Ignites Video Part 3: Outsourcing Due Diligence Do's and Dont's

Tom Secaur, Citisoft Inc.'s COO, speaks with Ignites on the investment operations outsourcing market, its drivers, and the considerations required when evaluating outsourcing suitability. You can find the video here (subsciption required). Part Three of this conversation centers on the Do's and Don'ts of Due Diligence.  Highlights include:

Ignites: "So, how much preplanning needs to be done by the investment manager before they choose a service provider and then through the conversion process?”

Tom Secaur: "The due diligence, from our perspective, has been underestimated in the past. I think everybody’s getting smarter. I think the investment manager is getting smarter. The service provider themselves is also getting smarter.

“When you evaluate and take a real hard look at the service providers that are out there and then you enter into contract negotiations, and they can be elongated, you really need to use that time to do as much due diligence as possible. I’ve referenced in the past the future-state design of the various models — operations models, information delivery models, technology models. They all need to be scoped out. A lot of time and effort needs to be put into that due diligence process to make sure that, when you move over to the service provider, you’re getting exactly what you’re looking for, from an SLA standpoint, key performance indicators, et cetera. They’re all hugely important to make sure that the actual partnership itself will be a success.”