VPS, a commission trailing and payment software application created by a Swiss IT consulting and software house called Aquin Financial, is to be sold in Britain by a company founded just sixteen months ago: Inceptio.
Inceptio, which was started by Peter Baumann and Peter Fairchild in August 2001, describes itself somewhat mysteriously as a provider of “outsourced sales solutions for the business information industry” – or, alternatively, as a provider of a “professional `plug and play’ sales service to companies that need to get their products into the marketplace quickly and efficiently.”
Which was obviously good enough for Aquin. “Aquin chose Inceptio as its U.K. sales partner because we can link our product knowledge with Inceptio’s marketing and sales know-how in the U.K. Inceptio has an excellent reputation and expertise in the financial services marketplace,” explains Ulrich Jacobi, Managing Director of Aquin Financial.
The VPS product developed by Aquin automates the calculation of commission payments, enabling fund managers to manage the costs and profits of the sales process, calculate client profitability, and get an overview of their sales agents’ distribution capabilities. Aquin has already sold it to Credit Suisse subsidiary Clariden Bank and to Deutscher Investment Trust, part of the Dresdner Bank Group in Frankfurt. Aquin says it has clients in London, Paris, Luxembourg and Dublin, as well as Zurich and Frankfurt.
“Although Inceptio will initially position VPS in the Fund Management community, the scope for this product us huge when considering the need to manage and control complex multi-distribution networks that exist elsewhere,” says Peter Baumann, co-founder of Inceptio. “For example, the distribution of broker and independent research, and even the larger hedge fund partner programs. We are absolutely delighted that Aquin Financial has chosen Inceptio to lead and run its UK expansion drive. The investment fund market needs very flexible methods of dealing with commission management, which are not available in the larger software packages. Aquin can provide single purpose engines for each business case, offering commission management and sales control.”