Colt powers Source’s growth to over $500 billion worth of transactions

Colt has designed and deployed a managed IT infrastructure and networking service for Source UK Services Ltd, enabling one of Europe’s leading exchange traded product providers to focus on generating financial returns for customers and shareholders. By partnering with Colt, Source’s investment team has been able to deliver on its ambitious expansion plans, and is now processing transactions with a combined value of over $500 billion.

Launched in 2009, Source specialises in exchange-traded products, a rapidly growing area of financial services. The firm has grown aggressively to manage $15 billion of assets, becoming the fifth largest provider of these services. The core of Source’s business is in the European equity markets, a fast moving industry in which trust is hard won and can be easily lost.

“If our system went down even for a small amount of time, it could have a huge impact on the pricing of our products, and adversely impact customer retention,” confirms Michael John Lytle, Chief Development Officer for Source.

In a highly competitive trading environment, Source’s success is dependent on the resilience and flexibility of its systems and website, which increasingly houses more complex content, including numerous live market feeds alongside extensive product information. The firm’s agile business model meant that partnering with a trusted managed service provider was the natural choice. However, with business critical functions on the line, choosing the right provider was crucial.

Lytle continues: “We asked our financial peers “Who would you put into a process if you were considering getting these services from an external organisation?” Colt was recommended as an organisation that can scale in line with the business to support increasing volumes of transactions.”
Colt’s Optimum services underpin Source’s systems and website. Following a nine month due diligence process and an extensive consultation, an integrated IT and networking service was implemented in two UK Colt data centres for business continuity. Two years on, the resilient and scalable solution continues to support Source’s core systems while ensuring uninterrupted availability of their content rich website.

Ben Savage, Regional General Manager UK and Ireland, Colt, said: “Our customers are increasingly looking for managed services, rather than just technology. They want a partner who understands their business challenges and can offer guidance. Ultimately, the more added-value we can provide, the more our customers can focus on their core business.

“Flexibility is an asset for any business, especially in the fast-moving world of finance. We provide a scalable solution for Source that allows business critical decisions to be made quickly, underpinned by 24/7 service that can cope with the unexpected.”

Lytle sums up the benefits of working with Colt: “The two things that Colt does impeccably well is firstly providing us with a robust and scalable physical infrastructure that does exactly what it's supposed to do, with no noticeable impact on the user. The second thing is consultancy and added value through an enhanced performance analysis of our website to identify potential security threats and confirm our level of resilience.”
Lytle adds: “We don't have an IT department. We have people who are IT savvy. We need guidance and input from our partners. Colt delivers valuable insights unprompted, helping us to focus our attention on the most important issues to our business.”

Colt Optimum is the name of the direct-to-enterprise portfolio across IT, Network and Communication Services. These services are differentiated by their unique combination of network reach, integrated technology, service management and commercial flexibility. They complement Colt Ceano, which is designed specifically for Colt’s indirect channel.