By Steve Harle, Client Relationship Manager, Bravura
In May, I celebrated my fifth year at Bravura and I’m fast approaching another special anniversary – 20 years working in Funds Administration. I know, right? I don’t look old enough do I!
I joined Bravura from SS&C (formerly IFDS and DST) where I worked for just shy of 15 years, having started there as a fresh-faced Call Centre Associate straight from school. I worked in a variety of roles across the Client Services Team, where I engaged with end customers and IFAs dealing with telephone, written and email queries before moving to the Complaints team.
After working in a variety of roles and then being promoted to a management position, I realised my real interest lay in the areas of project delivery, process enhancement and working directly with our clients. I began working on the onboarding new clients within our department – rolling out changes and enhancements and was also involved in the integration and offshoring of certain functions to our office in Mumbai – which is an absolutely incredible place if you ever get the chance to visit.
These skills helped me transition into Client Relationship Management – which saw me working closely with clients but also still being involved in projects, both client funded and regulatory. It was and still is the perfect mix which is why I still do it now! After four years in the CRM team at SS&C, I decided the time was right for me to move on and try something new.
Joining Bravura
Bravura appealed to me massively as a forward-thinking and growth-orientated fintech company. Knowing I already had relationships with both clients and people in the company meant it felt like home right away.
No two days are the same as I look after clients on our SaaS platform as well as some of our global Transfer Agents and large Direct Fund Managers. I have a global client portfolio across our three Funds Administration systems: Rufus, GFAS and GTAS with each client also using Babel for Straight-Through Processing (STP) of transactions to service end customers in UK, Europe and APAC markets.
I’ve always enjoyed working in fast-paced, intense environments – it keeps me on my toes and I thrive under pressure. My main responsibility is to own the relationships with our clients and be the face of Bravura to them. I need to understand a client’s business, their go-forward strategy and the part Bravura can play in it. I work with our clients to understand how Bravura as a technology partner can help them grow, increase efficiencies, reduce operational overheads and stand out in the market, whilst maintaining the existing day to day relationship.
Every day brings something new and I’m always looking at how we can deepen our client relationships and help them manage their current and future challenges. This means I collaborate closely with our Service Delivery Managers, Business Consultants and Project Managers to keep up to speed on everything going on so I know we are managing the clients’ expectations accordingly.
I’ve also had the chance to work with the wider client group participating in user groups, as well as our Business Development team on new opportunities. Variation, meeting and working with lots of different people is why I enjoy doing what I do.
The changing face of Financial Services
Technology drives so much in the Funds Administration space. Regulators are putting increased pressure on organisations to reduce costs so it doesn’t matter whether administration is done in-house or via third parties – the challenge of cost reduction is very similar.
Funds Administration is on the cusp of fundamental change. Every organisation in nearly every sector is looking to increase automation, reduce costs and in an increasingly paperless society, digitalise. This applies to Funds Administration, too, an environment that has been very paper-centric and manual for too long. With ever-changing regulation, it is vital that Bravura’s technology delivers what our clients need to maximise efficiency whilst maintaining quality and resilience and bringing down costs.
From my experience, focusing on what you are best at is the answer; having a trusted technology partner that can take away the strain of manual processing, record keeping and to an extent regulation. Reducing risk and operational costs paired with innovative technology means our clients can focus on growing their own business and standing out in the market. Also, partnering with an organisation such as Bravura with our enviable scale gives client organisations access not only to a comprehensive suite of solutions across the Funds Administration and Wealth space but also lets them tap into the deep expertise of our people across the globe.
Bravura listens to and works with both our existing but also our prospective clients to mould solutions to fit business needs. One size never truly fits all, so our products are flexible and can be easily integrated, meaning that clients can pick and choose how best to work with us to solve their business challenge – whatever that may be. Whether that means using our Babel for Straight Through Processing (STP) or taWeb as a digital interface integrated into an existing system, or a fully hosted Administration suite – we have a solution that fits pretty much every business requirement.
Continuing with Babel as an example, some clients are astounded to hear that the product generally processes upwards of a million transactions each month for clients, with a monetary value that has on multiple occasions exceeded £1 trillion a month. In my twenty years in the industry – it’s by far the best STP solution I have seen, and that’s just one product out of c.40 we have here at Bravura.
Looking ahead
Bravura isn’t just a core recordkeeping tech provider. We have a number of additional services in addition to Babel and taWeb that can be integrated with existing platforms. For example, one of my clients uses Bravura’s Risk Engine to provide a categorisation of the perceived level of risk associated with an investor’s accounts and the appropriate document set that should be requested to support account verification. If you would like to learn more about our products and services you can contact me here.
We have three trusted Fund Administration platforms that are used by market-leading organisations on global books of business, and we are continually looking for ways to enhance and improve these systems to automate and boost functionality in this ever-evolving market.
Longer term, I see a fully paperless, tokenised future for Funds Administration. Automation and end-customer self-service is the future which further highlights the importance of technology.
Bravura is more than just technology though. I learned very quickly when I joined the company that we have a great team of people here with extensive experience and a real focus on delivering excellence and value to our clients. Technology is on a continual journey to get better – as is Bravura. It’s an exciting time to be involved in our industry as we look to take Funds Admin technology into the next generation and I’m glad to be part of it here at Bravura.
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