offer its clients access to InTechnology's full suite of data management, network and business continuity services.
The partnership with CODA, an established customer of InTechnology's VBAK automated data backup and protection service itself, represents the extension of a long-standing relationship and a significant new channel to market for InTechnology. The managed service offering will assure CODA clients of the integrity and security of their financial data, minimising business risk, as well as making software implementation and deployment cheaper and easier.
The first customer, Creation Finance, has already upgraded to the latest version of CODA-Financials and chose to host the system in InTechnology's data centre.
"We decided on a migration strategy from AS400 to proprietary hardware and have experienced first hand the benefits that can be gained from using a centrally managed service centre," said John Evenden, Financial Control Manager, Creation Finance. "The close partnership between CODA and InTechnology as well as the quality data centre on offer provide us with best of class software and peace of mind that we have the best possible service. It also provides us with a future-proof technology strategy which is central to the smooth running of the finance department and the business as a whole."
CODA provides the most complete suite of products and services to meet the needs of finance departments – from best-of-class financial accounting and procurement systems, through planning, budgeting, consolidation, reporting and analytics, to process control and compliance management. It has experienced increasing demand from its broad client-base for additional hosting and back-up services for these systems and data, particularly from the public sector.
Gary Bones, Sales Director of CODA (UK), explains: "We want to be able to offer our clients a complete service. The challenge for finance directors and business accountants to comply with new regulations and meet increased business continuity standards is well documented. This is perhaps especially true of the government sector.
In the past, we have directed enquiries about data warehousing and business continuity to the hardware providers but we quickly recognised the opportunity to gain a significant competitive edge by offering a complete managed service. We have experienced first hand the quality and security of the InTechnology Data Centre, so we can be completely confident in recommending the service to our own customers."
"The context to which this partnership initiative is best suited is in the protection of business critical information, from the VBAK automated data backup service and email archiving capability to security applications and consulting. We expect data hosting as well as managed network services will play a role too."
Andrew Stuart, Managed Services Sales Director at InTechnology continues: "We have been working with CODA for quite some time and are delighted to formally announce this partnership. The initiative makes sense on all fronts: clearly it provides a new route to market for a number of our services, whilst CODA itself is set to benefit greatly from the ability to offer its customers a more complete service. Further still, the end user will undoubtedly revel in the time, cost and efficiency advantages that such a situation brings."