Pointon York

Their Challenge

The Business:

Pointon York SIPP Solutions Limited

The Background:

Pointon York SIPP Solutions Limited, part of Pointon York Group, is a leading provider of self-invested personal pensions.

Pointon York launched one of the first SIPPs to the market in 1990 & provide a range of solutions to the intermediary marketplace.

The company recently launched a Single Investment SIPP & e-SIPP designed to meet the growing needs of different customer types.  Pointon York is a specialist in the more complex areas of SIPP administration including alternative investments & commercial property.  It strives for service excellence & has a strong team of technical experts which carry out rigorous due diligence on their investments to ensure risks are minimised.  The company continues to grow in size & deliver product innovation.

The Requirement:

The impending move in 2006 to larger offices along with the planned growth of the business, presented an operational challenge with regards to IT infrastructure, expertise & cost.

The Solution:

SSP Swift

The Client:

Jo French, Managing Director

The Questions:

Why did you choose SSP?

“Pointon York was already using the SSP Swift software to administer its Individual SIPP & regular meetings highlighted the need for a solution to help with the move. The hosted solution made perfect sense.”

What kind of service did you receive?

“The system was deployed via the internet minimising the infrastructure requirement within the Market Harborough office including servers such as Microsoft Exchange. The expertise offered by SSP meant that Pointon York did not need to recruit specialised IT personnel, saving staffing costs as the system was managed remotely including all back-ups & system upgrades. Finally, the financial investment required to achieve the objectives was a per-user per-month fee rather than a heavy upfront capital investment. This suited the business & provided a perfect model for growth. The implementation was painless as all the effort was completed by SSP. Pointon York provided the user names & SSP created the accounts & licensed the users. Pointon York had to log on & test the system as part of our due diligence which was completed successfully. The process from start to finish took eight weeks which was what was advised & we had planned around this timeframe.”

What’s the verdict?

“The final solution delivers what was originally agreed & still delivers today.”

What benefits have SSP delivered?

“There is no need for specialised IT staff within the organisation & associated costs. We no longer require capital investment upfront just a simple monthly fee.
It has supported Pointon York’s model for growth & provided a scalable solution & pricing model.

We also have a disaster recovery plan as standard.

The largest saving, but by no means the only one, has been the staffing costs relating to dedicated IT resource that we simply do not need. We would expect to have two IT staff to administer our infrastructure & network with an average salary of £20k to £30k per annum. Even when the savings are balanced against the fees paid to SSP we are still making material savings.”