AstraPen, the pension fund system developed by software house MIP Holdings, has been awarded Solve Certification Gold Status by specialist financial services consultancy Solve.
This is the first time Solve has awarded Gold Status to a pension fund solution since it began its certification programme three years ago. Solve is a management consultancy specialising in providing players in the financial services industry with strategic and operational solutions. Solve`s offerings include evaluating, selecting and implementing software solutions for the industry, specifically employee benefits, asset management, treasury, life insurance and mutual funds.
AstraPen is a fully Web- and e-commerce enabled software system. MIP developed it for the Joint Municipal Pension Fund (JMPF) last year. The system is 100% South-African-developed.
"We are very impressed with MIP`s ability to develop comprehensive employee benefit solutions and their commitment to customer support," says Solve IT manager Jean Durand. "This commitment allows clients to focus completely on their core business, knowing that MIP will provide and support the required IT solution."
Solve Certification is an accreditation awarded by the Solve Centre of Excellence (CoE) to software solutions and suppliers that meet a set of predetermined functional business requirements and levels of system support. "We are exceptionally pleased with achieving Gold Status," says MIP Holdings chairman Richard Firth. "It confirms our belief that the system is one of the best on the market. It also meets all the requirements of far more expensive international systems.
"Solve`s knowledge of the financial markets puts it at the forefront in terms of understanding market requirements of software solutions. Solve`s impartiality is guaranteed by the fact that it does not benefit from any software sales, only from providing its clients with the best strategic and operational solutions." An immediate benefit of the accreditation for MIP is that AstraPen`s achievement will automatically be listed on the Solve Systems Universe, a comprehensive online listing of all the software solutions available to the financial markets (visit www.solve.co.za). Systems that meet or exceed industry standards are awarded Silver Status. Gold Status is awarded only to systems that have been implemented in a commercial (live) environment and have achieved high levels of client satisfaction.
Achieving Solve Certification guarantees strong recommendation by Solve Consulting when it advises its clients on system selection, resulting in the introduction to new clients to the accredited party, and dramatically reducing the software sales cycle. In order to assess the system, Solve spent two days evaluating and benchmarking it against "best practice" requirements. As part of the evaluation process for Gold Status, evaluators also visited JMPF to see the fully implemented system in operation in a commercial environment and to interview users and managers running it.
The panel considered AstraPen`s functionality and MIP`s ability to provide prospective clients with a workable business solution and support during its lifecycle.
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Solve is a specialist financial services consultancy (formerly known as TRAMS Consulting Services) formed in 1997 by a team from one of the big five consultancies. Solve offers services and advice to players in the financial services industry based on its experience and knowledge of industry issues and available software solutions. The Solve [Centre of Excellence] (CoE) performs dedicated research on developments in the financial markets covering market developments on asset management, treasury, risk management, financial products and instruments, legislation and exchanges. The CoE also researches and evaluates the latest information systems offerings available, providing objective opinion to clients and suppliers. In addition, the CoE provides plays a knowledge management role and provides project management tools to Solve`s consultants.
MIP Holdings
MIP Holdings is an IT solutions house strategically focused on two key operational areas: software application development and open source support tools and services. MIP`s software application development division delivers mission-critical business administration systems for the financial services systems, healthcare, insurance, pension fund and property management industries. MIP`s open source support tools and services focuses on the delivery of rapid application development tools for e-commerce and Web enablement. Two core products, AstraGen and AstraFin, have plug-and-play capability in the Progress development environment.
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