Financial Services

Today’s financial services organisations are challenged by globalisation, deregulation, industry consolidation, increasing regulatory requirements, squeezed margins, and heightened customer expectations.

Businesses in this sector are therefore increasingly turning to intuitive software systems to help them surmount these issues and to boost growth. They therefore need systems which can empower staff/advisors with tools to deliver exceptional service and build loyalty, which identify, create and sustain profitable customer relationships that build value for you and your customers and which drive down operational costs and boost business efficiencies.

We at M4 Systems have a deep level of expertise in and understanding of the financial services industry. Clients, such as London Stock Exchange and Synergy Insurance, continue to benefit extensively from the Microsoft Dynamics solutions we have implemented and to which we have continuously added value.

Solutions based on Dynamics GP and CRM with SharePoint integration, offer you for example:

• An integrated financial management package which automates mundane tasks, provides full transparency of your current and historical position, aids budgeting and planning, and supports timely and accurate decision-making
• Automated regulatory and financial reporting to meet your audit and compliance obligations, such as Sarbanes Oxley, Basel II and IAS.
• An holistic and more visible view of your customers combined with the ability to nurture profitable sales opportunities and build valuable relationships with existing customers and partners
• Analytical tools to mitigate and control risk
• Web-based collaboration portals and tools to share information, to work more effectively as a team and to better manage documents subject to compliance regulations.

Using Microsoft solutions offers significant advantages over other vendor systems:

• Easy to use graphical user interface, based on familiar technologies, which speeds up user adoption and reduces training costs
• Systems which are built on the Microsoft technology stack (Windows, Office 2007, SQL Server) thus reducing IT complexity and lowering the cost of deployment and maintenance
• Technology backed by huge R&D resources, meaning that under a valid maintenance plan you will always have access to a modern and progressive IT infrastructure and business solution.

Specific functionality relevant to Financial Services includes:

• Flexible Chart of Accounts:
• 10 segments, 66 alphanumeric characters
• AnalyticalAccounting:
• Analyse transactions by unlimited number of dimensions, including non-financial data
• Powerful budgeting and forecasting capability
• Fund management module
• Recurring Contract Billing
• Service / Time Billing
• Deferred Revenue / Expense functionality
• Electronic Banking
• Comprehensive Audit Trails
• Electronic Signatures
• Advanced Security monitoring and alerts
• Superb reporting with drill-down to source documents

Quick quote / information request form:

Financial Services Customers

London Stock Exchange

M4 have worked closely with us on a number of projects and upgrades now, and have helped us to achieve real efficiencies with our accounting systems. They've achieved this by seeking to understand our business as well as we do, helping us identify cost-effective solutions and then implement these successfully. Mark A. Stock Head of Finance Operations London Stock Exchange PLC

The London Stock Exchange has seen phenomenal growth in revenue in recent years, even overtaking The New York Stock Exchange in terms of the value of equity raised (IPOs). Contributing to this success has been the LSE's commitment to and investments in technology, such as introducing new systems which can handle much higher volumes and react much faster to electronic requests, leading to a virtuous circle where less latency results in increased volumes, due to the automated nature of electronic trades.

Not so long ago, the LSE was in the spotlight due to several takeover bids. It has managed to stay independent thus far due to excellent results partly achieved by improved efficiencies. The LSE uses Microsoft technologies extensively, including Microsoft Dynamics GP as the core of their back office system. M4 Systems has assisted the LSE over the past few years to streamline their business processes, helping to improve efficiency by assisting with optimally configuring Dynamics GP and by advising on the use of the many automation features available in the system.

As at October 2006 the LSE went live with a recurring contract billing system developed by M4 Systems for Dynamics GP which will further significantly improve efficiency by automating much of the billing processes related to the numerous information services offered by the LSE. LSE was one of two companies in the whole UK to be on the Dynamics GP Version 10.0 TAP scheme, giving early feedback to Microsoft technical and sales teams on their experience of the new software.

Tradition Financial Services

Founded in 1985, TFS are a market leader in the brokering of financial and non-financial products. With offices worldwide, the company covers currency options, equity derivatives, freight, precious metals, energy, property derivatives and pulp & paper markets. TFS Energy brokers a full spectrum of OTC energy and energy-related physical and derivative products --including electricity, natural gas, crude oil and refined products, coal, environmental products and weather derivatives-- and exchange-traded futures and options.

TFS is a subsidiary of Compagnie Financière Tradition (CFT), which is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland and is one of the world’s top three brokers in financial and commodity-related products. CFT has a presence in 21 countries worldwide with over 2,200 employees and 7,000 clients, which include global banks, financial institutions, and local authorities, major industrial and commercial corporations.

Both TFS and CFT are subsidiaries of VIEL & Cie, which is based in Paris, France, and is continental Europe's top financial brokerage firm.

TFS became a Dynamics GP customer with M4 Systems in 2003. Their main requirements were for a system that could cater for and deliver on the following:

• Purchase ledger and cashbook
• Automated cheque and BACS runs
• Electronic bank statement import and reconciliation
• Multiple VAT codes and partial recovery
• Intercompany processing
• Easy creation of export file of journals for important into the mainframe General Ledger system
• Powerful, yet easy to use reporting
• Quick access to relevant critical information to speed decision-making

CFT (including TFS) has witnessed steady growth over the last 3-4 years, with turnover up 25.1% to CHF 1,144.4 million in 2006. A major contribution to their success is their commitment to investing in people, new markets and technology to remain innovative and competitive in very dynamic, yet globally converging markets.

Founded in 1993 and a member of the Swiss Re Group, PRO Insurance Solutions is recognised as one of the leading providers of run-off management and professional services to the international insurance and reinsurance industry. Their hallmarks of success are breadth and quality of offering, unrivalled pool of resources and a tailored approach to providing solutions with emphasis on problem-solving and delivering results.

PRO switched their Great Plains support contract to M4 Systems in 2000. At the time PRO were neither satisfied with nor reaping the full benefits of the system owing to lack of configuration and customisation. M4 Systems took up the challenge to help PRO achieve greater functionality and improve efficiencies. As a measure of their continued satisfaction PRO have consistently re-invested in the system.

Synergy Insurance Services

Based in the City of London, Synergy Insurance Services UK Ltd is a completely new kind of insurance company which has developed a new concept in the commercial insurance market.

Synergy MicroCaptive™ is a product which offers the flexibility to medium-sized businesses for sharing the responsibility of losses or accidents: companies can bear the costs for small accidents or losses themselves (below the "Switch Point") and let Synergy protect them up to 40% more cheaply than normal insurance on the larger, more serious losses (above the "Switch Point"). Businesses that are well-run can normally make significant savings by ensuring that their small losses are minimised and are considerably less than the money they save on premiums over a period of time. Switch Points are normally between £20,000 and £50,000, and the higher they are, the more a company can potentially save. Synergy offers its MicroCaptive™ through a network of accredited brokers.

Synergy approached M4 Systems in 2006 for an accounting system that would be capable, flexible and scale with their ambitious growth aspirations. On this basis, the company chose Dynamics GP as an accounting solution in preference to a number of other software packages and M4 Systems as the partner to deliver this.