Client Services - Basildon - IFDS House

Agent Services
Deal with all Financial Advisor queries and detail changes. This team also deal with Commission Processing and enquiries regarding Annual Management Charge (AMC) rebates.

Dealing
Process client and broker trades across a number of mediums including telephone, fax and post. Those duties cover the processing and quality checking of investments, redemptions, plan transfers and asset reallocations. There is client and broker contact on a daily basis.

Distributor Services
This team provides all nominees and agents with a single point of contact to place multiple deals or make multiple enquiries across the full range of companies/funds.

Book & Pricing / Deal Amends
The team processes the book positions for all full service clients. This involves calculating decisions and reporting the information to trustees and Fund Managers, it also involves daily interaction with the dealing teams. Duties also incorporate the update and communication of fund prices together with assisting with the processing of deal amends.

Registration
The Register is a list of all Unit Holders (i.e. individual customers) with their personal and Holding details.

This team maintains the Register and makes amendments as & when necessary. This includes increase/decrease/redemption of Holdings, updating deceased clients and Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Fraud controls & verification.

Investment Trust - Basildon
Deal with calls/correspondence, do all Reconciliations and Technical activities for Investment Trust ManCso. Some clients use FAST, other use FIGARO (alternative system provided by JHC).

Pension Administration
Deal with all enquiries from customers about pensions (by letter and phone) provided by the ManCo. They also have a specialist team which deals with system maintenance and enhancements specifically for Pension account administration.

Contact Centre - Chelmsford - Fairbairn House
The Customer Contact Centre consists of all the areas that 'touch' the customer at some point in their lifecycle at IFDS - Telephone Helpline, Written Enquiries, Client Investigation, Client Recovery The Contact Centre is the Customer Service Centre, which offers a wide range of services to meet the needs of our clients and their customers including

Call Centre - deal with all telephone customer queries and requests on behalf of ManCos

Written Enquiries - deal with written customer queries and requests on behalf of ManCos

Vetting - deal with complex enquiries from customers, providing analysis, feedback and any process improvement recommendations. They also call in response to customer letters if apt.

Client Service Recovery - Complaint Handling - deal with all customers complaints, whether received in writing or by phone. They will assess each complaint on its merits against SLA and regulatory requirements and work to resolve. They produce monthly reports listing all cases.

Breach Team - Investigate any reported breaches (i.e. where we have not met the needs/standards of the Service Level Agreement or Regulations.)

DMD - Document Management Dept - Chelmsford - Adams House
This department deals with huge volumes of incoming and outgoing post. Items are scanned onto the system and then routed to the appropriate areas to deal with, where apt.

They also co-ordinate the printing/sending of letters and statements to customers as well as printing/sending of bi-annual statements to ManCos.

CLIENT FINANCE - Basildon - IFDS House
The 'back office' banking function where duties include reconciling accounts, ensuring payments are received and preparing monthly client statements.

The Division is split into role specific teams including:

BACS Processing
Make sure that all transactions are passed accurately through the banking system.

Bank Reconciliations
Double-check all Money-Out and Money-In and look into any items that are left outstanding. They produce a report each month for every Management Company (ManCo).

Cash Management
Ensure that all ManCo payments are correctly processed and keep a running total of the 'cash position' during the day. They keep ManCos updated of the latest cash position through each day.

Client Financial Reporting
This team maintains the General Ledger (FSU) which lists all Money In and Money Out across all our client business. This is then reported to each ManCo on a monthly basis. They investigate any discrepancies and ManCo queries meet each ManCo every month.

Client Finance Support
A 'specialist' team specialising in financial/project management, liaising with systems experts. They are responsible for Finance Standing Data Ownership (working with the FAST team) and run the Frontier Helpdesk. They also work with teams outside of IFDS as & when needed.

Debt Recovery
If we have overpaid a customer or nominee company or have not received funds, this team chases to get the money back.

Distributions - Chelmsford - Adams House
This team works out how much needs to be paid out to each investor. Depending on which ManCo & product the person is invested with, this could be monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual distributions. The team also arranges for payments to be made.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT)

The IT division is divided into 3 key areas

Service Delivery - Covers all 3 sites
Service Delivery is responsible for all IT infrastructure for IFDS offices in the UK, Bangkok & India, it is also responsible for delivering all our applications to our clients. We cover a multitude of technologies & manufactures including Cisco networking, VOIP & IVR, Windows desktop and server, Linux, IBM midrange systems, Server virtualisation & application streaming.

Production Core Support
The role of the team is as an enabler of business processing.

Production Support is responsible for application support of the core systems. This involves managing and scheduling of ad hoc jobs (such as mergers and statements) as well as issue investigation and resolution. In many cases, where a long-term fix is required such as a code fix, the team seeks alternatives means to enable the business to continue processing with minimal impact to meet the client expectations.

Business Analysis and Programme Management
Programme Management provides through Programme Managers and Project Managers a structured framework for defining and implementing change within IFDS, working closely with internal departments and external clients (e.g. Management Companies, Regulatory bodies) to ensure that Projects are delivered on time, to budget and required quality.

The Business Analysis team is responsible for gathering, analysing and documenting business requirements to create, specify and document business system designs that will meet them.

CORPORATE SUPPORT FUNCTIONS

CORPORATE FINANCE - Basildon - IFDS House
Look after all corporate financial planning, statutory accounting (i.e. making sure our books are in good shape and ready for legal inspection) and maintaining the sales/purchase ledger.

COMPLIANCE - Basildon IFDS House
Make sure that we operate within the regulations. Provide feedback and consultancy on all processes, products and procedures. They also discuss approaches and requirements with the ManCos direct. Also monitors Risk and reports concerns to Senior Management and ensures IFDS has robust Business Continuity processes.

HUMAN RESOURCES - Covers all 3 sites
Cover all aspects from Recruitment and Learning and Development through to Performance Management and Reward. The Human Resources team offers support and guidance to all IFDS staff.

PREMISES MANAGEMENT - Covers all 3 sites
Look after the day-to-day running of our buildings. They have responsibility for Health & Safety, mechanical & electronic services.