Alexander Forbes Financial Services, the retirement fund and employee benefit administration specialist, has enjoyed a boost in its back-end office financial control SmartStream application since engaging with Comparex Africa Mainstream for its Partnership Support Programme.
Accordingly, it has renewed the support contract for the second time.
"Outsourcing the maintenance of our back-end production environment to Comparex Africa Mainstream has cut costs and kept our front-end application running efficiently, which in turn allows us to improve our client service," says Jon Brown, account manager at Alexander Forbes.
The core of Alexander Forbes Financial Services` business is administering the corporate employee benefit market in SA, a sector in which the group holds a significant share. This includes administering provident and pension funds, employee benefit consulting, actuarial and related services such as healthcare management, financial planning and asset management. A stable operating environment is therefore critical to the company`s operations, as financial records must always be up to date.
"Delays in the issuing of invoices, cheques or interactions with suppliers can quickly impact the business," adds Ian Thomas, principal systems engineer at Comparex Africa Mainstream.
Alexander Forbes initially contracted with Comparex Africa Mainstream some 14 months ago, and has seen such improved uptime and cost savings that there was no hesitation in renewing the contract.
"It was a drain on our resources to manage such a specialised environment ourselves," says Brown. "It made better financial and management sense to hand over the running of our environment to specialists."
The support provided by Comparex Africa Mainstream is a combination of proactive remote management and on-site maintenance. Comparex Africa Mainstream support also includes direct personal interaction with Alexander Forbes management on a weekly basis.
The consultancy provided in these sessions includes future strategy, expansion and the management of day-today issues that raise their head while running a complex financial system, which touches numerous inputs and external clients and suppliers on a daily basis.
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