Tower builds platform to aid integration
IN A MOVE that reflects recent restructuring at Tower Limited, Tower Australia has announced it will use Powerlan and IBM technology to build an administrative system that incorporates its existing investment platforms into a single operating unit.
“Our current platforms are of high quality but are aging and will need replacement in the coming years, and a modern integrated platform is a logical way forward for Tower,” according to Tower Australia acting chief executive Andrew Moon.
Tower Australia was created as a result of a recent decision by the New Zealand-based Tower group to merge five separate Australian business units into a single entity, so that all life investments and portfolio management products will now be distributed from a single arm.
In order to facilitate this, Tower is working with Powerlan and IBM to build a system capable of delivering products from all five business units, including a master trust offered by subsidiary group Bridges, which currently sits on a different platform to the wrap accounts distributed by Tower.
The combined platform will be managed by Tower’s newly established Investment Administration Centre (IAC), which will spend $20 million over the next 18 months integrating operations and gradually rolling out the consolidated system. IAC will be fully established by March 2004 and headed by Craig Jameson, who also heads operations at Tower Australia.
Restructuring at Tower Limited began last December, following lower than expected year-end financial results, when the group decided to focus on its wealth management business in Australia.
The group will sell off its personal and corporate trustee business later this year, but says Bridges and Tower Asset Management will continue to operate as stand-alone divisions.
A spokesperson for the group says the launch of the new platform will not affect Bridges’ master trust, except that back-office functions will ultimately transfer to the Powerlan platform.
In a further shake-up at the firm, Tower Limited recently lost two of its key executives, with the departure early this month of managing director James Boonzaier and chief operating executive Ken Boag, who had both been with the group for more than a decade.
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