To significantly increase the capacity and processing power available to customers of its managed service, Mutual Fund Technologies (MFT, http://www.mf-tech.com) has gone live with a dual i5 model 570 system complex. The Tonbridge, Kent-based firm provides transfer agency systems and software to the global mutual fund industry.

The Global Fund Administration System (GFAS) lies at the heart of MFT’s success. The system is used by some of the world’s largest mutual fund providers and administrators. The consultancy and support services MFT also provides help clients develop and implement business processes enabling them to manage their back and front-offices in the most cost effective and automated way.

GFAS currently services over 10 million account fund holdings, 100 fund groups and 5,000 funds, and has over US $450 billion in funds under administration.

Performance, reliability and security are key priorities for any mutual fund back-office operation, which is why MFT offers a managed service for its GFAS product. And that calls for a resilient, reliable and secure processing platform on which to be based.

In October 2006, MFT selected System i technology, opting for the System i 570 platform, with a specification that provides uplift to 16,000 commercial processing workload (CPW) and 200 terabytes of storage space. In May 2007, MFT completed the transition of its entire customer base onto the new platform, the project being on time and to budget. Already customers are witnessing significant improvements in processing and performance capabilities.

Prior to implementing the model 570, MFT had been running an AS/400 730 as a production machine. The i5 platform positions MFT for significant future growth.

David White, client services director at MFT says: “I am very pleased with the results and that our customers are already enjoying significant benefits. We selected System i technology as it reinforces our commitment to provide class-leading managed services.”

Mark Batchelor, System i director IBM UK, Ireland and South Africa says: “I am delighted MFT has chosen System i technology as the platform to deliver performance improvements to its current clients and increased capacity, supporting its plans for future growth.”

Gary Janaway, head of operations for Schroders Fund Services Luxembourg, and a key customer of MFT’s services, says: “Over the past 18 months we have consolidated more of our business onto MFT’s platform and over the next three years we will be continuing this trend. The scaling up of the company’s infrastructure is very timely and we are delighted with the benefits that we have already witnessed.”

“MFT has created two secure, state of the art data centres, providing an exceptional record of System i availability,” says White. “The organisation uses two 570s of the same specification in each of its data centres.”

White indicates these are two geographically separated sites, designed to ensure the smooth running of client operations, with physical and electronic access to the sites monitored 24x7; environmental, power management and data back-up facilities expected of a world-class installation; onsite standby generators; and complex firewalls providing robust protection and security for data. “This facility is underpinned by a disaster recovery capability that provides a high level of comfort to users of the system,” says White.

According to White, what really clinched the choice of System i technology and the 570 in particular was “the ease of migration from the AS/400 and the growth path that the latest System i technology provides. The 570 was chosen as the machine which provided the performance improvements we were looking to achieve for our clients.”

“With the managed service, we can significantly reduce a client’s hardware, resource and service expenditure through economies of scale and focused expertise,” says White. “We can also reduce the management headache, upheaval and resource associated with a large-scale development and implementation.”

Frank Booty