In this example our client, a firm of lawyers, has asked us to change their name for reasons of confidentiality. However all the information contained in the case study has been agreed and they can be contacted on application.
"When we started investigating the feasibility of change it became clear that software was going to be an important driver. We came to the conclusion that we needed something that was a blend of 'product' and specialist development. We've known the people who develop Troika for some time and they have the skills including accounting knowledge."
Project Manager, Bell Tower
Background
Bell Tower has a substantial private client department providing a range of investment services. At the start of the project the primary driver for taking administration of the OEIC in-house was partly control and partly quality of service. Bell Tower wanted to improve the range and timing of reporting to the shareholders. However at the same time, outsourcing overheads were rising dramatically and with the change in economic climate, cost savings became increasingly relevant, particularly for OEICs below £50m in value.
Our brief
To provide a core system for processing an OEIC including:
- Management of underlying assets of the fund, bulk dealing of shares, dividends and bank accounts.
- Production of valuations on a variety of basis and periods.
- Calculation of equalisation and automatic generation of accrued income.
- Automatic management of the shareholders of the OEIC including issuing and transferring of shares, share certificates and stock transfer forms.
- Links to market data feeds.
- Full accounts production.
Our solution
By converting historic OEIC data into Troika, we enabled the client to process transactions for a whole year to arrive at true opening positions to reconcile with their previous service provider. This also gave them the comfort of being able to parallel run in a semi-live environment.
"There are relatively few transactions within the OEIC, so running a parallel test wasn't too onerous. We've also been able to satisfy ourselves that we can reproduce the same processes as our legacy service provider and clearly this is a good way to mitigate the risk of change."
Project Manager, Bell Tower
The result
This has been very much a joint project. The combination of client service experience from Bell Tower and the accounting expertise contained within Troika have delivered a possible solution for all organisations looking for an alternative to outsourcing. The compliance and control issues were paramount in driving forward change, but costs have become a more significant factor and these will reduce considerably over the next few years.
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