SharePoint 2013 System Support
Bespoke SharePoint Server Support Service
Introduction
The Ardonagh Group is one of the UK’s largest insurance providers, delivering a wide range of broking, underwriting, and risk management services across multiple business units. As a highly operational organisation, Ardonagh relies on a number of internal systems to support day-to-day business processes and ensure continuity across critical functions.
One of these systems, known internally as Tracker, plays a central role in managing core operational workflows. Hosted on an on-premises SharePoint 2013 environment and built using a combination of SharePoint lists and Nintex workflows, Tracker had become a business-critical application embedded deeply within daily operations.
Due to its complexity, bespoke nature, and lack of documentation, Ardonagh engaged Dolphin IT Solutions to provide ongoing support and stabilisation of the platform, ensuring continued service availability and operational reliability.
Challenges
The Tracker system presented a number of significant challenges typical of long-running, heavily customised SharePoint environments.
Although it remained essential to business operations, the system had evolved organically over time without formal documentation or structured governance.
Key challenges included:
- Highly complex legacy architecture: The platform consisted of hundreds of SharePoint lists and deeply interconnected Nintex workflows, with no comprehensive documentation available.
- Business-critical dependency: Tracker was actively used for processing invoices, managing claims, handling approvals, and allocating internal resources across the organisation.
- Limited internal knowledge: There was minimal in-house understanding of how the system had originally been designed, configured, or maintained.
- Operational risk exposure: Any disruption to workflows had direct impact on financial and operational processes.
- Support prioritisation requirements: The system required structured incident handling, including escalation paths for senior and VIP stakeholders.
To manage support effectively, Ardonagh integrated Dolphin IT Solutions into their internal service desk environment using ManageEngine, where Tracker-related tickets were assigned directly to the support team. High-priority requests from senior stakeholders, including C-level executives, required accelerated response and resolution handling.
The primary objective was to stabilise the environment, reduce operational risk, and restore visibility and control over a highly complex legacy system.
Our Solution
Dolphin IT Solutions provided a dedicated SharePoint and Nintex support function designed to stabilise, document, and enhance the Tracker platform while ensuring uninterrupted business operations.
Rather than applying disruptive changes, the focus was on controlled support, structured discovery, and incremental improvement.
Discovery and System Mapping
A key initial activity involved undertaking detailed discovery sessions to understand the underlying architecture of Tracker.
This included:
- Reverse-engineering existing SharePoint lists and relationships
- Mapping Nintex workflow dependencies and process flows
- Identifying critical business functions and system touchpoints
- Documenting previously unknown or undocumented processes
- Establishing a clearer view of system architecture and data flow
This process allowed Dolphin IT Solutions to build a working knowledge base of the system and identify areas of operational risk and dependency.
Operational Support and Stability Management
Once system structure and dependencies were understood, Dolphin IT Solutions provided ongoing operational support focused on maintaining system stability and minimising downtime.
Support activities included:
- Fast-response incident resolution via ManageEngine ticketing
- Troubleshooting SharePoint list and workflow issues
- Resolving Nintex workflow failures and performance issues
- Supporting business users during operational peaks
- Ensuring continuity of critical financial and claims processes
This proactive support model ensured that Tracker remained operational even under high usage conditions, particularly during peak business activity periods.
Workflow Maintenance and Enhancement
In addition to break-fix support, Dolphin IT Solutions also provided targeted enhancements to existing Nintex workflows.
These improvements focused on ensuring core business processes continued to function reliably while reducing inefficiencies where possible.
Key areas of improvement included:
- Stabilisation of finance and invoice-related workflows
- Refinement of approval routing logic
- Improvement of workflow reliability and error handling
- Optimisation of process execution within SharePoint
- Reduction of manual intervention in key processes
This helped ensure that critical operational workflows remained consistent, predictable, and reliable.
VIP and Priority Support Handling
Given the importance of Tracker to business leadership and operational continuity, a structured prioritisation model was introduced for support requests.
Requests from VIP users, including senior management and C-level stakeholders, were escalated and prioritised to ensure rapid resolution.
This ensured that high-impact issues were addressed quickly, reducing potential disruption to strategic or time-sensitive business activities.
Results
Through a structured and methodical support approach, Dolphin IT Solutions successfully stabilised The Ardonagh Group’s Tracker system and restored operational confidence in a complex legacy SharePoint environment.
The engagement delivered:
- Improved system stability and reduced downtime
- Greater visibility into previously undocumented workflows
- Faster incident resolution through structured support processes
- Reduced operational risk across critical business functions
- Enhanced reliability of Nintex-driven workflows
- Stronger alignment between IT support and business priorities
By acting as an extension of Ardonagh’s internal IT function, Dolphin IT Solutions enabled the organisation to maintain continuity across a business-critical system while longer-term digital transformation strategies were considered.
Ultimately, the support engagement ensured that Tracker continued to deliver value to the business while reducing risk, improving maintainability, and providing much-needed stability within a complex SharePoint 2013 environment.
