Surfboard rides online wave
A group going by the name of Surfboard has become the latest online financial services group to list on the Australian stock exchange.
Surfboard hit the ASX boards thanks to a merger with resources company Grange Resources.
Essentially a multi-functional platform for financial services, Surfboard has the ability to handle banking, securities, insurance, managed funds data, news and information. It also has multi-media and customer service components.
A group going by the name of Surfboard has become the latest online financial services group to list on the Australian stock exchange.
Surfboard hit the ASX boards thanks to a merger with resources company Grange Resources.
Essentially a multi-functional platform for financial services, Surfboard has the ability to handle banking, securities, insurance, managed funds data, news and information. It also has multi-media and customer service components.
Surfboard managing directorDon Hagans believes the company is a cut above the web company crowd because it offers a full service financial services platform.
“We build and manage a full service financial services platform for customers,” he says.
“That platform is powered by Surfboard, but branded by the financial entity involved. Clients can modify things like graphics and messages for their clients, but we provide the platform that enables them to do that. We sit above web firms because we offer integrated solutions.”
While coy about the group’s client base, Hagans says its customers are “companies with inter-mediaries.” And Surfboard has recruited some high profile talent to help them develop their plat-forms.
“We’ve recruited 60 people from four areas - the technical, media, financial services and com-munication industries.”
Recruits include personnel who in previous lives worked for the Australian Stock Exchange, Unilever, Price Waterhouse, Ernst & Young and St George Bank.
“Web platforms now need an integrated team with a variety of skillsets,” says Hagans who also argues that finance professionals cannot - and should not - have all the skills required to develop efficient web platforms.
“Web platforms are mechanisms through which finance professionals deal with their client. They manage the personal financial centre, but we provide the tools that allow them to do it,” he says.
Hagans says the merger with Grange delivers Surfboard with the financial depth and resources necessary to fully implement its business plans in Australia and New Zealand.
"There is also a solid public company foundation on which to base Surfboard's further market expansion," he says.
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