Scalable IT Support for a 35-Location Financial Firm in Chicago
Case Study
If your business spans multiple locations, relies on complex infrastructure, or operates in a regulated environment, IT can quickly become difficult to control.
Executive Summary:
Industry: Finance
Services: a Chicago-based real estate investment firm
Employees: 200+ employees across 35 locations in a federally audited environment
Challenges:
- Slow helpdesk response times
- Recurring downtime across locations
- Lack of IT strategy and gaps in documentation and security, leading to operational disruptions and increased compliance risk
When you’re responsible for IT across dozens of locations, the stakes are high. Downtime isn’t just inconvenient, it impacts operations, employee productivity, and creates real business risk.
For this client, managing a growing environment with poor IT in place became increasingly difficult. Without a clear IT strategy, systems were inconsistent, operations were inefficient, and scaling was nearly impossible. At the same time, security gaps increased risk and raised concerns around compliance.
Over time, this led to higher costs driven by reactive fixes and unplanned downtime.
They needed a partner, not just a failing vendor, who could bring clarity, stability, and accountability to a complex environment.
Learn how Waident provides Managed IT and Cybersecurity for Financial Firms.
How Waident Helped a Chicago-based Financial Firm
Median Response Time: 7 Minutes
98.8% of Tickets Are Resolved in 24 Hours
Median Resolution Time: 39 minutes
700+ Pages of Documentation
Waident has brought a level of structure, transparency, and responsiveness that we didn’t have before.
With an environment as complex as ours, having the right IT partner is critical. Waident has brought a level of structure, transparency, and responsiveness that we didn’t have before.
Their team understands our systems, communicates clearly, and follows through, something that gives us real confidence, especially in a regulated environment.
There’s a sense of relief knowing issues are handled quickly and professionally, and that we have a partner we can rely on. We truly appreciate their consistency and the trust they’ve built with our team
The Financial Firm's Complex Environment
Before Waident:
- No clear ownership
- Limited documentation
- IT support model that made accountability difficult
- Critical systems weren’t fully understood (or documented)
- Leadership often struggled to get clear answers
- Tickets took days to get resolved
- Recurring downtime
The organization lacked the structure and visibility needed to confidently manage IT risk across 35 locations.
Client’s IT Challenges Across Locations
Infrastructure & Systems Complexity
-
- Separate networks across locations
- Multi-brand tech stack
- Mix of enterprise and consumer technology
- Integration with parent company systems
Lack of Structure & Visibility
- Severe lack of documentation
- No reporting or metrics
- No clear ownership of IT
- Constant IT turnover
Security & Compliance Risk
- Frequent successful phishing attempts
- Increasing security demands from institutional clients
- Ongoing delays in meeting compliance requirements
Scalability & Strategic Gaps
- IT environment not scalable for growth
- Lack of proactive IT strategy and budgeting
The Challenge: IT Complexity, Downtime, and Compliance Risk
We are not managing one environment. We are working with dozens of them.
The client’s leadership needed an IT partner that could:
- Demonstrate SOC 2 compliance
- Support multi-location infrastructure
- Maintain enterprise-level networking and systems
- Provide responsive managed IT support
- Help ensure their environment aligns with federal cybersecurity standards
- Local onsite support
Why Waident Was Chosen Over Other IT Providers
Selecting an IT partner wasn’t just about support, it was about reducing risk, improving visibility, and ensuring the organization could meet its compliance requirements.
The decision came down to trust, alignment, and confidence. They weren’t looking for the cheapest option.
Why Waident Stood Out
Waident stood out for several reasons:
- Extensive experience supporting financial firms
- Average tenure: 7.5 years
- Team size: 30
- Proven ability to support complex environments and proactively manage technology
- Waident maintains SOC 2 compliance and adheres to the Federal NIST cybersecurity framework.
What the Client Was Looking For:
- Predictable costs
- Experience managing clients’ complex compliance needs
- Understanding of their environment and their concerns
- A full-time technician on-site
- Fast, reliable, and local support
- A partner who could prevent disruptions, not just react to them
After reviewing Waident’s processes, security standards, and managed service approach, the organization selected Waident as its long-term IT partner.
The Solution: Structured IT Support and Risk Reduction
We implemented a managed IT model designed for both scale and complexity. We worked to understand and document the entire environment, from networks to endpoints to building systems like security cameras and access control, all of which relied on the underlying infrastructure. With faster response times and structured IT oversight, the organization reduced downtime, improved employee productivity, and gained confidence in passing federal audits.
What Waident Delivered:
- Waident became the single point of accountability for IT across all 35 locations
- 24/7 help desk and engineering support
- A dedicated on-site technician, supported by a broader Chicago-based team
- Faster onboarding and terminations of employees and locations
- Transparent reporting and metrics
- Ongoing infrastructure management across all locations
- Providing security and addressing compliance needs
- Working alongside tools mandated by their parent organization while still improving their overall posture
- Completed onboarding in under 45 days despite the previous vendor’s early exit, including full documentation and management of a complex environment.
The Results: Reduced Risk, Faster Support, and Scalability
At Waident, everything starts with the end user. We focus on making sure employees get the support they need quickly, so they can stay productive and the business can keep moving.
Today, our client has:
- Thoroughly documented systems and IT procedures across locations
- Compliance and cybersecurity that actually work
- The CFO is receiving regular reporting and visibility of the ticket metrics
- Improved client experience
- Median ticket resolution time: 39 minutes
- Median response time: 7 minutes
- A dedicated on-site technician at the head office
What Our Clients Say
Keep your people productive, your enterprise running, and your company data safe.
If your environment feels hard to manage, lacks visibility, or creates audit pressure, it may be time for a different approach.