The upgrade is part of a continuous collaboration to help Silica achieve increased customer service and profitability levels while quickly taking advantage of opportunities in the market.

The Business Process Management (BPM) solution from DST is currently used by Silica's TPA business to handle applications for new investments, transfers, and investor administration on behalf of their clients. AWD10 will underpin a single web-based user interface, integrated with Silica's underlying administration systems, as well as a central business rules repository. It will also enable the display of more comprehensive client and instruction information for administrators and external parties such as Silica's clients and intermediaries. This in turn will allow these parties to initialise instructions and capture data, as well as track the status of in-flight work.

Michael Prentice, CEO at Silica, commented: "We really value our relationship with DST; they are fully committed to understanding our business as well as helping us to achieve our goals. We are looking forward to deploying the new version of the solution as it will enable us to deliver a totally new investor and IFA experience and enable Silica to take on new clients more quickly and efficiently, and ultimately optimise our operations."

Tony Armour, Managing Director of Business Process Solutions at DST, said: "We believe the key advantage of AWD has always been about empowering our clients to manage their processes in a timely and efficient manner. By implementing AWD10, we are confident that Silica will be able to experience the cost competitiveness, speed and agility required to achieve their goals while benefiting from the expertise, breadth of capabilities and inherent security of a global leader in financial services solutions. Through collaborating closely with our clients, we are able to identify opportunities for AWD to help harness the right resources and technology to deliver optimized process efficiency and customer service."