Stability, Scalability, and Forward-Facing Intelligence:

Freedom Group’s New Azure-based Future
with Synextra

Stability, Scalability, Forward-Facing Intelligence

Users in Multiple Locations

With a head office based near Manchester.

Policy Holders

Making security and efficiency super important.

People Using Stable Systems

All at once.

About Freedom Services Group Ltd

Company: Providing first-class motor insurance and claims accident management services for policyholders, insurers, brokers and hire companies.

Headquarters: Cheadle, Cheshire, England

Industry: Insurance: Broker, MGA, Claims Administrator

Key Solutions:

Azure Migration

Managed Azure Services

Azure Virtual Desktop

With a history going back to 1999, they have a wealth of experience in the UK insurance market. The group contains three brands:

Pukka Services provide products for household name insurance companies across the UK.
Freedom Brokers distribute car and van insurance to customers direct via the website and via price comparison websites.
Action 365 handles all aspects of a motor insurance claim, from the first notification to the final settlement.

This game-changing set of brands relies on complex technology to serve a large customer base. Their IT was set up reasonably well, but their full potential wasn’t unleashed until moving to Azure with Synextra.

We talked to Matt Boswell, Executive Director of Technology at Freedom Services Group, about why they moved to Azure, how it went, and how transformative the results have been.

Objectives

Freedom Services Group stores and processes a massive amount of data.

Serving a vast number of quotes per day via aggregator partners, and servicing claims for over 40,000 policy holders, means that security and efficiency is super important.

FSG’s IT and business strategies are closely related, both contributing to growth and expansion. They had legacy systems that grew alongside the business, but this infrastructure soon became inefficient. And so, FSG thought they could make their systems stronger, more robust, faster, and easier to use.

Why did you choose to migrate to an Azure solution?

“First of all, we noticed that our infrastructure was in need of modernisation. And we were using a previous platform that was kind of creaking at the seams a little. After the pandemic, when everyone went to work from home, we noticed that the platform really wasn’t suitable. Whereas the Azure platform would be perfect. And in that case, Synextra’s guidance and support and experience was really useful.” – Matt Boswell

Freedom Services Group worked with Synextra to identify the best infrastructure for their circumstances. How could they build foundations for future developments in technology? How could their IT strategy ensure they’re able to provide great service to customers and employees while growing the business?
These questions were tackled as work began with Synextra and plans crystallised for a move to Azure.

After their successful Azure migration with Synextra, Freedom Services Group gained three major benefits: stability, scalability, and forward-facing intelligence. They now have a reliable, secure infrastructure to support their growing business with the latest data analytics capabilities. Their systems are now really stable, typically with 100+ people using it at once.

The group has seen a noticeable improvement in Trustpilot customer feedback scores, too, and there’s also been a reduction in service tickets.

Security and compliance

“For our customers and for our business partners, they’re expecting us to really protect their personal data.”

As you might expect, the group has to take data security seriously. They have responsibilities towards various compliance laws and expectations from their business partners. They’re regulated by the FCA and need to comply with GDPR and the Data Protection Act, for example, and need systems to support that.

Freedom Services Group now has the capability to audit software, audit user access, and automate patching, with real time analytics of how the system is being used – so keeping these obligations is much simpler.

Synextra, meanwhile, keeps a watchful eye over things. 24/7 monitoring of system usage means we can check for any weaknesses or gaps, and then make recommendations to the team. They’ve found that security incidents are now dealt with much easier with the help of industry-leading tools.

“We have communications with customers in many different formats. From a user perspective, there are a lot fewer tickets involved with day-to-day IT or connectivity issues, and we have a lot less downtime. When we get security alerts, we’ve noticed that Synextra are all over it and respond very, very quickly and eliminate any threats. So I sleep more safely at night.”

Scalability and flexibility

Azure’s scalability gives FSG a great opportunity for growth and expansion. They’re able to recruit talented staff from all over the world, with the Azure platform allowing staff to work safely in remote locations via AVD (Azure Virtual Desktop). They’re also able to monitor usage and make sure that it’s secure.

Synextra were able to support this scalability and growth within Azure; for example, when winning some new business that required a significant increase in staff numbers. One of the key reasons for the win is their ability to increase staffing quickly in different areas across the world – something not previously possible without downtime. Before Azure, they might have needed to expand their UK office space, or buy more computers or new servers – but no more.

In the highly competitive insurance world, factors like these can be a real differentiator.

Data intelligence and future-proofing

The move to Azure has made for even better data intelligence and analytics within the business. With new abilities to gain insights and make decisions, Azure is opening up a new world of possibilities for Freedom Services Group.

Where’s insurance going in the years to come? Well, Matt thinks it’s going to be even more heavily led by the use of digital customer journeys, the management and analysis of data, and data science.

AI is going to become even more prevalent, too; the use of it in conversational AI, text, voice recognition and responses. But one of the real strengths for Freedom Services Group is going to be their ability to implement AI solutions to examine the use of data and combine all of these things together.

Why Synextra?

“We’ve worked with Synextra for a long time and we’re really happy with them – very responsive, very supportive, will give really good suggestions that make perfect sense. They’re really good and we see them as a key strategic partner for the future.” – Matt Boswell, ED Technology at Freedom Services Group

Freedom Services Group, like many of the game changers we work with, are firmly looking toward the future. They’re expecting some significant growth in the next few years, and are working with Synextra to roadmap a future IT strategy to support that.

“Synextra are able to use their expertise and their experience to quickly resolve problems, really understand our business, and it really allows us to then concentrate on what we’re doing. That’s extremely helpful.”

Find out how Synextra can elevate your business to the next level of cloud productivity – contact us today.

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