Source of trust

For many companies in the financial sector, the resilience of their systems is vital to their business model and an area where no compromises can be made. Since financial companies have a level of systems requirements that are very specific and quite demanding, it is important for them to be able to trust their infrastructure partner.

Source, a UK-based independent fund promotion firm specialised in exchange-traded products, is a good example. It focuses on the European equity markets, a fast moving industry in which trust is hard won and can be easily lost. If its systems went down even for a small amount of time, it could have a huge impact on the pricing of its products, and adversely impact customer retention.

Launched in 2009, Source has grown aggressively to manage $15 billion of assets, becoming the fifth largest provider of its kind. As the company evolved, the website content grew in complexity to provide an increasing number of customers with uninterrupted access to up to 1,000 documents and around 80 different products, all with live market data feeds.

In a highly competitive trading environment, Source’s success is dependent on the resilience and flexibility of its systems and website. Source doesn’t have a traditional IT department – this agile company has less than 50 employees and is built to scale – and it expects the same agility from its infrastructure partner.

With business critical functions on the line, choosing a trusted provider was crucial. Colt’s managed services enabled Source to rapidly expand its business while providing customers with the user experience they had come to expect. Robust infrastructure is only one of the sources of trust for the company: Colt’s consulting approach was equally important.

As Source’s customer base has grown and its web-based services evolved to become more complex, its website continued to offer the same performance, with enhanced reporting and analysis allowing it to closely monitor any security threats or changes that could impact users.

In an industry where trust is hard won and easily lost, one minute of failure can undo years of achievement. Therefore a service provider and its technology gain the greatest accolade when it just works - and can be trusted to work at all times. The service provider must inspire trust and grow with the services it supports - becoming invisible to end users.