Leaving Freshdesk Behind: How Instanda Moved IT and InfoSec onto Halo ITSM

Helping Insurers Move Faster in a Complex Market

Instanda, previously known as F2X, is an insurance technology company that gives insurers the ability to build, adjust and launch products without relying on technical teams for every change. Business teams can modify pricing, configure new products and respond to market demands independently — giving insurance firms the speed and agility they need in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Headquartered in London with 250+ people, Instanda supports some of the world's leading insurance organisations in delivering a smoother, more modern experience to their customers and distribution partners.

A Customer Support Tool Running an IT Function

Freshdesk is built for external customer support — not for managing internal IT services across a growing organisation. At Instanda, that mismatch had become a real constraint. The IT and Information Security teams were both using it, but neither had the structure, visibility or workflow capability they actually needed.

There were no proper service request flows, no structured approval processes, and limited ability to separate IT Support from InfoSec in a meaningful way. As the organisation grew, it became clear that Freshdesk wasn't going to grow with them — and that the fix wasn't patching the tool, it was replacing it.

Flexibility, Structure and Room to Grow

There were no major complaints about the existing setup — but that wasn't the point. Instanda recognised that their current tooling was becoming a ceiling. As the organisation continued to expand, they needed a platform with the structure and flexibility to keep pace. The main challenges were:

• Difficulty scaling — the existing platform couldn't grow with the organisation's increasingly complex processes
• Basic ticketing lacked structure — no proper support for service requests, approvals or automated workflows
• High manual effort — processes required constant hands-on management to maintain and update
• User experience out of step — the end-user interface didn't reflect the standard of a modern IT service function
• Limited future capability — no clear path to automation, AI or further growth without significant platform constraints

Purpose-Built for IT. Fast to Deploy. Easy to Own.

Where Freshdesk was adapted for internal IT use, Halo ITSM was designed for it from the ground up. Instanda chose Halo — and Allied ESM to deliver it — on three clear criteria: speed of implementation with minimal disruption; ease of management without heavy technical dependency; and out-of-the-box functionality with the flexibility to evolve as the organisation grew.

Critically, Halo's native Freshdesk migration tooling meant historical ticket data could be moved across cleanly — no data loss, no manual re-entry, no gap in the support record.

A Clean, Structured Platform for Two Teams

Allied ESM implemented Halo ITSM across IT Support and Information Security, building a solution that was both immediately useful and straightforward to maintain long-term. The implementation was delivered by a single Allied ESM consultant, working closely with the client's project lead throughout.

The core delivery included Incident Management, a Self-Service Portal and a structured Service Catalogue — all configured to give end users an intuitive experience while giving the IT and InfoSec teams clear visibility and control. Key elements of the solution:

• User-friendly Self-Service Portal and Service Catalogue — giving end users a simple, intuitive way to raise requests and find support quickly
• Clear visibility and permissions — IT Support and InfoSec teams managing their own queues securely with appropriate access controls
• Standardised service request workflows — improving consistency, reducing manual effort and ensuring requests are handled efficiently
• Microsoft Entra ID integration — for user and agent import and automated management
• Freshdesk ticket migration — using Halo ITSM's native migration functionality to carry historical data across cleanly

The implementation was deployed in the cloud, with a phased approach: Incident Management first, followed by Service Requests and the Self-Service Portal.

Eight Weeks, One Consultant, Fully Collaborative

The full implementation ran from February to April 2026, completing in approximately eight weeks. A single Allied ESM consultant worked directly with the client's project lead throughout — keeping decision-making fast and alignment tight. The client's project lead was highly involved, learning the platform alongside the build and contributing to key configuration decisions. That hands-on approach ensured strong knowledge transfer and a solution that closely reflected the organisation's real needs.

The phased timeline:

• Weeks 1–2: Alignment on requirements, defining Incident and Request Management setup
• Weeks 3–4: Configuration of workflows, Service Catalogue and Self-Service Portal
• Week 5: Testing and refinement with the client
• Week 6: Go-live

Structure, Visibility and a Platform Built to Grow

Instanda now runs IT Support and Information Security from a single, structured platform — replacing a tool that had outgrown its purpose with one designed to scale alongside the business. The improvement was felt immediately by both the internal teams and their end users.

• Two teams unified on one platform — IT Support and InfoSec working from the same structured environment with clear separation of queues
• Modern, intuitive self-service experience — end users have a clear, consistent way to raise requests without confusion
• Reduced manual effort — structured workflows replacing the ad hoc management required by the previous tool
• Clean historical data migration — Freshdesk tickets carried across using Halo's native migration tooling
• Foundation for future growth — a platform ready to support automation, AI capabilities and continued expansion