With branches covering 90% of the UK, Swinton's aim is to find the best UK insurance deal from a panel of top insurers for all of its customers, dealing with a variety of insurances from private cars through to pet insurance. Swinton currently connects its branches to its core network via a dial-up broadband service which restricts the speed with which it can provide customer quotations, impacting upon Swinton's customer service. To meet Swinton's requirements for the next-generation communication technology to enhance its service, Thus will provide an next-generation network to carry all Swinton's data traffic, connecting office headquarters, branches, call centres, distribution facilities and data centres. This will provide Swinton with round-the-clock, any-to-any data and VoIP communications while increasing the speed with which its employees can provide insurance quotes and proposals.
"In the highly competitive insurance market it is crucial to our business to be able to respond to customers' needs quickly and efficiently. We required a bespoke next-generation network solution that would provide resilient and assured connectivity across our offices," said Rob Davidson, strategic development manager at Swinton Group. "Thus not only demonstrated that it could provide a reliable solution at a cost effective price, but has also been able to accommodate a further 95 sites to our original roll-out plan at short notice and without massive upheaval. This level of responsiveness, along with Thus' guaranteed service level agreements, convinced us that it is the best operator for our communication needs going forward."
Phil Male, Chief Operating Officer for Thus plc, comments: "High-speed Internet has revolutionised the personal insurance industry, dramatically enhancing the transaction process from start to finish. Customers now expect real-time responses to their insurance-related questions so it is imperative that the Swinton Group's communications infrastructure is able to deliver on these requirements. "Thus' experience with NGN technology means we are able to anticipate and respond to these requirements, allowing companies in these sectors to deliver an efficient service."
The main network will consist of two 100Mbps Internet connections with resilient Ethernet access, allowing Swinton to accommodate present and emerging bandwidth-hungry services and applications. The solution's flexibility means that Swinton will eventually be able to converge all its existing data and voice traffic onto this one network, and support long-term company growth. This will assist Swinton in managing ongoing costs and simplifying operations, while meeting growing customer demand.