The long and troubled relationship between AAS and LUCRF Super is coming to an end.
At the turn of the century, LUCRF became an investor alongside AAS (then owned by Kaz Computing), UniSuper and the Seafarers Retirement Fund in a consortium to develop Atune, which at the time promised a revolutionary web-enabled solution for funds administering accumulation and defined benefit components. Frustrated by a lack of progress (especially on the DB front), UniSuper and Seafarers sold out of the venture to Kaz in 2003, but in 2004 LUCRF became the first and last entity to go live on the Atune platform. However after the running of June 30 statements it will seek to depart the Atune platform, according to LUCRF general manager Greg Sword. “;The software belongs to AAS and they’re developing it to suit the prime business focus they have, which is to be an outsourcer of administration. It’s not primarily providing IT solutions to funds that are self-administered like us,”; Sword said. “;The decisions we make about how we run the fund might be different to what we would decide if the administration was outsourced. So although AASpire is terrific – they’ve spent millions on it – it’s not what we were looking for.”; It is understood LUCRF will not go to a full tender for a new IT solution, but rather revisit two options it shortlisted during a review 18 months ago. Those options are understood to be Financial Synergy’s Acurity and Synchronised Software’s Capital systems.
Australian Wildlife Conservancy has an ambitious goal to grow its newly established endowment fund to $100 million in the next decade, and to get there, the not-for-profit is counting on gradually building an investment track record and securing more direct support from sponsors.
Darcy SongOctober 10, 2024
