By Chris Steele, Managing Director of Software Services

When using outsourced IT services, it’s vital that financial firms have visibility into their managed services, ensuring they have complete transparency and control over their firm’s technology platform. This is why our Abacus Client Portal plays a key role in the service we deliver to our clients, providing them with access to a whole suite of compliance-focused tools, including important documents, reports and interfaces.

Our Charlotte-based software development team works closely with clients, seeking their input and feedback, to continuously enhance the features we provide within the Portal. Over the last several months, our software team has released several key new features that I know clients are eager to start using.

January 28 is Data Privacy / Protection Day. Abacus Group is an official Data Privacy Day Champion. In addition to the infographic below, be sure to check out our post with data privacy tips and tools. #PrivacyAware 

Today, January 28, is officially Data Privacy / Protection Day.

Data Privacy Day began in the US and Canada in January 2008 as an extension of the Data Protection Day celebration in Europe. Data Protection Day commemorates the January 28, 1981, signing of Convention 108, the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection. Data Privacy Day is observed annually on January 28.

In partnership with the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), Abacus Group has registered as an official Data Privacy Day Champion, showing our support and dedication for respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust. As part of our role as a Champion, we want to share some important data privacy tips and tools provided by the NCSA.

Abacus is proud to encourage all of our employees to participate in community service and volunteering. As a company, we provide opportunities throughout the year for employees to take paid time away from the office to volunteer through various opportunities with community non-profits we partner with. This is especially important in the lead up to the holidays, helping those less fortunate. We want to send a special shout-out to all our dedicated employees who took time to participate in our 2018 holiday community service initiatives!

By Chris Grandi, CEO at Abacus Group 

I was honored to be invited as a speaker at Boston Private’s 2018 Venture & Private Equity Conference in Cape Cod, MA, last month. During the three-day event, I spoke at a roundtable along with Kevin Daury, CFO at Westview Capital Partners, about cybersecurity best practices. During the session, I provided tips and advice to CFO’s and COO’s on how to develop and manage a cybersecurity program for their firms.

Cybersecurity has become much more important in the investment management space. All managers are concerned about the protection and safety of their data and digital assets.

By Anthony Hartzog, Director of Global Remote Support at Abacus Group 

Since joining Abacus Group in 2012, I’ve worked across many areas of the company, originally as an onsite support tech and then as one of our first remote support technicians. I also created and assumed the role of our first remote support dispatcher. Through the encouragement of growth opportunities within Abacus, I eventually became a team lead, manager and now director of our global remote support team, based in our Dallas office. I have a BA in Information Science with a minor in Business and Computer Science. Prior to Abacus, I worked in IT at the Federal Court.

The majority of our remote support team resides in Dallas, but, to account for our global presence and different time zones, we also have team members based in a variety of regions, including New York City, San Francisco, LA and London. Our service desk is a truly global framework with UK staff fielding issues for US clients, and vice versa, which has allowed our client base to grow with minimal Abacus growing pains.