BC Asset Management

Modrus Office Maximises Asset Management

Website	www.bcam.co.uk	Services		Modrus Office
Business	Asset Management
Installation	Upgrade
Locations	Office Based

Background

BC Asset Management (BCAM) is a management company for independent asset managers. Founded by former employees of Abbey Life Investment Services Limited, BCAM aims to grow their business by focusing on delivering absolute returns to clients through equity hedge funds and property funds.

CEO, Alison Dean, has the responsibility of ensuring that all the company's fund managers have the maximum amount of time available to spend on managing the portfolios. With a diverse IT infrastructure including Bloomberg feeds and mission critical Internet applications, this is no small task.

The Issue:

With a staff of less than 50 employees, BCAM still has significant IT needs, but no desire to maintain the expense of a technical department. Dean knows the importance of technology within the asset management sector - downtime caused by IT outages is unacceptable and scheduled maintenance needs to be kept to an absolute minimum, so proactive monitoring and management is an absolute must.

"We did have some in house IT skills, although we've never formalised or justified the creation of a full IT department. As our business grew it became difficult to maintain this strategy; the skill shortage, cost of downtime and lost productivity becomes very apparent and is an unwelcome diversion from our core focus", she states.

The Solution:

Modrus Office provides BCAM with a fully outsourced IT infrastructure, including all the PCs, servers, office software, Internet connectivity, security, help desk and support needed to run the day-to-day business. Dean continues, "With Modrus Office, responsibility for delivering our IT has moved. If something goes wrong, Modrus resolves the issue and maintains stability. There are no unexpected charges, everything is defined and delivered as promised. Modrus understands our business, not all the intricacies of the business itself, but what IT needs to do for us and the negative effect should things fail. We don't see that commitment or understanding in traditional resellers or support companies."

Another significant benefit for BCAM is the predictable pricing of the Modrus Office service. Based on a flat monthly, per user fee, BCAM knows exactly what IT will cost and can incorporate these figures into its business plan months or years ahead with the confidence that they will remain well within budget.

Looking To The Future:

Two years into the partnership the impact on BCAMs business is obvious. Technology just works, in the same way they would expect any asset to. The next logical step is for Modrus to move or replicate mission critical servers into their data centres to enhance BCAMs business continuity strategy further.