South African company Alfinanz takes international gold again
South Africa's leading business process outsourcing business Alfinanz has taken the honours for 2007 as the Best Financial Services business in the international Outsourcing Excellence Awards program, sponsored by Everest Group and Forbes magazine in the USA.
"We have achieved a lot in such a short space of time, and we are changing the way complex technology needs to be managed and delivered for the financial services industry," says Marc Tison, CEO of Alfinanz.
This is the second time that Alfinanz has been recognised as a world leader. Last year the company was recognised for its part in supporting the fast pace of growth at the local developing market life insurer Channel Life, of which Alfinanz is a subsidiary. It was the first time in 11 years that the Award judges decided a nominee was worth the award for Best Financial Services. What makes this award even more significant, is that this is furthermore the first time any previous winner has won the same category twice in a row. Other category winners include large players such as CSC, IBM, Accenture, Perot Systems, Microsoft and many other prominent names in the global outsourcing industry.
When receiving the Award this year, Tison was asked whether he would be back again in 2008. His responded in the negative - to the surprise of the audience - and pointed out that, Alfinanz had secured a number of new projects (Sanlam SDM subsidiaries) and would therefore be focused on implementation and only ready to participate again in 2009 or 2010.
Turning back to the 2007 nomination, Tison said they worked side-by-side with Aon Consultings retirement benefit division in South Africa and Alfinanz delivered a solution that has made Aon very competitive, driven by the Alfinanz mantra - "We do what you don't".
Carel Smith, business development director, retirement funding for Aon acknowledges the Alfinanz impact: "We now compete head-to-head with the biggest players. This would not have been possible 18 months ago. We are now a high-end service provider with a much lower cost model, which has broken the mould for the pension industry in South Africa."
Three years ago the company, a division of the Chicago, Illinois consulting company, lost 50% of its business and was bleeding badly. Today, Aon utilizes all its clients strategically as a reference of good service. Its customer service has become the envy of the industry and Aon offers a penalty rebate promise, which any client receives if it does not service them as contractually agreed.
"We needed a provider that had the services, industry skills, experience, and IT platform vis--vis a value-based solution to take us forward. We wanted to stick to our knitting and do what we do best and let a strategic supplier provide the IT platform," explains Smith.
In 2004 Aon entered into a three-year contract with Alfinanz, a solutions service provider (SSP), for retirement and pension software and hosting. The contract also includes IT infrastructure and disaster recovery.
Unusually, Aon also requested that Alfinanz assist it with its sales and marketing because Alfinanz would be able to integrate and compliment Aons skills in closing deals with Alfinanzs IT expertise. The retirement industry is driven to closure by the ability of Aon to provide consulting service, administration, and technology services. It was an unusual mix of talent but one that proved to be enormously successful.
"We believe technology partnerships are, and always will be, critical to the success of the business. At Alfinanz, we focus on doing what they do not do, rather than being all things to everyone," says Tison.
Pictured below is :
Marc Tison CEO Alfinanz (on right)
Debra Floyd of Everest Group (on left)
Carel Smith of Aon (middle)
