Southern Asset Management (SAM), a subsidiary of the FirstRand Group, is converting its 290 funds, which manage more than R34-billion of local and international assets, onto SMAC asset management software, a move which gives it a world-class operating environment.
This R2-million conversion project is the largest installation Smacsoft, developers of the software, have undertaken in South Africa, says managing director Neil Hampton.
The eight unit trust funds, the first phase of the conversion which started in December, have gone live without a hitch. The 60 off balance sheet funds, which manage the assets of individual clients, go live on March 1, and by April 1, the bulk of the on balance sheet pension and life funds, will be live.
SAM`s project manager Roy Joubert says the conversion is part of FirstRand`s plan to standardise on SMAC as the chosen asset management software package for the group, of which RMB Asset Management and Henry Ansbacher is also a part.
Joubert says that a major advantage of SMAC is the real-time integration of the software package`s front office with that of the back office. A direct benefit of the conversion, he says, has been the implementation and automation of the unit trust pricing which has immediately resulted in massive time savings and reduced risk.
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