Corporate Investigations Relies On OPAL
For Their Primary Business Tool

No matter the industry, today’s competitive companies share a common need—a reliance on their IT infrastructure for efficient management, operations and growth. But keeping up with increasingly sophisticated customer demands, changing business models and rapidly evolving technologies poses a challenge for even the most forward-thinking enterprises. Pittsburgh-based Corporate Investigations, Inc. is no exception.

Since the company was founded 1986, CII has been conducting employment and pre-hire background checks for small start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations across the U.S. to verify education, employment and credential verification, uncover criminal histories, validate social security information and deliver other critical pre-hire information that have risen in demand due to several high-profile negligent hiring lawsuits in the 90s and post 9/11 security concerns.

While the company’s experienced team of investigators are trained at tracking down the most difficult to find information using extensive database searches, court house research and other sophisticated methods, at the core of their expertise and effectiveness is the company’s proprietary, mission-critical Corporate Investigations Management System, the in-house database system and secured web-based customer interface that the company utilizes to capture information, manage customer inquiries and communications and generate background reports.

“The CIMS is critical to our company’s operations. If that system goes down, we’re in trouble,” says CII’s Controller, Gary Wirth. “We promise a three- to five-day turnaround time for our clients and our system is at the core of every front and back office operation.”

Unlike fine wine, however, IT systems do not get better with age and CII was witnessing an ongoing performance and efficiency decline with the system at a time when clients needed more sophisticated information. When the company called The OPAL Group to upgrade this primary business tool, it was several years old at the time and showing its age.

“The system was running slowly and was no longer operating at peak efficiency,” says Chris Skaryd, OPAL’s Enterprise Systems Manager, who took the lead on the project. “But improving the system was not really an option since Oracle no longer supported its Oracle 8 database. It was several evolutions old and the design company that originally tailored the system for CII was no longer in business.”

In January, The OPAL Group began the complex process of installing a state-of-the-art system featuring Oracle 10g and Microsoft.NET and working to safely and securely move data from one system to the other.

“It will be a few weeks until we realize the full benefits of this upgraded system, but the value of having The OPAL Group working with us in this capacity is immeasurable,” says Gary. “They realize the importance of this system to our business and are going to extraordinary measures to get us where we need to be for streamlined operations and long-term growth.”

“It’s easy for companies today to get wrapped up in IT issues, which can distract them from their core business,” says OPAL’s Jim Kilmer. “Working with companies like OPAL can help companies grow since we can provide the technology tools and support that they need to stay competitive and remain focused on their customers and products.”

To learn more about Corporate Investigations, Inc., visit their website at www.ciilink.com.