Success Stories Archives

4 Ways Your Business can Innovate With Google Cloud

As technology continues to rapidly advance, businesses are increasingly looking for innovative ways to improve their operations, gain a competitive edge, and meet the ever-changing needs of their customers. One such way to achieve these goals is by leveraging the power of cloud computing. With its scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, cloud computing has become an essential tool for businesses of all sizes.

Google Cloud is a leading provider of cloud computing services, offering a wide range of tools and services to help businesses innovate and succeed. From artificial intelligence and machine learning to collaboration and security, Google Cloud has something to offer every business.

In this article, we will explore 4 ways your business can innovate with Google Cloud. We will look at real-life examples from Descasio’s clients, Future View and Coscharis, to understand how they leveraged Google Cloud to achieve their business goals. By the end of this article, you will have a better understanding of how Google Cloud can help your business innovate and stay ahead of the competition.

Embrace Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have the potential to transform businesses and industries in ways that were previously unimaginable. These technologies can help automate processes, improve customer service, and gain insights that can drive innovation. Google Cloud offers a range of tools to help businesses leverage AI and ML, including AutoML, TensorFlow, and Cloud Machine Learning Engine.

By using Google Cloud’s AI and ML tools, businesses can develop custom machine learning models to automate processes and improve efficiency.

Moreover, Google Cloud’s AI and ML capabilities can also help businesses improve customer service. With features such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), businesses can develop conversational interfaces to interact with customers more efficiently. This can include chatbots, voice assistants, and other conversational interfaces that can help customers get the support they need, faster and more accurately.

Streamline Operations with Cloud Migration

Migrating to the cloud can help businesses reduce costs, improve scalability, and streamline operations. Google Cloud’s migration tools can make this process easier by automating many of the steps involved in moving applications and data to the cloud. Some of the tools offered by Google Cloud for migration include Cloud Endure, Velostrata, and Migrate for Compute Engine.

For example, Future View, Nigeria’s leading investment firm with the help of Descasio, a leading technology partner in Africa, migrated its SAP workloads to Google Cloud to improve its agility and reduce costs. By doing this, they could improve their performance and reduce their IT costs by 30%. This is collaborated by the company’s Head IT, Jude Okafor, “Partnering with Descasio on Migration to the Google Cloud Platform remains one of the best business decisions we’ve made in a long time.”

According to Femi Olugbesan, CIO of Descasio who affirms the strength of GCP, “Using Google Cloud, businesses can leverage powerful tools to innovate and grow. At Descasio, we’ve seen firsthand how our clients have benefited from integrating our platform with Google Cloud. By moving their operations to the cloud, they’ve gained access to a wide range of cutting-edge technologies that have allowed them to streamline their processes, improve efficiency, and drive growth.”

In addition to reducing costs, cloud migration can also improve agility and scalability. With cloud infrastructure, businesses can easily scale their resources up or down as needed, without the need for significant upfront investments. This makes it easier for businesses to respond to changing market conditions, improve their time to market, and stay ahead of the competition.

Improve Collaboration with G Suite

Collaboration is essential for innovation, and Google’s G Suite makes it easy for teams to work together regardless of location. With tools like Google Drive, Docs, and Sheets, teams can collaborate on documents in real-time, making it easy to share ideas and work together on projects.

By using G Suite, businesses can break down silos between teams and improve communication, which can help drive innovation. Coscharis has embraced G Suite to improve collaboration across their teams. By using G Suite, they are now able to collaborate seamlessly across their global team, and the ability to work on documents in real-time has allowed them to innovate faster.

According to the Group Head ICT of Coscharis, Nigeria’s leading automobile company “G Suite has transformed the way we work, allowing us to collaborate more effectively and get more done in less time.”

G Suite can also help businesses improve productivity. “G Suite is a powerful set of collaboration tools that enable teams to work together seamlessly, no matter where they are located. With tools like Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, teams can collaborate on documents in real-time, share files easily, and communicate effectively. This helps businesses increase productivity and streamline their workflows. Additionally, G Suite integrates with other Google Cloud services, such as Google Meet, to provide a comprehensive collaboration platform for businesses of all sizes.” – Gbemisola Ajayi, Chief Strategy Officer of Descasio

By using tools like Google Calendar, Gmail, and Google Meet, teams can schedule meetings, manage email, and communicate more efficiently. This can help businesses reduce wasted time and improve their overall efficiency.

Enhance Security with Google Cloud

Security is a critical concern for businesses, and Google Cloud offers a range of security tools to help protect data and applications. With features like identity management, data encryption, and threat detection, businesses can enhance their security posture and protect against cyber threats.

Google Cloud’s security features also help businesses comply with regulations and standards. By using tools like Cloud Audit Logs and Data Loss Prevention, businesses can ensure that they are meeting the requirements of various regulatory frameworks, such as HIPAA and PCI DSS. Additionally, Google Cloud undergoes rigorous third-party audits and certifications to demonstrate its commitment to security and compliance.

This helps businesses gain confidence in the security of their data and applications when using Google Cloud.

Conclusion

Google Cloud offers a range of innovative tools and services to help businesses drive innovation, reduce costs, and improve their operations. From AI and machine learning to cloud migration, collaboration, and security, there are many ways businesses can leverage Google Cloud to gain a competitive edge.

As we have seen from the examples of Future View and Coscharis, businesses can achieve significant benefits by using Google Cloud. By embracing AI and machine learning, businesses can automate processes, improve efficiency, and gain valuable insights. By migrating to the cloud, businesses can reduce costs, improve scalability, and streamline their operations. With G Suite, businesses can enhance collaboration and productivity, and with Google Cloud’s security features, they can protect their data and comply with regulations.

As technology continues to evolve, businesses must stay up to date with the latest tools and trends to remain competitive. By leveraging the power of Google Cloud, businesses can drive innovation, improve their operations, and ultimately achieve success.

6 Min. Read/March 29, 2023/by Team Descasio

Success Stories

Descasio helps Top Telecomunitcation Company Biswal Limited Improve Collaboration and Productivity During the Pandemic

Biswal Limited is a subsidiary of the R28 group holdings. The company builds, deploys and maintains infrastructures that enable leading telecommunication companies in Nigeria to provide quality service to their end users.

In today’s technology driven world, telecommunication companies play a major role in ensuring that activities in the digiverse continue to run smoothly and people can attain the level of connections that they desire with their families, friends, associates, clients and the rest of the digital community. This highly significant role places a huge responsibility on telcos to maintain quality service provision and stay consistent on the path of innovation.

For over a decade, Biswal Limited has provided the technical support that has enabled telcos to achieve this goal. The company empowers its clients to compete favourably within the telecommunication industry and provide the services that go on to shape the experience of businesses and people within the scope of their far-reaching tentacles.

For a technical service provider like Biswal, maintaining effective communication and collaboration internally is a high priority. Team members need to be in sync at all times to help them attain a height of innovation collectively. This led the company to Descasio’s doorstep.

Average is never good enough for our clients

According to Osas Agbonlahor, IT Manager Biswal Limited, “ Employees throughput and output rate at the time was on an average scale. Teams were only able to achieve half their potential in terms of productivity due to existing issues with our traditional mailing system and the absence of a collaboration tool at the time.”

“This was a major concern for us at the time, especially because we were onboarding more telcos at the time. Hence, there was a pressing need for us to expand our efficiency as a team as well as our productivity bandwidth”, he added.

Descasio takes us from average to high-performing

“After doing some research, we heard of Descasio’s competence in delivering collaboration services that truly work to bring team members together round the clock and so we reached out to them.”

“We were met with a high level of technical expertise and dynamic talents who provided a very clear roadmap for helping attain the position we had envisioned. They were very detailed in explaining what each layer of process will entail and this made it much easier to work with them, trust in their expertise and appreciate the value that they were bringing to the table”.

The Descasio team deployed an effective collaboration solution in the cloud, enabling our employees to access all of its features from different locations. The implemented solution helped to improve collaboration, effective task delegation and monitoring.

The results of these changes was an improved user experience for all employees, increased capacity for innovation, and an upshoot in team productivity.

Walking us through the transition

Moving from our traditional mailing system required a cultural change within the organization and this was not an entirely easy process, understanding that it takes time to build or change culture. However, the Descasio team was instrumental in ensuring that we had a smooth sail into the new module.

They provided step by step guides to heads of relevant departments to equip them to lead their subordinates into this new phase. They also organized and still organize several workshops for all our employees to help us see new values that can be derived from the solutions that they deployed for us, even as these solutions continue to experience upgrades.

Facing the gloomy pandemic situation

The pandemic was clearly a shocker for every business and every individual. We were not in any way exempted from this reality. Our employees had to work from home and we had to get used to being productive without being under any ocular supervision.

However, we would like to think that we were more prepared for the event, culturally, compared to some of our competitors. This was as a result of the transition that we had already made since Descasio’s intervention. with Descasio and the help that they provided to ensure that we mastered the dynamics of the solutions deployed.

Coming through on her promises

Descasio’s brand promise is to transform businesses through technology and for Biswal Limited, this is not just a statement but an experience.

Descasio helps businesses undergo a seamless, positive repositioning journey. With a vast array of solutions needed for effective, efficient, and excellent business processes, Descasio consistently provides tailored solutions focused on delivering sustainable and profitable outcomes to every unique business.

4 Min. Read/December 16, 2021/by Team Descasio

Featured Success Story, Success Stories

How Wakanow Partnered with Descasio to Cut Down Cost By 45% in 18 Months using Azure.

Wakanow is a leading online travel agency founded in 2008, with locations scattered across Nigeria and an office also in Ghana. Their services include Hotel, Rides, Travel Sim and WakaCargo.

With a YoY consistent growth rate (except for last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Wakanow has remained the top online travel agency in Nigeria. This steady and continuous growth has created a need for an affordable, secure and scalable cloud solution for real time data storage of the company’s files and applications for easy access. Descasio in collaboration with Microsoft has been able to offer this service to Wakanow for the past 18 months.

The Cost of being on the Cloud

Prior to adopting Microsoft Azure provided by Descasio, Wakanow operated a hybrid technology, partly moving to the cloud in late 2015. But 5 years down the line, the company couldn’t handle the cost.

“The cloud was and is a great option until we realized the cost was eating away our pockets. We were on an Enterprise Account subscription however, due to limited knowledge at the time it wasn’t a suitable plan for the organization.”
Amechi Ayegbusi, Head IT Infrastructure, Wakanow

This caused a great strain on the company’s revenue and its overall operational process.

Our Primary Aim is to Optimise Cost

In 2020, Wakanow partnered with Descasio as its Cloud Solution Provider as a cost saving measure.

“Since our primary aim was to optimize cost in the cloud and not to move away from it, we reached out to Descasio. They helped us to move to a more sustainable plan.”

This has greatly reduced the cost of cloud services and enhanced the efficiency of the online travel company.

“After we signed with Descasio, We had one on one sessions where we had a breakdown of each resource and their cost implications. Thanks to this in-depth analysis we were able to cut down costs by 45%.”

Some of the cloud solutions Descasio offer include Cloud Database Management, Cloud Compute, Cloud Foundry (a software that lightens the operations team’s workload by freeing up resources and minimising human error), Application Modernisation and Azure Stack.

These cloud offerings have made Descasio the number one go to Cloud Solution Provider.

Bar Set High

For Wakanow, Descasio has set the bar high as a Cloud Solutions Provider

“Working with Descasio has been magnificent, the service has been nothing but pleasant. Right from day one, migrating our resources, the relationship felt natural and harmonious. Descasio has set the bar high.”

3 Min. Read/June 29, 2021/by Team Descasio

Success Stories

Descasio Helps Fidelity Bank Secure The Future with Azure

At Descasio, we believe that companies shouldn’t have to pay millions of naira to be able to keep up with technology that will help keep them in business. That is why, we offer a number of solutions that are compatible across several industries at competitive prices.

Recognized by top industry analysts and professionals, Descasio’s robust set of products and services are well-suited to improve operational efficiency in any business.

Fidelity Bank makes a change
Fidelity Bank is a full-fledged commercial bank operating in Nigeria, with over 5 million customers who are serviced across its 250 business offices and various other digital banking channels. Focused on select niche corporate banking sectors as well as Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Fidelity Bank is rapidly implementing a digital based retail banking strategy which has resulted in exponential growth in savings deposits over the last Six (6) years, with over 40 percent customer enrollment on the Bank’s flagship mobile/internet banking products.

Challenge
The banking industry is one of the most vibrant, fast-growing sectors in today’s economy. With a burgeoning client list of individuals and businesses, the increased demand for banking services created a surge of new market players. To keep pace with the industry and remain competitive, the team at Fidelity knew they had to act quickly in a continuously changing market.

‘’We realized we faced several key problems, that would hamper the way we did business’’ Michael Ogunlade, team lead, system administration technology. “ Chief among the problems we faced was the fact that we were still processing our work manually. Which meant we operated a basic lift and shift model, which was prone to human error, due to the amount of man hours it took to complete tasks”

With a system that couldn’t keep up with the industry and no room to maneuver, the Fidelity Bank team knew it was time to give modernization a chance.

Solution
To solve their problems, Fidelity Bank searched for a team that would understand the complexity of their business and most importantly bring a swift solution. With a decade’s worth of experience Descasio was able to resolve both questions.

The goal of Descasio was to move in and not simply be a technology partner but to also help Fidelity change the way they worked. The first port of call was for Descasio to begin a full assessment of the systems that were already in place. This was followed up by identifying key areas of concern and finally providing an extensive overview of the entire IT infrastructure and submitting a report and recommendations on the best cloud migration options available. One thing was clear, Microsoft Azure ticked all the right boxes for the project.

The migration process to Microsoft Azure was planned and conducted by Descasio. After performing a thorough review of the systems in place, Descasio opted to migrate Devbank’s data assets through a lift -and – shift technique. This migration process allowed multiple systems to be moved simultaneously and during ongoing operations, without any significant interruption allowing for business continuity.

By the end of the entire process, staff of Dev Bank were able to take control of the system from day one, with minimal training.

Results
Descaiso was able to identify an implementable approach and system for migration. “We saw the effectiveness of Descasio. They were able to gather data quickly and effectively which allowed us to review the cost implications of the Iaas migration approach and properly analyze the RTO and the TCO of the chosen lift and shift approach to cloud migration strategy’’ ’ said Micheal.

With the help of Descasio, Fidelity Bank has been able to maintain their competitive edge and focus on their motto of keeping their word to their customers.

4 Min. Read/November 24, 2020/by admin

Success Stories

Descasio Helps DevBank Keep Pace with Innovation Through Azure

Recognized by top industry analysts and professionals, Descasio’s robust set of products and services are well-suited to improve operational efficiency in any business.

At Descasio, we believe that companies shouldn’t have to pay millions to keep up with technology that will help keep them in business. That is why, we offer a number of technology solutions that are compatible across several industries at competitive prices. Recognized by top industry analysts and professionals, Descasio’s robust set of products and services are well-suited to improve operational efficiency in any business.

DevBank makes a change
The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) was conceived by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) in collaboration with global development partners to address the major financing challenges facing Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.

Challenge
As a fast-growing business and a potential target audience of 37 million MSMEs. The team at Devbank knew they could no longer rely on their old enterprise package solution (Veritas Netbackup). “We were constantly looking for ways to improve our ability to backup and store all our data in a safe and secure way”, said Abiodun Ijaware, Head, Information Technology. Several issues came up as DevBank tried to navigate the system they had in place, but two key issues stood out for Devbank;
1. The high costs associated with the platform
2. The cumbersome management levels needed to operate efficiently.
Given all the challenges faced in a fast-paced business environment Devbank knew it was time for change

Solution
Small daily and weekly checks whenever necessary can make all the difference in spotting problems and addressing them before they get out of hand. Stay vigilant, and what will undoubtedly start off alienating and challenging will eventually become simple and second nature. In the long term, your business’s security and health will be all the better for it.

After meeting with several vendors, Devbank settled on Descasio as a technology partner. Descasio was able to show us how moving to Microsoft Azure cloud, would not only solve all the issues we faced but that the system was scalable and flexible at an affordable cost.

By the end of the entire process, staff of Dev Bank were able to take control of the system from day one, with minimal training.

Resolution
Having worked with the Descasio team, the Devbank team were able to experience what the industry calls ‘the real deal” when it comes to service delivery. “With Descasio we have been able to easily meet our compliance and regulatory objectives for backup and recovery while also having time to focus on strategic objectives.’’ Said Abiodun.

With the help of Descasio, Devbank has been able to get a swift resolution to the issues that they faced previously. Not only was their overhead significantly reduced but the new Microsoft Azure cloud system allowed them to focus on their core business of investing in Nigerians.

3 Min. Read/November 24, 2020/by admin

Digital Transformation, ICT Impact, Information Technology, Success Stories

Unity Bank Partners with Descasio to Achieve Increased Scalability of their Application Leveraging Azure

For over a decade, Unity Bank Plc has served individuals, businesses, and the public sector of Nigeria’s economy in the areas of investment, savings, and other retail banking operations, from over 200 locations within the country and with its team of more than 2,000 employees.

In delivering optimal service to its customers, the bank has the obligation to ensure that responses to customer demands are right on time. This, to a large extent, helps to guarantee customer retention and secure word of mouth publicity which has proven to be the best form of advertisement, having the ability to increase customer loyalty by 16 to 24% according to the Wharton School of Business.

The impact of delays in service delivery goes beyond affecting public reputation but can also lead to loss of revenue, which was the case for Unity Bank. “Whenever there is downtime from our datacenter, there is always a major impact on the business group services running on the server. This directly impacts the delivery timelines of our services to our customers and invariably translates to a loss of revenue of over $10,000 per hour when the recovery process is not managed effectively.” said, Ugochukwu Aku, Head, IT Infrastructure, Unity Bank.

Although a lot of manual work was put into managing our applications at every event of downtimes, it wasn’t enough to meet the business objective.
In addition to this, the bank spent a lot of time and money on the procurement of additional hardware to meet the demands for hosting new products and services geared towards catering to the needs of its customers.

The problems encountered by Unity Bank pointed clearly to the need of hosting its core critical application on a cloud-based solution, one that Descasio had the requisite competency for providing.

Unity bank came to learn of this competency when Descasio approached them with an Application Modernization workshop which was set up in collaboration with Microsoft.

“During the online workshop, Descasio showcased the value of having a seamless solution that requires less human input and delivers in a timely fashion. Descasio also showed the flexibility and reliability of hosting our application on Microsoft Azure.”
“We reviewed Descasio’s proposition of migrating our application to Azure alongside other business continuity processes at the time and came to a conclusion that Azure presented more value.” Explained Ugochukwu.

The Result

Since the migration to Microsoft Azure App Services, Unity Bank has been able to meet several of its objectives. Primarily, they have been able to overcome the management burden that previously existed when the app was hosted in their on-premise infrastructure. This has translated to the provision of a more solidified service experience to customers and a huge reduction in losses as a result of downtimes.

Speaking on other benefits of Microsoft Azure app services to the financial institution, Ugochukwu said, “This solution really helped us in having successful app deployments. Unity Bank has also enjoyed easy scalability as they can now develop new applications and scale resources to meet the demands with ease and in no time. Ultimately the solution has helped us to improve our overall business performance at a reduced cost.

“Today, our IT team has more time to focus on other directly related bank projects as most of the previous issues we have had as regards applications sitting on physical infrastructures are now being taken care of.”

Commenting on the bank’s experience with Descasio, Ugochukwu said “Descasio was not picked based on preference or relationship, they were picked by the bank based on competency shown with the deployment of app services. We as an organization ensure to work with competent partners as this directly translates to the quality of service delivered to our client.”

“We have enjoyed great customer experience, an excellent display of product knowledge, and an utterly reliable service delivery from Descasio and will recommend both Descasio and Microsoft to all organizations looking to implement an effective, secure, and reliable IT solution as we have,” he added.

4 Min. Read/November 15, 2020/by Team Descasio

Digital Transformation, Press Release, Success Stories

How Trustfund Increased Its Revenue Using Microsoft Cloud Service – Azure Provided by Descasio

With over 15 years of expertise, Trustfund Pensions has been the leading Pension Fund Administrator in Nigeria. The essence of Trustfund Pensions Limited goes beyond administering and managing pension funds, but also to improving the overall net worth of the average employee and providing a stable means of sustenance after retirement.

 To achieve its vision of scale and market dominance, Trustfund Pensions Limited delivers world-class, innovative, quality pension management products and services at low cost, through technology-enabled channels and highly skilled professionals, combined with an aggressive marketing strategy.

To sustain their dominance in the market, they partnered with Descasio, a leading technology solutions company in Nigeria, in order to deploy Microsoft Azure cloud solutions to host the company’s online assets which have greatly increased delivery speed and efficiency. 

Loss of Revenue

Prior to partnering with Descasio a year ago, Trustfund faced a lot of downtimes which caused a lot of strain on workers who had to work overtime to resolve the issues.  This translated to a huge loss of time and revenue as the prolonged system lags negatively impacted service rendered to customers. 

The pension company tried to solve the problem by moving to an open-source hosting platform, but due to regulation, they needed a more secured and structured cloud solution platform.

Flexibility and Reliability

Trustfund quickly sought for a more reliable and effective cloud solution platform to stem these incalculable losses. In stepped Descasio, in collaboration with Microsoft, to deploy a seamless Azure service that requires no manual process while delivering maximum business value, showcasing the flexibility and reliability of the cloud offering.

More Time to Focus on Other Aspects of the Business

The adoption of Azure by Trustfund through Descasio has helped the team to focus solely on other profitable aspects of the business as the technical team at Descasio continues to oversee the hosting infrastructure and resolve support requests that would have usually taken a lot of time.

According to Ndubisi Agba, the Head of Information Technology at Trustfund, the most positive experience of the solution is how efficient Azure is in meeting regulatory objectives, 

“Microsoft Azure through Descasio has helped the Technical team at Trustfund in having a successful IT audit with external auditors as it checks all the requirements and helps meet most of the standards in having a secure and reliable website hosting solution.” 

                                                                  Ndubisi Agba – Head of Information Technology

No doubt, it’s obvious the Pension Company has experienced a transformation with the use of Azure which has shore up revenue leaks before their partnership with Descasio.

3 Min. Read/November 10, 2020/by Team Descasio