Cois Sionna was established in Askeaton Co.Limerick in 1967. Over the years, additional branches were added in Kildimo, Pallaskenry, Shanagolden and Foynes. In 2015, they merged with Estuary Credit Union in Glin and in 2019 and merged with Desmond Credit Union in Newcastle West to become Cois Sionna Desmond Credit Union. Cios Sionna Desmond currently have assets of €170 Million with almost 27,000 members. They employ 24 full-time and 14 part- time staff and contribute almost €2 M to the local economy annually.
“When ActionPoint came to us, they were selling a service that they’ve lived up to. Everything we have asked for; we have been given and more. Every time we have asked for assistance, we have been taken through each step of the way with their team. We trust their knowledge of the projects they work on with us and they ensure these are completed with as minimal disruption as possible. That’s how they have become our Trusted Technology Partner.”
Brigid Bergin- IT Officer, Cois Sionna Desmond
Brigid Bergin- IT Officer, Cois Sionna Desmond
Our Story
Business Challenge
In December 2016, The Central Bank released an IT Risks Thematic review, which brought about an increased awareness to the Credit Union sector relating to new areas of IT risk from the governing body. Cois Sionna Desmond had to look at how best to address their own gaps internally that were highlighted in this review. They decided that a new IT hardware partner was needed to bring the desired change to their environment. The team put their concerns out to tender and ActionPoint were deemed capable of driving their changes forward.
From the beginning of the IT Partnership, Cois Sionna Desmond required support from ActionPoint as they were on a journey with their IT environment and had extensive upgrade work that needed to be done. Their antivirus solution was outdated and the IT monthly reports from a previous supplier did not capture enough detail to demonstrate all the key systems that were in place and maintained. The ActionPoint team understood their goals to implement stringent security processes worked together to create a scalable platform that will help Cois Sionna Desmond to grow going forward.
The Process
The ActionPoint team understood that although the IT environment had room for improvement, they decided that incremental investment and strategic planning of changes over a few years would be the best option for Cois Sionna Desmond to get their environment to the standard they wanted to reach. This was done through patch management and a new back-up strategy was implemented.
In the second year of the partnership, a VSan environment was installed with offsite Disaster Recovery (DR). This was completed out of hours and meant that it caused minimal disruption to the Credit Union’s members and staff.
Key Results
As a result of their IT Partnership with ActionPoint, Cois Sionna Desmond Credit Union now have a top–end system that was scalable and in line with their plans for future growth. Having worked with an experienced IT team, Cois Sionna Desmond has now built a strong relationship with ActionPoint as a trusted IT Partner who understands their business challenges and will be with them every step of the way as they grow.
Cois Sionna Desmond Credit Union
Custom Software Development, IT Services,
Data Management , Reporting Automation,
