Mastering the art of migration…

How asset managers switch service providers for success

In the dynamic funds industry, Fund Managers are increasingly voicing their dissatisfaction with the quality of output provided by their service providers. It’s a sentiment that echoes across the industry as Fund Managers assess whether their existing service arrangements truly meet their evolving requirements.

From disruptive staff turnover leading to a loss of critical expertise, to missed reporting and regulatory deadlines, the question remains: Can Fund Managers afford to remain shackled to a service provider that has eroded their confidence, leaving their business vulnerable to significant financial and reputational risks? For me the answer to that question needs to be…NO!

Managing the migration

The meticulous execution of the migration plan by the service provider in the initial two-thirds of the process is paramount to achieving a successful migration and sets the tone for a strong long-term partnership. This critical phase presents an unparalleled opportunity to immerse oneself and deep dive into the detail of your new client and truly understand the incoming client, their investor base, investment strategy, and reporting requirements. This can only be achieved by committing resource and to a structured plan from day one right through until the go-live date.

This carefully structured plan, overseen by your new service team will ensure absolute transparency. Providing update reports, offering you, the client, the assurance that you are in capable hands and on track for a seamless transition.

The final third of the migration plan is to put the icing on the cake and adding the ultimate finishing touches …by allocating this time to shadow the operations of your incoming client as a secondary administrator you can fine tune your service before going live. This is the time your new service team will run in real time which will ensure the smoothest of transitions on the go-live date when incumbent provider fads away and your new service team steps up.

Our expert client service teams have vast experience not only in managing these transitions from both perspectives (client and service provider), but also service experience from the Fund Managers side of the fence. This is one of our differentiators and enables us to build our clients service teams with a unique blend of experience and asset understanding adding greater depth to our service offering.

What’s next?

Fast forward… Your migration is completed, and you are now live and are at the start of the journey with your new service provider. Important steps and decisions have been made to get to this point where the migration has been completed, however, the next steps between you and your new fund administrator are the most important.

From my experience it is important to remember that with any client / service provider arrangement is a partnership and not a dictatorship and that both parties need to communicate and express levels of understanding and when it comes to working together. Only by working on together will both parties experience a strong, reliable, and efficient service which will build from strength to strength over time.