Financial services group HHG will this month complete a
project to migrate its payroll and insurance systems to Bacs' new
IP network.
The project has involved changes to 13 IT systems and a review of
HHG's disaster recovery arrangements.
HHG, which includes insurance companies Pearl and London Life, said
the move to the new payment network would help improve security for
the 25,000 payment transactions it sends to Bacs each month. The
migration will also cut its running costs by automating
administrative tasks.
HHG is using software from Eiger Systems running on an IBM server
to transfer payroll information to the Bacs IP network. Computer
Sciences Corporation runs the system.
The financial group has also set-up an identical server in a
separate location as back-up.
Bacs is currently migrating 50,000 corporate customers on to its IP
network. Users have until the end of 2005 to upgrade their Bacs
connection software before the old network is switched off.
Bacs customers will also have to ensure that their payroll
suppliers have updated their software so that payroll details can
be transferred in a suitable format to Bacs' IP network.
In June, Bacs announced two connection services to its IP network,
in partnership with BT.
Delivered over an extranet or a DSL broadband line, the services
will give Bacs' corporate customers faster payments and a guarantee
of 99.5% connection levels, according to Bacs and BT.
Under existing links to the Bacs IP network - over the internet or
through a dial-up modem - companies may face delays in sending
payments to Bacs due to problems in connecting to the internet.