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November 2004 |
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Growth Pensions has a New Name Ø What are Market Linked Income
Streams Ø Pillar Administration
keeps on Growing Ø Catapult CAPITAL
Release News Upcoming
Management User Group Ø The IBM Insurance Conference in
Bangkok September 23 and 24 Ø 1st Asia Insurance Review Pensions Conference in Singapore 12th and 13th October |
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Introduction
Welcome
to the latest edition of SyncSoft’s What’s New Client Newsletter. As many of you are aware SyncSoft has
recently introduced a new corporate image. We are pleased to advise that it has been an huge success
with the successful launch of our new look at the recent IFSA conference at
the Gold Coast and trust you will find the new look newsletter easy to
navigate and informative to read. SyncSoft Welcomes New
Client
SyncSoft
is pleased to advise that we have commenced a new partnership in this
calendar year. The PSI Group
SyncSoft
has been successful in partnering with a new client in Australia. The PSI Group, a Newcastle based
superannuation administrator, consultant and investment adviser has selected
CAPITAL as its new platform. PSI
and SyncSoft will initially be converting the Nationwide Superannuation Fund
of 90,000 members from an in-house developed system to the CAPITAL Package
and aim to complete this by 2nd quarter 2005. As part of the implementation PSI will adopt the new and
integrated imaging and workflow functionality within CAPITAL. Growth Pensions has a New Name
The
legislation is now passed with Growth Pension being formally gazetted as
Market Linked Income Streams. The government in finalising the legislation
made changes that recognised that the new pensions are subject to market
changes and not necessarily will they always be in growth. So what are Market Linked Income Streams?
Market
Linked Income Streams are a general term for the new type of retirement
income stream (also known as Term Allocated). Market Linked Income Streams will be based on a portfolio
of investments selected by the purchaser, including growth investments (e.g.
shares in the stock market).
Market Linked Income Streams will have an account structure similar to
an allocated pension or annuity, but would also have a fixed term based on
the life expectancy of the purchaser.
A fixed formula would set the amount of income to be paid in a given
year. Market Linked Income
Streams cannot be commuted to a lump sum (except in limited circumstances)
and will have no residual capital value at the end of the term. 'Complying' income streams are those
that qualify for the pension reasonable benefits limit (RBL), and that are
exempt from the age pension assets test. SyncSoft's plans are now well advanced and in conjunction with two clients are working to a Q4 release of the new Market Linked Income Stream pensions offering within the CAPITAL Package. CAPITAL Project Update
Unit Trust Goes Live
SyncSoft
is pleased to advise clients that it now has a fully functioning production
ready unit trust capability.
Some of the new features include; full cash account functionality,
regular payment streams in and out, flexible configuration to manage fees,
commissions, unit pricing and distribution functionality that caters for all
notional and real distribution components for investors. If
you would like to know more about CAPITAL’s unit trust product features,
please contact our office. Pillar Administration keeps on Growing
Over
the past 5 months SyncSoft has been supporting Pillar through the
implementation and conversion of two new clients. Industry
funds’ Hort Super and Australian Hardware & Timber Industry Super Trust
recently merged with Primary Super and will be administered by Pillar along
with the main Primary fund. In
both cases the CAPITAL Package was selected as the administration service
platform. CATAPULT
In out last newsletter we updated you on some impressive speed
records set by CAPITAL. To
ensure we retain (and improve) CAPITAL's performance as the system grows more
and more flexible; SyncSoft is introducing yet another technical innovation -
Catapult. In summary, Catapult allows much faster processing by fully
harnessing the power of the latest multiprocessor database servers. Catapult achieves
this by using multiple-parallel processing. The biggest performance gains are achieved during large
batch jobs. A batch job traditionally consists of manipulating many entities in the same fashion (with the application of ever more complex business processing rules). Traditionally these entities are assembled, and then processed sequentially. This means that during the following times the actual RDBMS engine is not being fully utilised:
1.
A calculation executing
on the application server. 2.
The application server
assembles and transmits a command to the database server. 3.
The database server assembles
and transmits the results of a command back to the application server. Catapult allows
CAPITAL to actually process multiple entities simultaneously. This "multiple-parallel
processing" means that the database server is being fed a constant stream
of instructions negating the latency affect of the above items, in turn
substantially reducing overall batch processing time. In addition to being "multi-processor" aware, Catapult is
also multi-application server aware, allowing batch performance to improve by
adding additional processor and/or additional application servers. Catapult is
designed to address the two major locally and overseas trends: 1.
Market consolidation -
few players, but each with much greater volume. 2.
Growing self-serve
administration via the Internet.
CAPITAL Release
News
Version 6.3.4.
In September 2004 SyncSoft
released CAPITAL 6.3.4. This
release is a minor upgrade to 6.3.2 focused on delivering a range of support
and features that had been requested by our Clients. The features provided this version
include:
In addition to the above, CAPITAL
6.3.4 provides over 50 additional minor enhancements and fixes for a number
of defects. Detailed release
notes can be obtained from the Client Area of SyncSoft’s web site. Coming Soon
SyncSoft is also working on a number of significant features to improve processing efficiency, which will be available in CAPITAL 6.4.1. The key enhancements for this release are SyncSoft’s own Integrated Imaging and Workflow System, and improved multi-lingual support. The first client release incorporating integrated Imaging and the Workflow within CAPITAL is targeted for release and testing at the end of March 05. For more information on the
features and functionality currently supported by CAPITAL please contact
SyncSoft’s technical department or your Account Manager. Upcoming Management
User Group Meeting
SyncSoft
is currently planning the 2004 Management User Group Meeting. The scheduled date is Wednesday 1
December and this year we will be holding it in Melbourne. It is shaping up to be a very
informative day and one that we hope all of our clients will participate
in. Please block this day out in
your diaries so that you will be able to join us. Offshore Initiatives
SyncSoft
is looking to build on its initial success into Asia with initiatives in
a number of areas. The IBM Insurance Conference in Bangkok
September 23 and 24
As
part of our alliance with IBM in the region, Karen De Angelis was a
speaker at the IBM Asia Pacific Insurance Conference in Bangkok in September.
Karen presented an overview of
the Asia Pacific region and shared with delegates her experience with Third
Party Administration and the critical success factors in achieving best
practice administration. The
conference provided a first hand opportunity to meet with the leading wealth
management, life and pensions organisations in the region. 1st Asia Insurance Review Pensions
Conference in Singapore 12th and 13th October
Following
the successful publication of a number of articles on Wealth Management and
Pensions, John Parrent was invited by the editor of the Asia Insurance
Review to present at the 1st AP Pensions Conference in October
in Singapore on the topic of Wealth Management and Pensions - Pension
Administration in the Whole Life Cycle.
As with the IBM conference SyncSoft was able to continue to build on
its presence in Asia and understanding of the markets. For
more information about SyncSoft’s services please contact our office on (03)
9874 0011. |
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