Press Release – Abacus Consulting                         May 2006

Celebrating six years in business with the launch of their new website, Fiona Delamere and Tara Clements are delighted to introduce their new on-line brochure at www.abacusconsulting.com.  Speaking about the success of their training and consultancy firm, Abacus Consulting, both are very positive about the prospects for the future.

Abacus Consulting was established in 1999 by Tara Clements and Fiona Delamere to address the training gap from which Fund Administration in particular was suffering.  Both have extensive Funds industry and general financial services experience and held senior roles in international and domestic organisations, before setting up Abacus.  As accountants with operational backgrounds, they have first-hand experience of their clients’ business and training requirements.

“Our approach is to offer client-specific tailored training solutions, often complementing existing in-house training programmes,” said Delamere.  “We consult with our clients at every stage to design, create and deliver professional training courses.  Such collaboration ensures that all training is directly relevant and delivered professionally”.

The new on-line brochure covers the range of topics available from Abacus and targets Fund Administrators, Custodians, Trustees and other financial services staff.

Abacus Consulting is the leading provider of flexible training and consulting throughout the financial services industry.  Based in Dublin, Abacus also has clients in Kilkenny, Galway, London, Edinburgh and Toronto.  With the range of experience Delamere and Clements have, they frequently assist clients in the design of in-house or system-specific training modules.  “Fund accounting systems vary greatly in their design, so it is always useful for clients to be able to produce training modules which incorporate the system functionality as well as market generics, particularly in the fund valuations arena,” said Clements.

With the huge growth in the funds industry over recent years, the demand for professional training and continuous training programmes has increased dramatically.  “We’ve seen changes in the approach to training as the industry is maturing.  Most clients are more structured about the type of training and career paths offered to staff.  This allows for better planning and design for incremental training, encouraging the development of staff skills and knowledge”, said Delamere.

As the Alternative Investments market is set to grow phenomenally in the coming years, and with Ireland administering almost 40% of all such fund vehicles worldwide, training and awareness of risks becomes more and more important.  “We have responded by offering our clients specialised courses and workshops in key areas of Alternative Investment Funds, such as performance fees and hedge fund strategies,” explained Delamere.  “We have also introduced specialised modules on various credit derivative instruments and processes such as securitisation to meet our clients’ demands.”

“From the start”, Clements said, “we took the approach to be client-focused. offering flexibility regarding course length and subject matter.  This was unlike anything else that was on offer at the time.  Since then we have joined the Outsourcing Training Network in the US and we monitor trends in companies and firms there and apply where appropriate to our clients here.  By delivering demand-led, cost-effective training, we show our clients the real value of training”. 
 
“An added benefit with our training is our CPD status with ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants).  We are registered CPD providers, so delegates can achieve qualifying continuing professional development hours, an ongoing requirement for most qualified accountants and lawyers” Clements added.

For further information please contact info@abacusconsulting.com or Abacus Consulting at +353 (0)1 8512075.