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Business continuity planning evolves at FundSERV

High-scoring forward adds bench strength to industry relations and corporate communications team

Senior project manager hits the ground running

FundSERV Board Appointments

FundSERV Network Performance

All articles

Over the past few months, we have strengthened our governance model, made significant progress on our four strategic initiatives, and prepared for the next ESG standards release, Version 16.

At our annual general meeting in February, two independent directors were elected to the board. We are pleased to welcome Ed Waitzer and Brad Badeau as directors-at-large. Ed and Brad will bring a fresh perspective and are sure to keep us focused on increasing the value of our services to our customers. In addition, Gary Norton joined us from Franklin Templeton, replacing James Cook who retired after six years as a director.

In December, we added an internal audit position. David Purewal joined the company in this role and reports directly to the board. David will oversee all our internal audits to ensure the highest level of adherence and transparency.

Recognizing our importance to our customers, we made business continuity planning (BCP) our number one priority for 2005. We identified the need for a second FundSERV site as a key component of our plan. Our requirements included a separate power and communications grid from our Toronto office, and enough space to accommodate future growth. We have signed a lease for a site in Mississauga that meets these requirements and will begin construction in May. The second office will be staffed on a rotational basis over the summer and operational in the fall.

Another important component to our business continuity plan is a business impact analysis (BIA). The BIA survey process began in March and will be completed late in April. The information derived from this process will help us refine and test our plan.

To determine when to initiate disaster recovery procedures, an emergency management team has been established. This team is responsible for responding to an emergency, coordinating and communicating response tactics for staff and customers within the first few hours of a disaster.

Today’s investment fund industry is highly complex, with the types and number of companies, products, and distributors growing and changing daily. To continue to support the industry’s needs, FundSERV also needs to grow and to change. We have taken a number of steps this quarter to make sure this happens. First, we have created a new leadership role, vice president of customer services, to replace the vice president of operations position left vacant last fall. We are working with a search firm and expect to have the position filled this spring. The individual we hire will help us make the transition to a more customer-centric organization, and be responsible for all aspects of customer support and service.

Second, we have established two customer relationship management teams. One team is focusing on tools to manage customer information and the other is looking at customer contact points and relationships company-wide.

And third, we established a project management group to bring a more disciplined approach to project management. Geoff Fox was hired as senior project manager to lead this effort. A new project management tool has been acquired, enabling us to track major projects and resources across the company on an ongoing basis. The project portfolio currently includes ESG V16 and construction of our second office. (For more, read the "Senior project manager hits the ground running" article.)

While smaller in scope than last year's implementation, V16 is the first ESG standards release to include mandatory standards for distributors. This is an important step in further improving efficiency, lowering processing costs and moving to higher levels of automation throughout the investment fund industry. Standards have evolved to a point where there is more to be gained by increasing usage of existing standards than there is by introducing new ones. Beyond this point it will take regulatory change and industry transformation to achieve full straight through processing.

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