Portfolio management and administration services solutions provider Findata Financial Services has chosen Sybase's Adaptive Server Anywhere (ASA) database as the enabling technology driver behind PROFIDA, its client, portfolio and commission administration system responsible for all client data.
Designed by financial software developer Computer Science Software, PROFIDA is off-the-shelf software that provides all relevant functionality for the management of clients' personal and portfolio details by brokers, asset managers and financial consultants.
Reputedly the most widely used technology in embedded mobile applications in the world, Sybase ASA is estimated by Gartner to be the database of choice across 75% of the world's financial consulting industry.
"ASA is used extensively in applications where a self-managing, self-tuning database is required that needs no significant understanding of the technology," explains Rob Simpson, MD of Sybase Cape. "The flexibility of the ASA database enables the efficient management of information liquidity, enhancing the rapid and robust movement of data."
The PROFIDA solution was written in Java with ASA as the underlying database providing reliability and scalable performance.
"The stability and scalability of the software ensures data is not only properly stored but can be rapidly recalled, whether by a single user or in a large network environment," says Daniel Putra, MD of Computer Science Software.
PROFIDA is compliant with the Financial Advisor Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act in terms of record-keeping, managing client, policy and investment information, and processing this information for financial needs analysis. A user and date/time stamped event log maintains a history of all changes to client files for compliance purposes. Reports can be pulled listing clients' portfolios, dates of maturing contracts, client birthdays and the diarising of specific tasks per individual or policy.
The introduction of PROFIDA at Findata Financial Services in 2002 saw the replacement of DOS-based, in-house software and a database that was not networked and was unable to cope with the volume of information required. The shift to PROFIDA involved the merge of client data scattered across 11 separate databases into a single solution which consolidates details of the life cover, medical aid and investment and employee benefit portfolios of individual and corporate clients.
The flexibility of PROFIDA enables direct communication with Astute, the first South African financial service exchange hub, providing a link between financial product providers and the databases of intermediaries for portfolio information.
"The ability to import client portfolios into PROFIDA via the Web means brokers can receive portfolio overviews prior to client meetings, saving time and enhancing client service. PROFIDA makes sure that all activities with, or tasks conducted on behalf of our clients are electronically stored and also allows to check our interactions with clients at any time," says Iaan van Heerden, MD of Findata Financial Services.
All physical scanned-in documents are linked to the client's portfolio so the information is immediately accessible on the server. E-mails including attachments can be sent from PROFIDA, and e-mails can also be directly received within PROFIDA, making it the only financial software package worldwide to act as an e-mail client package.
"PROFIDA accommodated Findata's unique commission administration structures and incentive plans with great flexibility and adapted easily to our specific requirements regarding the administration of group employee benefits and medical aids," says Van Heerden.
The client base can be dissected according to specific demographic groupings such as gender, age, language, marital status, education level, cover insured, investment sums or premiums for evaluation, client research or marketing purposes. Results can be copied and pasted into MS Excel or Word for further data processing.
Van Heerden says PROFIDA's scalability and lack of rigidity will easily accommodate the company's future plans and requirements for group retirement planning and Web access.
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