Providing independent business systems advice to financial services
Private Equity Firm
Background
This
Private Equity Firm leads mid-market private equity investments in medium
sized growth companies in the UK and Ireland and has financed over 150
management buy-outs, buy-ins and business expansions in four main sectors
- technology, specialist manufacturing, healthcare and media. Existing
packaged systems were predominantly based around Microsoft Office with
accounting ledgers running on Access Horizons accounts software. Apart
from accounting, most processing activities were based on Microsoft Access databases written in house.
User requirements definition and selection of new fully integrated packaged solution.
Scale
1 location, 30+ staff.
Scope of requirements
Front Office: contact management, fund raising, marketing, research & deal origination, deal management
Back Office: portfolio management, fund management, investor relations, track record
Islands of information - existing systems were not integrated resulting in duplication, manual intervention and much re-keying of data.
Bespoke applications - key processing operations were being managed using a single user bespoke application which was reliant on one person to update and maintain.
Reliance on spreadsheets - spreadsheets were being used to duplicate information maintained in the bespoke database.
Limited management information - much manual effort was required to produce management and statistical reports.
Lack of communication between front and back office operations - the nature of the systems used restricted efficient sharing of data between front and back office operations.
Demanding requirements from investors - investors were becoming increasingly demanding in terms of the information required on their investments.
The user requirements for both front and
back office operations were documented and issued to potential suppliers
of appropriate solutions. Proposals received from suppliers were evaluated
and a short-list for further investigation established. Detailed
demonstrations with the short-listed suppliers were held based on sample
"scenarios" generated by the Firm. Following these
demonstrations a favoured supplier was identified and due diligence
undertaken along with final contract negotiation.
“We
benefited from Microguide’s independence and pragmatic approach to
software selection. Their tried and tested structured selection process
allowed us to follow a clear step by step approach to choosing our
favoured supplier as well as understand some of the softer business issues
involved in the procurement and implementation process.”
Finance
Director
Microguide Corporate Computer Consultants, 82 Shortlands Road, Kingston-upon-Thames, KT2 6HE
Tel: 020 8549 7152
Fax: 020 8549 8112
Email:enquiry@microguide.co.uk
ã2008 Microguide. All rights reserved.
