Argentex

020 4524 5431

year partnership

IT users

Argentex is a leading specialist in currency risk management and alternative banking solutions for businesses and financial institutions. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, the company operates from offices in the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, and the UAE.

Since 2012, Argentex has processed over $200bn in client transactions, handling payments in up to 140 currencies worldwide.

Approx.
150

Head office in
London

with offices in Netherlands, Australia and the UAE

argentex.com

“The most impressive thing was the complete willingness of all involved to give up their weekend and help us ensure our systems were running smoothly“

Key Outcomes

Enhance security
including multi-factor authentication

Incident response
restoring systems quickly with minimal disruption

Co-Managed IT Support
with long-term projects fully supported

Proactive IT partnership
working seamlessly with Argentex’s internal team

Russ Fowden

Systems Architect, Argentex

"In my view any potential provider needs to demonstrate a wide range of experience among their staff, understand your business and where your priorities are, and have a proven track record of working successfully with similar businesses. A can-do attitude is also a must. Multi-factor authentication was implemented quickly and seamlessly, enabling us to maximise our security when we needed it most. When our server room flooded, the team went well beyond the call of duty. The most impressive thing was the complete willingness of all involved to give up their weekend and help us ensure our systems were running smoothly."

The Challenge

Argentex required a reliable, proactive IT partner to maintain optimal business performance and safeguard sensitive data.

Argentex is focused on ensuring its interests are aligned with those of its clients, namely the security of funds, functional efficiency, and commercial competitiveness. They are also listed on the London Stock Exchange and are FCA regulated. It is therefore imperative to have a reliable IT infrastructure and a stringent cyber security strategy to protect the data of their clients and their business.

Key Requirements

Reliable IT partner

Improve security

Regulatory compliance

Operational efficiency

The Outcome

Argentex has been partnered with Air for Managed IT Support since its inception in 2011. Over the years, we have worked on various projects including hardware procurement, office relocation, hosted telephony and penetration testing.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, we were quick to respond to Argentex’s requests. To help improve their cyber security when working from home, we implemented multi-factor authentication, as an addition to their multi-layered security strategy. Multi-factor authentication requires employees to verify their identity in two or more ways before being granted access to their account, this usually refers to a password and a mobile app verification.

Special Projects

Argentex experienced a potentially catastrophic and unpredictable crisis. A plumbing issue caused by building work on the floor above their office cause their server room to flood. This affected some key hardware that needed to be fixed immediately.

We arranged for an experienced Cisco engineer to arrive onsite in just a few hours, whilst other members of the team were on hand to assist remotely. They then worked alongside Argentex’s internal IT team to diagnose and resolve any issues efficiently. This meant they were back up and running quickly with no impact on their client service. Additionally, on Monday morning, experienced IT engineers visited the site to ensure everything was working as expected.

Because Argentex have been partnered with Air since their inception, their entire server room infrastructure was originally specified by us, in collaboration with Argentex’s own IT team. Although a server room flood is certainly unexpected and difficult to prepare for, Russ partly attributes the resilience of their server room, and ability to withstand a crisis, to the original specification saying:

“The high-level resilience in the design of our server room was certainly a key factor in enabling us to recover so quickly. We can offer nothing but the highest praise for all concerned and the culture of Air who immediately grasped that, as a busy Foreign Exchange brokerage, we needed to solve the issue urgently.”

Our proactive approach meant they were able to fix the flooded hardware quickly and effectively, enabling Argentex to open as usual on Monday morning.

Argentex have happily relied on Air for over a decade since they first started out, whether it’s for day-to-day IT support or long-term strategy and significant projects.

They are confident in our abilities to keep the data of their business, employees and stakeholders secure, and can rely on us to support them in the rare event that something does go wrong.

Services used