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Abacus Client Portal
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Abacus provides clients a secure and customized web-based portal for streamlined access to all of their resource statistics, including users, data stored, etc. The Abacus Portal can be accessed directly from the "Login" menu of the Abacus home page -
www.abacusgroupllc.com
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When we launched the Abacus Portal four years ago, our intention was, and still is, to provide Abacus clients with real-time transparency into their service usage. The early feature-set was focused on presenting clients with information on service ticket status, data usage, user status, billing/invoice history; as well as providing them with an automated means to add and remove users. Since its launch we have continued to add enhancements to assist clients in understanding how they are using Abacus's services, as well as providing them new tools to manage their internal work-flows, with an emphasis on compliance and security. We will continue to invest in developing the Abacus Portal, and are always looking for client feedback on additional features we should think about.
The following items are now available to clients:
Automated Inventory and Software Tracking
Per recent SEC/OCIE requirements, funds are required to keep a current asset list of all computer/electronic equipment owned by the Fund. This feature provides our clients with a centralized repository to store all asset information including purchase, service and warranty information. This feature is currently being rolled out to clients.
Document Repository
Access relevant documents you will need with respect to our IT Services; such as DDQ templates/documents, annual SSAE SOC 1 reports, third-party security audit reports, disaster recovery test reports and Abacus W-9 information. These documents are regularly updated and can be displayed for a single client, a subset of clients of the entire client base.
FlexProtect File Server Permission Reporting
This offering aims to simplify the Varonis reporting and provide transparency into user group membership and group permissions. The 30-day rolling report makes it easy for our clients to routinely review changes and ensure that they are in-line with internal policies. Reports are stored monthly for 12 months for historic comparison.
Advanced Usage Reporting
These reports highlight historical statistics on your IT Services including changes to client permissions, server sizes and add/remove user history.
Security Role/Contact Tracker
Manage and audit your team's access when they engage with the Abacus team. Contact information includes the ability to opt in/our of communications on a per-user basis. Information is also available in the event of a disaster along with a disaster recovery file tree.
Live File Transfer Tracking
We call this product "FileDriver", and it has become very popular with our clients. The service provides for real-time monitoring of file transfers between your fund and third parties (ie Brokers and Fund Administrators). Additionally, FileDriver provides notifications when a file is received by third parties, or more importantly, when it was not received and needs to be re-submitted. In the event of a failure with a specific file transfer, these notifications include intelligent alerts with details about what failed during the file transfer, which will assist in resolving the issue.
Service Ticket Audit Trail
We have integrated the Abacus Portal with our ticketing system so that you can view the recent history of open tickets, which includes communication between your employees and Abacus Service Engineers.
File Export Capabilities
We know many of you still use MS Excel to model and/or manage your operations budget. We have implemented the ability to export your IT service details into excel.
The Abacus Portal is maintained by our dedicated software group. We have five full-time software engineers, and have plans to grow this team in 2017. Our software group is located in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is managed by Christopher Steele who was on the Founding Team of Abacus, and worked previously at BlackRock and Citco Fund Services.
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A Growing Cloud
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Over the past 12 months, Abacus has significantly increased its headcount. We now have more than 100 full-time employees. Most of the personnel additions were to our remote support team in Dallas and our on-site support teams in all geographic offices. We continue to be very committed to hiring support engineers to service our clients. We know that these individuals are the face of our organization, and are the ones directly responsible for providing a positive service experience to our clients. In 2016, we also launched a new training initiative called "Abacus Academy", whereby all new employees are required to spend up to two weeks in our Dallas office to receive technical, soft-skills and corporate training with respect to navigating Abacus.
Abacus Opens Additional Data Centers
In Q1 of 2017, we will be turning up our newest data center at Internap in Dallas, TX. This data center will replace our current disaster recovery data center in Philadelphia, PA. The Abacus Dallas Data Center will also serve as the primary data center for all of our clients west of the Mississippi and east of the Rockies. We made the decision to make this transition for three reasons:
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Geographical Risk Management - The Sungard Data Center has been a great facility for us; however, as our business continues to grow in the Northeast, we need to have greater geographic distance between our primary East Coast data center in Secaucus, NJ and our disaster recovery data center.
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Proximity to Abacus Engineers - We are growing the engineering staff in our Dallas office, and currently have 25 full-time employees in that office. Our work does not require us to be physically present in any of our data centers; however, there are times when have to visit for maintenance, equipment refreshes, and expansion.
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Support Growth - We never enter a region where we are not invited. Since opening the Dallas office, we have received a ground-swell of interest from firms wondering when Abacus is coming to the region. The Dallas Data Center facilitates our planned expansion.
We have also recently brought on a disaster recovery data center in London. Our primary data center is located in Slough, England and our secondary data center is in LD8 located in Harbor Exchange Square. As we bring on more clients in the UK, we felt the need to provide a solution wholly located in the UK that does not potentially subject client data to compliance requirements outside of the UK.
In 2015, Abacus opened our first international data center in Slough, England. Our goal last year was to provide hosting solutions to our Software Partners for their UK clients. After our first year in London, we now have 20 clients. In 2016, we hired our first two employees to provide on-site service to our London clients, and to begin the roll-out of AbacusFlex to the UK alternative asset investment market. Tom Cole, our European Director, will be managing our UK operation and all Abacus European employees. In this role, Tom is focused on strategy, client service, technical development and business development in the European markets. Prior to Abacus, Tom was the Chief Technology Officer for COMAC Capital (Europe) Ltd ("CCEL") a multibillion dollar (AUM) global macro hedge fund. As CTO, he led COMAC's technology strategy, cyber security practices and group business continuity planning. Prior to that he held various technologist roles within Balyasny Asset Management, Glencore and Publicis Groupe. Tom was awarded distinction for MSc studies from the University of Liverpool. For our US clients, it is important to know that if you are thinking of hiring employees in London, opening up an office in the UK, or just have people traveling there, Abacus is now set-up to assist and provide you with service in London.
Abacus Employee Spotlight
Sajjad Bacchus - Manager of Application Support
A native New Yorker and avid gamer, Sajjad enjoys grilling as well as attending live sporting events and music festivals. During his four years with Abacus, Sajjad has grown to be a client favorite. He is knowledgeable, persistent and agile. His agility has seen him through a number of roles at Abacus. In 2013, before the functional split of onsite and remote teams, he began as a Client Support Technician. Following the formation of the two teams, Sajjad chose the path of remote support which allowed him to continue honing his skills on our hosted applications platform as he continued to support clients. In 2014, he contributed to a new process/role by serving as a dispatcher for the onsite support team where he tested and implemented process and procedures for this new position. In early 2015, Sajjad had advanced his skills enough to be promoted to Team Lead of Application support where his primary focus was to continue to improve the support experience of our hosted applications clients. 2016 saw his promotion to manager of that team and a relocation to our Dallas office, where he continues to work on building the team through the training and mentoring of other staff members. Through his tenure with Abacus Group, Sajjad has remained steadfast in his client first approach to support as well as his advancement in the company. Sajjad is an invaluable member of the Abacus family.
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Abacus Security Update
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Security continues to be a focus for Abacus and 2016 was no different. Our strategic initiatives included several security enhancements that add further value to the trust that our clients put in us to manage their systems and data. First and foremost, we increased the size of our security team, adding capacity to deal with the demands of cybersecurity requirements. Other projects included:
Migration from Barracuda to Proofpoint
This enhancement has increased our ability to mitigate risk from malicious content in email. It has also added robust functionality in the way of email encryption (both opportunistic and enforced). Proofpoint as an industry standard has increased efficiency across our support teams as well.
RSA (2-Factor Authentication)
Abacus implemented 2-Factor authentication across all of its employees as we recognize that our internal security/access to managed systems should be secured in a fashion commensurate with our client's level of trust. Additionally, we enhanced our 2-Factor authentication system (RSA) by adding "On-Demand" tokens. This allows clients to use the system without having to install the software on a particular device. The system will email a random pin when access to a protected system is requested.
Password Reset Server (PRS)
This self-service tool allows users to reset their passwords on the fly without interaction from Abacus support personnel. We have enhanced the system to now authenticate users with a randomly generated pin sent to a pre-registered external email address which only that user has access to. In addition to self-service resets, our support desk will begin using this as a means of authenticating users who request password changes via phone.
SOC Audit
Abacus once again completed our annual SOC I Type II audit which validates our controls and procedures. This validation of process and consistency reaffirms the stability of our platform to our clients. Clients can access this report in the Abacus Portal.
Penetration Tests
In line with our standards, we completed 3 tests by 2 separate providers, including one test from a client premises. These tests not only validate our efforts around security, but also provide visibility into any blind-spot that we may have, allowing us to be proactive in mitigating these risks for our clients. Clients can access this report in the Abacus Portal.
2017 Tech Trends
Industry Recognition
A Growing Cloud
