Abacus Group has added 72 new client firms through the first three quarters of 2017 along with a host of platform and cybersecurity enhancements, and a new solution specifically for small and start-up funds.
Chris Grandi, CEO of Abacus Group, says the company has surpassed 100 employees as it completes its 10th year serving the investment community. In June, Abacus accepted a minority growth investment from WestView Capital Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm focused on middle market growth companies.
“Our rapid onboarding of new clients, product enhancements, new solutions and expansion of staff confirms that Abacus Group has emerged as the pre-eminent provider of hosted IT solutions for the alternative investment industry,” says Grandi.
During 2017, the company added significant enhancements to its unique client portal, including new modules and reporting features allowing clients to see all activity and history in order to provide more transparency to end-users. A new service dashboard enables clients to conduct routine IT reviews to meet demands from regulators, investors, compliance personnel and auditors.
The new Abacus Small Business Solution provides cost-effective scalability for smaller (often start-up) funds to run their IT on the company’s core AbacusFLEX platform. It is designed for clients with small offices of 10 or fewer employees. The service provides these smaller firms with an economic solution that scales as they grow while also providing the benefits of the robust Abacus compliance, security and service platform.
Enhancements to Abacus Group’s cybersecurity program in 2017 included a cybersecurity Education Program for clients as well as a new two-factor authentication protocol to prevent new types of spoofing attacks that have surfaced in the past year. In addition, Abacus Group appointed its first Chief Information Security Officer in November.
The AbacusFLEX platform also now includes a new standard remote PC solution that gives clients secure access to their office PC from outside their office with multi-monitor support and fast connections.
Anticipating further growth in the United Kingdom and Europe in 2018, Abacus Group expanded and moved its primary UK data center into a new state of the art and energy-efficient location.
