Bravura Solutions Pty Limited (Bravura) – a trusted supplier of transfer agency, wealth management and life insurance software applications – is one of only two Australian companies to have been listed among the world’s top 100 technology vendors to financial services companies by IDC Financial Insights. This is the eighth consecutive year that Bravura has secured a place in the FinTech 100 list. 

The FinTech 100, now in its eleventh year, is an annual listing of the world’s leading technology vendors that generate more than one third of their revenue from the financial services sector. 

Chief Executive Officer at Bravura, Tony Klim, said: “We are delighted to have once again, been recognised by the industry for our ongoing innovation and excellence in development and delivery of modern technology solutions and customer service. We have enjoyed global success with our next generation wealth management and life insurance solution, Sonata, having already secured 12 contracted engagements in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the UK.”

In the first half of 2014, Bravura announced three new contracts across Australia and New Zealand, with TAL, Tech Mahindra and Trustees Executors – all for Sonata. The finalisation of a further two UK engagements with leading blue chip organisations is imminent.    

“Built on modern, open, scalable technology with the flexibility to meet changing customer needs, Sonata is becoming well recognised in the industry for the efficiency it delivers, and its ability to enable business growth, from day one and into the future.

“Backed by a team of specialist consultants, our clients are maximising the value of their software investment, and benefitting from low risk implementation enabled by our development methodologies and approach. 

“Our technology, underpinned by 30 years of experience and expertise that Bravura brings, is delivering a very compelling proposition to the market,” said Klim. 

Bravura Solutions Pty Limited (Bravura) has announced an expanded role for the current global Director of Strategy, Darren Stevens. Stevens, who joined Bravura in 2007 and is based in Melbourne, has been appointed Director, Product Management and Strategy for global wealth management. In addition to his previous strategy role, he will be responsible for the global strategic direction and product management of Bravura’s wealth management suite, including wrap and platform, investment, superannuation, life insurance and portfolio administration products. Stevens will be managing a global team spanning the APAC and EMEA regions. He will continue to report directly to Bravura’s global Chief Executive Officer, Tony Klim. Klim said: “We are delighted that Darren has agreed to expand his role at Bravura. His deep product and industry knowledge, coupled with more than 26 years of industry experience – including his previous strategy role – make him the perfect fit for this newly created position. “With 12 contracted Sonata engagements underway and another two close to contract completion, we are seeing rapid market acceptance and adoption of our software throughout APAC and EMEA, across multiple business lines. This growth has been the catalyst for Bravura to ensure global coordination and prioritisation of individual client Sonata development, alongside company funded R&D.” Commenting on his new role, Stevens remarked: “I’m excited to expand my role and team at Bravura. A key focus area going forward will be to ensure our products and solutions closely align not only with our corporate strategy, but also – more importantly – with the needs of our client base, the market / industry direction and future innovation.” - See more at: http://www.financialit.net/news/view/Bravura%20Solutions%20enlarge%20responsibilities%20of%20%20the%20current%20global%20Director%20of%20Strategy,%20Darren%20Stevens/24014#sthash.sxawsk5b.dpuf

Bravura Solutions Pty Limited (Bravura) has announced the appointment of a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Martin Deda has been appointed to the CFO role, reporting directly to Bravura’s global Chief Executive Officer, Tony Klim.  He will also serve as an Executive Director on the Board of Bravura. Klim said: “We are delighted to welcome Martin to the company and the Executive team. With more than 19 years’ experience in senior finance and operations roles, predominately within the IT and professional services industry sectors, his extensive knowledge and expertise will be a valuable addition to our growing organisation.” Deda’s most recent position was as Chief Operating Officer (COO) / CFO for leading regional law firm Minter Ellison. In this role, he had overall responsibility for the firm’s financial and management accounting and reporting, tax, treasury, commercial and bid support, facilities management, IT infrastructure, applications and support, and corporate/office services. Prior to joining Minter Ellison, Deda had built a long and successful career in numerous finance positions. In July 2008, he was appointed CFO of iSOFT Ltd, an ASX200 listed global Healthcare IT provider. This role included responsibility for tax, treasury, financial and management accounting and reporting, investor relations, company secretarial, commercial, M&A and bid & contract management. Previous to this, Deda served as regional COO / CFO with CSC for Central and Eastern Europe, and he also held senior finance and operations roles at TNT and StorageTek in EMEA. At CSC and StorageTek, he was a key member of highly effective management teams that significantly improved the performance of these businesses. This was preceded by eight years of management consulting experience at PA Consulting Group, leading projects in Australia, UK, Netherlands and Germany, focusing primarily on M&A, performance improvement and re-engineering. Commenting on his new role, Deda remarked: “Given the strong global interest Bravura is experiencing for its wealth management and life insurance applications, this is an exciting time to join the company and play a role in its future growth and development. I look forward to applying my finance skills and international experience, as well as my deep expertise in technology services, to continuously improving the performance of the business.” Deda studied Economics and Accounting at the University of Western Australia and at the Australian National University. He has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales. He is a Certified Practicing Accountant (FCPA, Australia) and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD). Deda will officially commence his role on 22 September 2014. - See more at: http://www.financialit.net/news/view/Bravura%20Solutions%20hires%20new%20Chief%20Financial%20Officer/23916#sthash.grGVNzKH.dpuf

Bravura Solutions Pty Limited (Bravura), is pleased to announce that its client, VicSuper, has gone live with a new mobile website, powered by Bravura’s online solution. The mobile site provides VicSuper members with a range of functions to make the experience of engaging with their superannuation easier and more accessible. This marks the on-time, on-budget completion of phase one of a project to transform VicSuper’s technology framework. Michael Dundon, Chief Executive Officer, VicSuper said: “Providing our members with the best online services we can is a key objective of VicSuper for 2014. As such, we have engaged Bravura to work to with us in improving our IT environment. The successful implementation of our mobile site marks the first major milestone of this project towards improving our digital offering to our members. “We recognise that delivering services through the mobile channel is a necessity. Through this online solution, our members will now have real-time access to their superannuation and pension accounts via their desktop, laptop or mobile device. Bravura’s online solution enables us to provide our members with the ability to view their account balances, investment strategy, transaction history, pension details and investment performance anytime, anywhere. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with Bravura and working to complete the next stage of our project”. The remaining components of the project will centre on the implementation of Sonata, Bravura’s next generation wealth management administration system, beginning with SuperStream compliance for employers through employer contributions functionality. This work is scheduled to be completed over the next 12 months. Jason Tong, Chief Operating Officer – Asia Pacific, Bravura said: “The successful completion of this first stage of the transformation project has already opened up a significant opportunity for VicSuper to engage with its members and achieve increased efficiencies. “We look forward to continuing to deliver the advantages of modern technology as we progress with our implementation schedule”. Sonata is Bravura’s unified wealth management platform providing customer-centric administration of superannuation, pension, investment, wrap and life insurance products. Sonata provides rich, proven business functionality delivered in Java and Oracle technology. The solution includes workflow, analytics, mobility and straight through processing capabilities. - See more at: http://www.financialit.net/news/view/vicsuper-goes-live-with-mobile-website-for-members-powered-by-bravura-solutions/23114#sthash.eibUOYTc.dpuf

Bravura Solutions Pty Limited (Bravura), is pleased to announce that Trustees Executors Limited, New Zealand’s largest supplier of third party back office financial services, has selected Sonata, Bravura’s unified wealth management platform, via a managed service arrangement, to replace its current installation of Talisman, one of Bravura’s heritage wealth management applications. With its growing business and customer demand for online capabilities, Trustees Executors Limited required an established technology partner that could deliver an enhanced registry proposition. Sonata was selected to fulfil these imperatives and to provide greater efficiency, improved services and better web-enabled access to data and functionality. Bravura is a long-standing technology provider in New Zealand, with more than 50 per cent of all KiwiSaver accounts being administered on Bravura platforms. Tom Hoey, Group Executive, Trustees Executors said: “After an extensive market evaluation process we selected Bravura and its Sonata software. Sonata’s functionality and its strong presence in the New Zealand market were critical factors in our choice. “Sonata provides us with a modern, scalable solution and supports a broad range of New Zealand market requirements including KiwiSaver, PIEs and unit trusts. “The provision of 24×7 web access to customers requires high levels of technology integration, infrastructure, support and management, so Bravura’s ability to provide Sonata through a ‘Software as a Service’ model was key in our selection. A fully hosted managed service delivery approach allows us to focus on pursuing excellence in our core business. The arrangement also means that the software and infrastructure supporting our registry business will be expertly managed by Bravura – the same team that developed and implemented Sonata”. Bravura has a robust support framework in New Zealand, with a local team of more than 70 people. Bravura’s Auckland office is one of the organisation’s eight global development centres and much of Sonata’s development is led from New Zealand. Roland Slee, Managing Director – APAC, Bravura said: “We are delighted that Trustees Executors has chosen to enter into a new phase in its partnership with Bravura. Trustees Executors and Bravura have been doing business together for 10 years now. This mutual knowledge and commitment sets us up well to begin a new era based on Sonata. Trustees Executors’ third party services, underpinned by Sonata’s leading edge technology and functionality, presents the market with a unique and compelling business proposition. “Sonata has been gaining significant global momentum, as wealth managers and life insurers recognise Sonata’s technical and functional superiority, evidenced by four new sales in Australia and New Zealand in the last ten months. We have prepared well for this growth with over 100 new hires in the last year, as well as engagement with various external partners to ensure high quality delivery and implementation”. - See more at: http://www.financialit.net/news/view/trustees-executors-licenses-bravura-solutions--sonata-via-a-managed-service-arrangement/22907#sthash.lSbpqJB9.dpuf

Bravura Solutions Pty Limited (Bravura), today announced that it has promoted Terry McCann to the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) with a global remit. Terry was previously Head of IT, Hosting Services at Bravura.

The move comes as the company sees increased interest in its managed service offering from across the Asia Pacific region. A significant part of Terry’s role will be to support and grow this area of the business. In addition, he takes responsibility for ensuring the company has the appropriate infrastructure and tools in place to deliver against strategic and commercial objectives.

“With 80 per cent of our EMEA clients using our managed services, and increasing interest worldwide, a clear trend is emerging,” said Terry. “We see a shift in the way organisations provision software and it marks a growing acceptance of the cloud and the use of third party providers. It is an exciting time to take on this role and I look forward to helping our clients benefit from Bravura’s operational scale and technology expertise.”

Bravura supports three of the world’s largest third party administrators with over £1 trillion in assets administered on its solutions. Building on the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, its managed services solution has been available for a number of years, supporting over 120 management companies across the UK and Europe. The firm is now seeing an upsurge as organisations look to mitigate project risk and reduce capital investment. The service offers an industrial-strength application support process framework, backed by a dedicated team of subject matter experts to help monitor, manage, fine tune and enhance business applications.

Bravura’s CEO, Tony Klim said: “As certain sectors of the industry move away from in-house arrangements we are well placed to offer high quality support alongside our hosting partners. Our managed services enable firms to reduce operational costs and business risk, allowing them to focus on agility and core strengths.

“Terry has extensive IT and operations expertise. We are confident that he will excel in this role, building on our managed services success and working with our global teams to develop and deliver our clients IT infrastructure to optimally support Bravura’s software.”

Terry will also be responsible for the development of a testing and performance framework to enhance collaboration with clients and deliver continued quality of service.

Prior to joining Bravura, Terry was Director, Global Production & Support at DST Global Solutions. 

- See more at: http://www.financialit.net/news/view/Bravura%20Solutions%20appoints%20Terry%20McCann%20as%20CIO/23834#sthash.eTMeS02l.dpuf

Bravura Solutions Pty Limited (Bravura) is pleased to announce that Tech Mahindra has licensed Sonata, Bravura’s modern, unified wealth management platform. Tech Mahindra, a leading international provider of ICT solutions and services, has been contracted by Perpetual Limited (Perpetual) to provide registry services. Bravura and Tech Mahindra will collaborate to migrate Perpetual’s registry platform to Sonata from Talisman, one of Bravura’s heritage wealth management applications. Sonata will be employed to record and manage investor, adviser, dealer and product details for Perpetual’s retail and wholesale funds, incorporating its investment and superannuation funds. Rohit Gandhi, Head Asia Pacific, India, Middle East & Africa, Tech Mahindra said: “We selected Sonata as it provides proven, mature business functionality for Australian wealth management, coupled with modern, service oriented architecture technology, enabling outstanding performance, availability, security and data integrity”. Roland Slee, Bravura’s Managing Director – APAC, said: “As the industry turns increasingly to technology as an enabler of business growth and simplification, Sonata’s rich functionality and modern technology positions it well as the solution for wealth managers going forward. “This deal demonstrates the rapidly growing popularity of Sonata, and we are poised for this growth. We are drawing on and expanding our partner relationships, and have made over 100 new hires in the last 12 months to focus on high quality delivery”. This arrangement between Bravura, Tech Mahindra and Perpetual reflects a growing industry trend. A number of Australian wealth management institutions are seeking modernisation and operational services of the type Tech Mahindra is providing, underpinned by leading edge technology such as Bravura’s Sonata. Sonata is Bravura’s unified wealth management platform providing customer-centric administration of superannuation, pension, investment, wrap and life insurance products. Sonata provides rich, proven business functionality delivered in Java and Oracle technology. The solution includes workflow, analytics, mobility and straight through processing capabilities. - See more at: http://www.financialit.net/news/view/tech-mahindra-selects-bravura-solutions----sonata-to-modernise-core-registry-platform/22517#sthash.wNsPMOyr.dpuf

Bravura Solutions Pty Limited (Bravura) today announced that, due to company growth, it has relocated its team in Poland to new, larger premises in Warsaw. The Warsaw office is one of eight global R&D centres of excellence, serving as a development hub for Bravura’s EMEA operations.

The expanded Polish team will support the continued and growing market demand across the EMEA region for Bravura’s products and services. The increased capacity will also see the Warsaw office extend the solutions it currently develops and supports.

Bravura established its Polish operations in 2008, following the acquisition of the GTAS transfer agency software business from Citi. Since then, the number of Warsaw office employees has more than doubled and Bravura plans to continue hiring over the next 12 months.

Martin Lawson, Bravura’s Head of Operations in Poland, said: “We have grown our team in response to strong industry demand. Leasing a larger office space both demonstrates and strengthens our commitment to the EMEA region by further enhancing our technical, capital and development capabilities.” 

Bravura CEO, Tony Klim added: “Our Warsaw office has proven its value over the past six years. The city is a development hub for our EMEA operations due to its reputation as a centre for business and its ability to attract high calibre IT professionals. We look forward to building on our success and setting the stage for Bravura to continue to expand and develop our business within the region.”

Bravura’s Polish operations are now located at Atrium 1, Rondo ANZ, in the business centre of Warsaw.

Alongside the expansion in Poland, Bravura has also created a number of new positions across India, the United Kingdom and Asia Pacific as it continues to experience growing demand for Sonata, its wealth management and life insurance solution.

- See more at: http://www.financialit.net/news/view/Bravura%20Solutions%20expands%20Polish%20operations%20%20with%20new%20Warsaw%20office/23781#sthash.fo73WVuj.dpuf

Bravura Solutions Pty Limited (Bravura) has appointed Steve Fice as Head of UK Transfer Agency Operations. He replaces John Waddy, who has been promoted to Head of EMEA Wealth Management Operations, reflecting the growth of the Sonata wealth management business over the last six months and the increasing pipeline of opportunities. Both will report to Andy Chesterton, Chief Operating Officer in EMEA.

“With significant global financial services roles under his belt, Steve’s wealth of knowledge is a welcome addition to the Bravura team, as we continue to support our existing blue chip client base with their core transfer agency requirements,” Chesterton said. “John’s new role will help to ensure the successful delivery of our Sonata programme. It demonstrates our commitment to the investment we have made in this technology solution which combines life insurance, pensions and investment administration capabilities across a single product architecture."

Fice joins from the SQS Group where he was Managing Director for the UK & South Africa. He brings over 25 years’ software and financial services experience. Based in the London office, he joined Bravura at the beginning of February.

“Bravura has a strong reputation and client base in the transfer agency space,” said Fice. “I look forward to bringing my expertise to the role, building on the company’s proven delivery record and contributing to the organisation’s overall success in the UK.”

Further changes see Jeremy Curran-Ross take up a role within the wealth management business as Head of Technical Consultancy. Andy Clapton is now Head of Technical Architecture and Strategic Development in the UK transfer agency business.

- See more at: http://www.financialit.net/news/view/bravura-solutions-appoints-steve-fice-as-head-of-uk-transfer-agency-operations/22108#sthash.oK4qbGVw.dpuf