Dunstan Thomas move Imago Front Office suite onto Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform  

Dunstan Thomas Imago Front Office for new business and review illustrations is launched as a Cloud-based SaaS offering.

Dunstan Thomas, a leading financial services software provider, has launched Imago Front Office ‘in the Cloud’ following extensive testing and development over the last two years. Imago Front Office will initially be hosted on its own Virtual Machines (VMs) but customers’ data will be ported to VMs on Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform later in 2012.

The benefits of on-demand computing run on the cloud are very relevant to the UK financial planning market as it faces numerous challenges. The increased regulatory scrutiny both locally and abroad, is adding complexity and cost to the providers and distributors.

For the financial adviser the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), which comes into effect in 2013, creates massive pressure to cut administration costs by streamlining processes. The ability to use planning tools and illustration applications via the web; without the hassle and cost of implementing IT systems; while retaining the benefits of straight through processing; becomes vital in running a profitable business.

Financial product providers, on the other hand, need to consider the cost of keeping systems up-to-date and compliant. They are also starting to recognise the benefits of having a single solution that advisers and administrators can access from anywhere as long as they can get online.

Natanje Holt, managing director, Dunstan Thomas said:
“As an industry if we want to stimulate and encourage a saving culture amongst the younger generations we need to provide online applications that work on any device and communicate financial product benefits succinctly. These expectations add numerous complexities for providers to consider.

“How do I create systems capable of scaling up rapidly as demand rises while keeping data highly secure; creating a rich and interactive user experience; and encouraging the user to come back? These questions can be addressed by deploying applications to the cloud, which is where most software applications will be going.”

Chris Read, chief executive, Dunstan Thomas, added:
“Cloud computing is set to go mainstream. The financial services industry might be a little behind the curve in terms of take-up, however it is anticipated that consumption in the retirement software market will change significantly in the next two years.

“Cloud certainly changes your business model. It is comparable to the impact of the RDR on the adviser market. For some it will provide an opportunity for others a threat. Dunstan Thomas will be a leading player in providing applications in the cloud to the market. Successful new cloud-based IT services will have the power to transform the efficiency of existing and dominant design, distribution or transaction processes and we want to enable this transformation in the market that we have specialised in for more than 20 years.”

Dunstan Thomas began investigating the possibility of offering its front office retirement market software suite Imago as an on-demand, Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, more than two years ago having observed the success of other types of SaaS offerings in disrupting and transforming other markets.

During the last quarter of 2010 world renowned industry analyst Gartner also carried out a comprehensive study of 290 global chief information officer (CIOs) in the financial services sector in which it found that cloud computing was the top priority. A total of 39 per cent of those surveyed expected that more than half of all their transactions would be supported via cloud infrastructure and SaaS offerings by 2015.

The cloud revolution has now begun and its impact on the retirement planning marketing is about to be felt as Dunstan Thomas progressively rolls out its pre, at and post retirement planning tools in the cloud.

The key benefits of cloud computing for adopters in the life and pensions market are as follows:
1. Incremental Scalability & Agility: Cloud environments allow users to access additional computer processing power on-demand in response to increased application loads in a seamless manner as the cloud manages the demand and will scale up or down automatically
2. Reliability and Fault-Tolerance: Cloud environments take advantage of the built-in redundancy of the large numbers of servers that make them up by enabling high levels of availability and reliability for applications that can take advantage of this
3. Integration friendly: The cloud is a natural home for service-oriented applications, which means integration can be done to provide harmonious user experiences, while moving from one application to another
4. Utility-based: Users only pay for the services they use, either by subscription or transaction-based models. This means you only pay for the resource you use
5. Shared: By enabling IT resources to be consolidated, multiple users share a common infrastructure, allowing costs to be more effectively managed without sacrificing the security of each user's data
6. Service Level Agreement-driven: Clouds are managed dynamically based on service-level agreements that define policies such as delivery parameters, costs, and other factors.
Dunstan Thomas also has an IT consultancy division called Dunstan Thomas ALM which helps financial services companies migrate their existing IT systems into the cloud. The Dunstan Thomas ALM Cloud team analyses existing systems and infrastructure to provide an implementation plan with viable methods of migration and cost savings.
Dunstan Thomas combines its business experience in financial services with expertise in software development, providing this market with a technology partner focused on the real needs of the sector.


Notes to Editors:
Dunstan Thomas recently launched its eGuide to the ‘Changing Face of the Retirement Planning Market’ which is designed to help financial advisory firms, product and platform providers as they prepare their IT infrastructures’ for doing business in an RDR world. Please download a copy of it at: http://www.dthomas.co.uk/imago/retirementplanningguide/default.html

About Dunstan Thomas:
Dunstan Thomas is a leading retirement planning administration software and services provider offering a fully integrated range of components under the Imago brand. These components together provide the key back and front office administration tools needed by pension providers, third party administrators and financial advisers. Imago’s Front Office administration components include Illustrations, Reviews and stochastic models in Adviser Tools. Imago’s Back Office tools include Administration and Property.

Dunstan Thomas’ Imago is now establishing itself as a highly functional platform for servicing not only pensions products but also supporting Wrap platforms to help them generate increased efficiencies and automate calculations, illustrations and provide all relevant reporting capabilities.

For further information about Dunstan Thomas please contact:
Chris Read, chief executive
Dunstan Thomas
Tel: 0239 282 2254
Email: cread@dthomas.co.uk

For Dunstan Thomas UK media enquiries please contact:
Miles Clayton
Agility PR
Tel: 01992 587439
Email: miles@agilitypr.co.uk