HedgeStart provides consulting and other outsourced services to both new and established investment businesses, including hedge funds, fund managers, advisors and institutional investors. London-based Commensus provides Managed Cloud, Business Continuity and IT Outsourcing services to investment managers and other businesses.

Under the terms of the agreement, the provision of outsourced IT consulting services to HedgeStart's client base will be transferred to Commensus along with delivery of both infrastructure and user support for HedgeStart's own business. As part of the arrangements HedgeStart's client-facing IT team (including partner Andy Cleaver) will transfer to Commensus and HedgeStart will migrate its own IT infrastructure onto the Commensus cloud platform. Commensus is committed to providing continuity of service to all of HedgeStart's clients, irrespective of whether they operate with in-house or cloud infrastructures.

"The present and future development of cloud-based technology for the delivery of IT services looks secure for a very good reason," said Matthew Wilson, Managing Partner at HedgeStart. "Cloud solutions enable cost-effective delivery of enterprise grade, highly resilient and secure IT services. Such IT platform services deliver an institutional-standard environment which would otherwise be beyond the reach of most mid-sized businesses and are very attractive to alternative investment firms."

This partnership is an important strategic move by HedgeStart. "HedgeStart is a relationship business," explains Wilson. "In all areas other than IT the relationship is where we add most value through our thought leadership, intellectual capital and efficient service delivery. In the IT arena, there is a product delivery component which requires a different investment profile and delivery mechanism that is becoming divergent from our own core strengths. Partnering with Commensus puts our clients in the best position for the futture, with a better choice of IT applications built upon a more robust technical infrastructure. Clients will benefit from a far greater IT skills base than we could deliver alone. As well as cloud solutions Commensus also provides the highest quality support to clients with in-house solutions and there is no pressure to adopt one operating model or the other."

The announcement of the partnership with Commensus follows an extensive selection process to identify both the best technical solutions and the best cultural fit with HedgeStart's 'customer first' ethos. "With all our client-facing IT staff transferring, the partnership with Commensus means our clients will leverage off a far deeper technology infrastructure that can offer vastly increased capabilities whilst maintaining the same service relationships," said Wilson.

With the transfer of personnel to Commensus, all client knowledge will be preserved and HedgeStart partner Andy Cleaver will retain overall responsibility for client relationship management for HedgeStart's clients. "Having built the IT practice within HedgeStart over the last ten years, I am confident that this is the right development for our clients. I am therefore very pleased to be taking our IT business into Commensus, which has a robust service delivery model for in-house clients as well as a pre-eminent cloud-based platform. In fact we believe in the platform so strongly that HedgeStart will be using Commensus for its own IT infrastructure and support," said Cleaver.

"We are pleased to be recognised by HedgeStart for our leadership in both the cloud and IT outsourcing arena," said Steven Fenn, Managing Director of Commensus. "HedgeStart's IT clients will experience a business-as-usual support service and a very straightforward migration path to our cloud-based architecture should they want it. We are excited at the prospect of introducing our team to HedgeStart's IT clients."