Lanware today announced that the firm has been awarded a four year contract to provide its cloud based technology outsourcing service to Aerion Fund Management, the principal Investment Manager of the £15bn National Grid UK Pension Scheme. Lanware won the contract following a rigorous competitive bid process for the quality and depth of its services, industry focus within the investment management sector, and the ability to meet the client’s total technology needs.

The service will transform Aerion’s entire technology and package the desktop, data, applications into a secure virtual desktop service delivered on demand from the Lanware Private cloud. Lanware will deliver a full range of compliant outsourced IT services ensuring that Aerion continues to meet with its FCA regulatory requirements. Examples include ensuring that Aerion will receive on-going oversight of the company’s financial resources, business continuity and disaster recovery plans, security management (ISO 27001), audit rights and at all times maintain a clearly defined exit plan. The contract demonstrates how specialist service providers like Lanware and investment managers are working together to ensure their outsourcing arrangements are conducted with due skill, care and diligence.

Commenting on the contract award, Stuart Waldron, Chief Operating Officer of Aerion Fund Management, said: “Aerion was looking for an IT services provider that could meet all our needs in an all-encompassing service, change the way our company engages with technology for the long term and reduce the dependency of our staff on a traditional IT environment thus freeing them up to focus on investment management. Aerion was specifically looking for an IT partner which had strong cultural fit, similar clients and was a specialist in the investment management sector. Lanware’s clearly stood out in this regard.”

Henry Duncombe, Director of Lanware added: “In Lanware’s experience, many investment managers have limited success finding the right IT service provision to enable their specific type of business. A combination of a lack of strategic advice, on-site solutions implemented by suppliers with limited breadth of expertise, uncertainty of compliance requirements and incremental capital investments all contribute to the challenge of aligning IT with the business. Most investment managers, who outsource, just want to consume their IT as a single service, focus on their core business and have a partnership with a technology company who can give them sound advice and keep them out of the technology weeds. We are absolutely delighted to be working with a firm as prestigious as Aerion Fund Management and look forward to a longer term partnership.”