Puritas explores opportunities presented by superior client administration systems
Let’s face it. Everyone expects more for less these days. Just offering good service is no longer good enough – greater choice means greater pressure to deliver something superior at real value for money prices. Make my life easier or I’ll take my business elsewhere.
If this trend hasn’t reached every company providing and supporting fund management services yet, don’t worry: it’s coming.
Both private and institutional investors are or will be expecting more for their money. More focus, more responsivity, more reports and more product. The game is on. The winners will be those companies that can meet expanding expectations while keeping fees at competitively priced rates.
Among the key elements in meeting this demand will be the capability and quality of fund administration systems and associated services. Having the right system in place may make the difference between keeping or losing clients. Or, for that matter, present opportunities to not just retain existing business, but also win new clients as well.
Mike Feighan of Jersey-based fund administration systems specialist Puritas makes the case.
‘Many fund administrators are relying on multiple legacy systems, potentially still stretching to spreadsheets for holding client data. Whereas doing so to date may have just been acceptable – providing corporate and regulatory demands are met – this approach will leave them significantly disadvantaged in the future. Investment clients and fund managers are increasingly aware they have a choice. And they’ll be choosing companies that provide enhanced customer services over those with just plain vanilla offerings.’
More focus requires an efficient and automated onboarding process for new clients, for example, rather than often encountered manual data transfer.
More responsivity demands an easily accessible ‘single source of truth’ for client data, rather than complex records held across multiple systems.
More reporting means accurate data, sorted into customisable templates and available in widely used common formats, rather than barely meeting the minimum requirements of customers and regulators.
More product requires new features and integrated applications designed to wow customers, rather than an all too common ‘make do and mend’ approach.
‘Moving to a single integrated funds administration system not only provides substantial benefits for a company’s existing client base,’ Mike continues, ‘but also presents very real opportunities to win new business too. Recent experience with one customer using the Puritas PureFunds fund administration system underlines this perfectly.’
For leading offshore fund administrator JTC, moving to a PureFunds system led to the considerable streamlining and simplifying of automatic exchange of information (AEoI) and anti-money laundering (AML) management functionality. This not only led to internal efficiencies, but also created an attractive service proposition for potentially new fund administration clients
And when it came to onboarding their existing investor portfolio, the Puritas system and expertise was ready to support the migration process.
‘Once installed and integrated, the PureFunds system provides for virtually unlimited multiple clients, each of which has access to our complete range of features and applications,’ Mike elaborates. ‘And in this case we worked closely with the customer, JTC, to migrate their new client details onto our system using data cleansing and preparation, batch-uploading and accuracy verification processes. These specialisms are very familiar to our team, alongside the project management expertise needed to ensure customer focused seamless migration. The customer, I’m delighted to say, classed the service received as “excellent”.’
There’s no doubt that customer service excellence is what will make the difference in the future, whether it’s provided to fund administrators, fund managers or fund investors. So don’t doubt that when it comes to systems and expertise, aim for the best. There’s no point settling for less after all.
For further information on Puritas, its products, capabilities, and client’s email Mike Feighan michael.feighan@puritas.co.uk or call on +44 1534 874 100.
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