Case
Study
International Financial Data Services (IFDS) - outsourced services for the financial services sector
International Financial Data Services (IFDS) is the leading supplier of investor record keeping services and systems to UK and European financial services companies. Its solutions are used by a number of different groups of clients including retail and institutional fund managers, fund distributors and platforms, investment trust companies and providers of group and individual pensions.
IFDS UK has grown rapidly since its formation some 13 years ago with a staff of just 65. The company currently employs more than 1,500 people at its Basildon headquarters, Chelmsford contact centre and Boreham print and mail distribution centre, with almost 400 staff based in India and 120 in Thailand. The IFDS Group also has operations in the US, Canada, Ireland and Luxembourg.
“Our role is to look after the interests of both investors and the companies who provide financial services,” says Julian Rice, Head of Marketing for IFDS UK.
“We act as a transfer agency taking responsibility for registration of investors and looking after all the records and servicing of the investment funds.”
“To deliver that service, we rely on the quality of our core activities - administration and customer service,” he explains. “Essex has proved to be an excellent recruiting ground for high-quality staff - you could call the county an administration corridor. When we were looking for staff for our contact centre, we found that it was very easy to source people locally with the right personal skills for front line customer contact duties. Although commuting to London remains popular, Essex-based companies like ours can provide a more flexible working environment without the problems of daily rail travel.”
Essex is also important from a travel perspective, as Julian Rice explains.
“Our client base is in the financial services sector, so the proximity of London is a real benefit. There is a fast train service from our Basildon headquarters which our client relationship, IT and operational staff use regularly. We also have a lot of visiting clients and staff from Europe and they find that London Stansted Airport is very convenient. Although we don’t handle distribution ourselves, the location of our Boreham site next to the Royal Mail hub means that we can get information out to customers very quickly.”
IFDS UK has maintained its quality of customer service through a combination of people, processes and technology and its achievements have been recognised by a number of prestigious awards, including European Transfer Agency of the Year 2009 and Best Platform Service Provider 2009. The company’s Essex workforce has been critical to that success.
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