Quest Fund Placement is a London based leading placement agency that partners over the long term with high quality private equity fund managers to advise them on raising capital. Since 2003, the business has been responsible for raising over EUR28bn of primary capital from institutional investors for funds. The organisation is regulated by the FCA, FINRA and Canadian Securities Regulators.
THE CHALLENGE
Quest Fund Placement and Pro Drive’s partnership began in 2012. The team wanted to upgrade office space and completely start afresh on infrastructure. The office move gave Quest the perfect opportunity to review a number of systems, including IT.
They decided to set up a completely new IT system to coincide with their plans for further institutionalisation. Quest Fund Placement found Pro Drive offered excellent advice, a great service and a partner in which they felt they could trust. Pro Drive was given the task of recreating an independent IT system with a focus on European markets and regulation.
Quest is a highly successful independent, global business with 24/7 IT demands.
THE APPROACH
Pro Drive recommended using Microsoft’s Office 365 platform for emails, so that Quest could utilise its legal compliance systems to ensure that the company fully adheres to the Financial Conduct Authority’s regulations. In addition, a local server and cloud based system were implemented to store file data and provide speed and reliability for staff.
Pro Drive advised Quest on strengthening the disaster recovery systems and also played an instrumental role in assisting Quest with Business Continuity planning. Pro Drive recommended moving to a fully managed cloud based disaster recovery service that, in less than two hours, will fully recover a complete replica of the office IT systems in the cloud. Finally, a US based compliance service was integrated with the UK systems to enable the new UK business to trade in the US markets.
THE RESULT
Pro Drive continues to work closely with Quest Fund Placement to provide them with ongoing IT support and strategic advice to enable them to continue to develop and maintain IT systems. The Pro Drive/Quest partnership also assists Quest with adopting new technology that is integral to their continued growth and complies with the financial sector’s strict regulations.
