An urgent need to outsource

Our London-based client has two defined benefit pension schemes with 8,000 members in total, and a sponsor operating in the financial services sector. Members are financially aware and sophisticated and expect their administrator to provide quick turnaround times and comprehensive information.

Due to the impending retirement of their Pensions and Payroll Manager, they identified a need to outsource their pensions administration and payroll management services. The Trustee saw the lack of resources available to support the ongoing service during the transition as a key risk, as well as a potential loss of detailed scheme knowledge due to the retirement of a long-standing team member. They also had concerns about the quality and accuracy of the underlying administration service and needed a provider to complete a large volume of liability management projects whilst satisfying the ongoing demands of a challenging membership.

To address these concerns, our team prioritised knowledge capture and data gathering at the start of the migration. To support this approach we allocated additional technical team resources so that administration guides and queries could be compiled as soon as possible. This approach quickly reduced the risk profile of the project and mitigated concerns about the loss of scheme knowledge. We also offered additional in-house team support, reserving two of our member service team who could swiftly be deployed to provide business-as-usual support to the in-house team.

Our projects team was engaged at the start of the implementation, and we assigned a projects team lead before the migration was complete. This allowed us to get to grips with the additional project requirements of the Trustee at an early stage, the technicalities of the scheme, and the scoping and delivery requirements of multiple projects. Some projects were delivered during the migration and immediately after go-live. We were also able to deliver many non-core projects immediately after the transition date.

As a result of our approach, we successfully took over the administration on 1 June 2021, as planned and within agreed budgets. Members experienced immediate improvements in service delivery, and we were able to deliver an exceptionally large number of sponsor-driven projects both during and after the migration date. New service enhancements were brought online to members on day one, including the delivery of a member self-service website. All the early concerns around the project were fully mitigated, and the schemes are now on a strong footing, with all scheme knowledge and expertise being fully transferred.

In summary, our team delivered a seamless transition for the client, maintaining the high-quality, accurate service members were familiar with while also completing a high volume of liability management projects. With our approach to knowledge building and data gathering and additional in-house support, we were able to mitigate any concerns about loss of scheme knowledge, and the members experienced improvements in service delivery from day one. The successful outcome of this project has put the scheme on a strong footing for the future.