MIP Holdings, the financial services and medical administration software company that touches the lives of some 7 million South Africans every month, has acquired treasury software specialist TreasureGrow for an unspecified sum.
The acquisition rounds out MIP’s service offering to include medical aid, managed healthcare, employee benefits, personal finance, lending and now MIP Treasury.
“This is a strategic acquisition that carries us into the treasury systems market,” says Richard Firth, CEO and chairman of MIP. “The system slots in alongside our other systems as a single, cohesive unit and part of our proven, open architecture that allows clients the greatest flexibility in operating and managing their business.”
MIP has built its systems on an open platform; it is based on a locally developed software as a service (SaaS) model, with a unique, risk-based billing model that is used as a case study in universities.The billing model is negotiated and linked to customer key performance indicators such as member count, policy count, and basis points of assets under management. The model features product development, technology upgrades and new value-added systems and includes general ledger and financial integration.
The monthly fee covers all costs relating to the administration system, such as application software, database licences, implementation, training, data conversion and ongoing support and enhancements. It enables customers to accurately predict IT expenditure.
“A key reason for this acquisition was our desire to deliver the funds management portion of the administration lifecycle to our clients. The acquisition starts to round off our strategy to deliver a full solution to the financial services industry which the insurance sector has never had,” says Firth. “We have termed this enterprise financial services and will be taking it to market in the next few months as it is a global first.”
MIP adds value to the system through its development platform. Additional systems include call centre and workflow that plug in to extend the core competency into a holistic financial services platform.
“The platform means MIP Treasury has a robust database and open architecture in line with current software trends,” says Firth. “The system enables companies to manage their operations in a controlled environment with tight security and audit trails.”
More than 20 years’ experience has gone into MIP Treasury; it also draws on MIP’s exposure to a multitude of treasury environments around the world. MIP Treasury has been designed by people who set the standards, make decisions and recognise the inherent risk in treasury operations. Its key components are:
- Dealing environment;
- Communication, including e-mail, fax, SMS and Web;
- Cash management;
- Reporting;
- Safe custody management;
- Workflow management; and
- Accounting
With these components and capabilities, MIP Treasury is also a source for risk management, marketing and management information.
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