Case study: SoftCo helps Bloxham keep pace with compliance

SoftCo's long-term relationship with Bloxham has reduced the stockbroker's reliance on paper and provided the software intelligence that keeps Bloxham compliant with increasingly stringent data regulations.

As Ireland's largest independent stockbroker, Bloxham is continually seeking ways to improve the efficiency and compliance of its operations. Stockbroking is an information intensive business; real-time information feeds from partners like Reuters and Bloomberg are vital to its operations, and Bloxham must keep its customers continually updated on the performance of their portfolios. Information flows inevitably lead to large quantities of documentation, the management of which is a long standing challenge at Bloxham.

The organisation must also be constantly mindful of strict regulations in regards to data retention, and ensure that it is compliant while not unduly burdening staff with manual or paper-based processes. A long-term partnership with SoftCo has helped Bloxham keep pace with changing regulations, and its recent upgrade to R8 and SoftCo Storlife is ensuring the company meets its obligations more cost-effectively than ever.

"We were previously a very paper-intensive organisation, with cabinet storage for a great number of files," said Tony Dorsaneo, IT Manager, Bloxham Stockbrokers. "We're trying to drive that down all the time: paper poses a storage problem and a potential fire hazard. We began working with SoftCo 15 years ago to scan and make all our documentation available electronically. We were driven both by our business needs and by our compliance needs. We have to be able to produce information when it's required, without needing an army of people searching for it. That's what SoftCo has helped us do."

Bloxham's recent upgrade to SoftCo R8 has made it easier and more cost efficient for the organisation to attain the level of compliance it must achieve.

SoftCo R8 makes business sense for Bloxham:

• One digital archive for all documentation: The stockbroker uses R8 to scan and store customer correspondence and other documentation, reducing Bloxham's reliance on paper and eliminating delays in pinpointing information. The addition of innovative OCR features in R8 allows users to search for any document by keyword, a timesaver for all staff.
• SoftCo Storlife delivers the peace of mind of world-class compliance: R8 features SoftCo Storlife, SoftCo's world-class, compliant, CAS storage platform. SoftCo Storlife gives Bloxham vital assurance that all documentation is securely stored in the tamperproof archive, with each document marked by a unique digital fingerprint.
• Process automation makes compliance easier: Retention and destruction periods can be defined at upload, meeting Bloxham's requirements to retain data for fixed periods, in line with regulations including the Data Protection Acts.
• R8 Uploader reclaims lost productivity time: Documents from Bloxham's account settlement partner are now bulk uploaded with R8 Uploader, replacing a manual paper process that previously consumed staff time.
• R8 adapts with Bloxham's changing infrastructure: R8 supports Bloxham's server virtualisation program, a consolidation project which will improve the efficiency and resilience of Bloxham's hardware platform. R8 is fully suitable for virtualised environments.
• Robust email compliance with eMail Collector: This new R8 feature, compliant with Microsoft Exchange, automatically stores staff emails at Bloxham in a compliant, tamperproof archive and makes pinpointing pertinent emails easy.

Delivering peace of mind

“The solidity of the SoftCo archive and the secure, compliant storage SoftCo Storlife offers is a major reason why Bloxham values the relationship”, says Tony. "It inspires great confidence knowing that our data is safely stored in a compliant manner, and that we can meet any document requests quickly and efficiently. That's important for the future as well, because the business environment will continue to be a big issue for companies like ours. We've grown with SoftCo over 15 years, starting with two PCs and developing through to our major virtualisation project."

A growing partnership

Bloxham also values the ability to speak and be heard when it comes to functionality it wants to see in SoftCo solutions.

"If we need a software feature, SoftCo always listens, but they have a rigorous process around releases and won't chop and change their software at a moment's notice, which is good discipline," Tony says. "eMail Collector is a great example of how our relationship with SoftCo works: we told them of the challenge we faced with email storage and they went away and came back with something that suits our business needs perfectly. It's a relationship that works very well."

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