Finance House

UK-based alternative lending provider protects thousands of jobs and supports new businesses during the pandemic by moving its operations into Dropbox.

Challenge

End frequent power / internet outages and unreliable server connectivity, building an IT platform that could keep them working with minimal disruption.

Solution

A Dropbox-based cloud storage solution to protect the team from unforeseen disruptions and keep them working through the pandemic.

Impact

Moving to Dropbox helped the company to rise to the challenge of giving businesses access to financial support at a time when they most needed it. Thanks to better its better IT, they successfully protected 3,000 existing jobs and helped 900 start-ups.

About the Company

This Finance House Is a non-profit business finance provider that lends money to everyday businesses in need.  Many of these businesses struggle to access credit through mainstream funding, which makes the social impact of our work uniquely important.

As a COVID business interruptions loan provider, they have helped keep many small and medium -sized businesses going over the past year. Dropbox, together with the hands-on support of our IT service provider, Nemark, plays a key role role in enabling what they do.

Saved by the Cloud

As more businesses turned to the organisation for financial assistance, they also enjoyed a significant period of growth. Staff numbers have grown from just four employees to over 21 over the past decade.

With greater demands on their IT resources and frequent IT outages impacting upon the organisation, a better solution was needed.

“We receive IT support as part of our partnership with Nemark. Mark and the team did such a great job setting us up with the right technology that we’ve never needed to call on it.”

Paula Foreman

Operations Manager

Key Results

With Dropbox, the firm has been able to help businesses everywhere – and by March 2021, has successfully:

• Created over 1,900 jobs
• Safeguarded over 3,000 existing jobs
• Helped over 900 new business get started.

Dropbox has played a crucial role in enabling this both before and during the pandemic, that’s why Paula, the Operations Manager got in touch with Nemark In the first place.

A self-described IT novice, Paula needed experts who could understand the problems she faced, and who would help her find the right solution.  Nemark knew the Cloud was what they needed.  After assessing Dropbox against three key competitors, Dropbox won out on every metric: price, ease of use, security and scalability.  Before long, the organisation had abandoned its unreliable server and migrated to Dropbox, helping it stay secure online and future-proof the business.

A future-proof approach

The business needed a long-term, scalable solution that could keep the team working no matter what was going on in the outside world. Dropbox meant that, even when the pandemic hit, the team was able to simply pick up their laptops and work from home, so the help for the businesses in need could be delivered no matter what.

“Without Dropbox, we wouldn’t have been able to run our business and help struggling companies during the pandemic. Thanks to Nemark, we had that contingency plan in place well in advance.”

Paula Foreman

Operations Manager

Watertight auditing

As a Financial Services company, the organisation is very heavily audited, and have to abide by stringent compliance standards.  Dropbox not only enables compliance – it makes it much easier.  All sensitive information is stored in a simple filing structure, so the strict auditing and compliance requirements are more easily managed.

Powerful technology, simple design

For Paula, ease of use was key – she wanted a solution that her team could quickly get to grips with, and use effectively in the long term. Whether it’s sending contracts, storing files or integrating with other software, Dropbox’s user-friendly interface makes it easy.

A solution that lasts

When Paula first contacted Nemark, she wanted an end to power outages and poor connectivity.  What she got was a long-term partnership with a dedicated IT provider that understood her needs inside out And with Dropbox, she had a contingency plan that could ultimately keep the business going through a pandemic that few saw coming.

If you want to find out more about Dropbox or our managed IT services, give us a call on 01302 540280.