Perennial's latest investment in technology will provide improved Straight Through Processing (STP) capabilities, upgraded client reporting functionality and more effective, accurate and personalised customer service for its investment administration activities in the future.

Perennial recently completed a strategic review of its technology-derived business benefits and assessed the opportunity cost of implementing HiPortfolio/3 technology immediately versus a three to five year timeframe. The assessment outcome built a strong business case for immediate conversion to HiPortfolio/3.

"At Perennial we believe that our commitment to advanced technologies, such as STP is not simply related to a single product – rather it is inherent to everything we do. Our goal is to ensure that we provide top of the line service to our clients, at all times. Straight Through Processing is an industry initiative and one that we want to be fully ready for," commented Anthony Patterson, Perennial Investment Partners' managing director.

"We have faith that in partnering with DSTi, we will be able to efficiently manage our business growth in the future without prejudicing our client service standards. We believe that with the strong industry support HiPortfolio has here in Australia, and globally, HiPortfolio/3 will become the standard for Australian investment houses to use. We are just positioning ourselves as an early implementer," he continued.

Perennial will be incorporating HiPortfolio/3 into its mid and back office investment management functions. Improvements to STP functionality will occur in a number of areas including fund accounting, cash administration, performance, taxation and compliance. With greater access to existing data, Perennial will also improve its integration to internal and external systems.

"This is where we see enormous benefit as we move forward," said Patterson. "This is what STP is truly all about – industry-wide adoption of a communications standard which allows our customers to benefit from greatly streamlined processes."

The boutique investment manager will also incorporate five additional investment management modules for Multi-Currency processing, cash transaction import and the new International Financial Reporting (IFRS) Standards requirements. The IFRS modules will assist Perennial with its international accounting and reporting requirements, which came into effect 1 January 2005.

Ian Mathieson, DSTi's Australasian CEO said, "We now consider Perennial a leader in high technology adoption and its conversion to HiPortfolio/3 definitely positions them at the head of the queue for investment management capabilities. Their focus on STP from a truly functional and industry-wide perspective will no doubt pay off for them in the long run."

Mathieson concluded, "We have ensured that our latest HiPortfolio offering has taken into account local legislative taxation updates, compliance issues and the obvious advanced technology benefits to future-proof our clients’ business. Our ongoing local development of the platform will ensure that our business partners will continue to exceed their current investment administration service levels."

Perennial joins an ever expanding list of global customers committed to converting to HiPortfolio/3. Recent customer conversions have been completed at JPMorgan Investor Services and MedInvest in South Africa; Asset & Resource Management Company in Nigeria; Cavendish Asset Management and Daiwa SB Investments in the UK as well as Daiwa SB Investments (HK) Ltd in Hong Kong.