SMA Financial celebrates 10 years as SWIFT Business Partner
Business Partners complement SWIFT’s commercial channels
Published on 22 December 2006
In the autumn of 2006, SMA Financial celebrated its tenth anniversary as a SWIFT Business Partner, marking ten years of partnership with SWIFT. Founded in the early nineties by its Managing Director, Simon Murby, SMA Financial provides business partner services to SWIFT customers in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Channel Islands.
What began as a one-man show has grown into a company of over 25 staff. SMA Financial provides customers with a complete package of value added services for SWIFT. It provides pre- and post-sales assistance, both for the SWIFT interface range and for SWIFTSolutions, including the associated administration. Other SMA Financial Services include providing SWIFT education and hands-on training courses in London. SMA Financial also hosts customers’ outsourced SWIFT connectivity via the UK’s only Business Partner - Service Bureau, which deploys the full range of SWIFT’s products and solutions, including SWIFTNet FIN, FileAct, Accord, Cash Reporting, and Funds.
SMA Financial interacts closely with SWIFT’s London-based team, composed of Regional Account Managers, Global Sales Support, and Solutions Specialists. In 2006, SMA Financial has taken over account management responsibilities of several client accounts, and acts as the Regional Account Manager for those customers.
Simon Murby, Founder and Managing Director, of SWIFT Business Partner SMA Financial
“SMA Financial is one of the oldest and most established SWIFT Business Partners. The company is almost entirely focused on SWIFT business,” remarks Joachim Heinke, Responsible for Business Partner Management at SWIFT. “We recognise that the success and longevity of this partnership has been achieved with equal commitment from both sides to attain common goals.”
Michael King, Regional Director of SWIFT UK, comments, “SWIFT increasingly views SMA Financial as a highly valued and trusted partner, having worked closely together from the SWIFTAlliance implementations through to very recent SWIFTNet migrations. SMA’s focus on bringing on new customers to SWIFT, in a market that is already mature, frees up SWIFT commercial staff to develop relationships with large key clients in the UK market. SMA Financial is a true extension of SWIFT’s sales force when it comes to promoting SWIFT connectivity, interfaces, and solutions for new and existing customers.”
Murby comments, “A genuinely complementary business founded on traditional partnership principles between two organisations, where both synergy and overlap are carefully managed – that sounds like a successful formula to me. And this has been very much the case with the SMA-SWIFT relationship.”
Business Partners complement SWIFT’s commercial channels
Over the years, SWIFT has built a network of external partner companies who act in selected countries or regions on SWIFT’s behalf. They are called SWIFT Business Partners.
These companies are responsible for promoting and remarketing SWIFT products, such as SWIFTAlliance systems, and SWIFTNet services to existing and new customers. They also provide product installation services and integration support. Some Business Partners hold SWIFT training courses within their territory and offer local helpdesk services.
David Pryce, Head of SWIFT Commercial Channels and Developing Markets, explains, “We see our Business Partners as an extension of SWIFT’s commercial team, and our focus is to ensure that all our customers – in developed and developing markets alike – benefit from SWIFT services, expertise and extended presence. This approach offers our customers ‘on-the-ground’ responsiveness to their needs, complementing SWIFT’s sales teams and local offices and offers our Business Partners valuable business opportunities. All parties win.”
According to Heinke, about 170 countries are covered by SWIFT’s network of local Business Partners. The Business Partner model truly helps to extend the benefits of SWIFT to the community worldwide.
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