GLOBAL INVESTOR
COLLER CAPITAL RELIES
ON HOSTED SERVICES TO
SUPPORT PRIVATE EQUITY
INVESTMENT FUNDS
MANAGED HOSTING & NETWORK
OVERVIEW
AT A GLANCE
COMPANY:
Coller Capital
INDUSTRY:
Finance
CHALLENGE(S):
Coller Capital needed to give its
employees 24/7 access to its
technology infrastructure from
anywhere in the world.
Coller Capital is the leading global investor in private equity’s
secondary market, often referred to as ‘secondaries.’
It provides liquidity to investors wishing to exit early from
their private equity investments. Its investments range from
as little as one million US dollars up to a billion or more.
Coller Capital has the world’s largest investment team dedicated to private equity
secondaries. It is privately owned and headquartered in London, New York and Hong
Kong, with a multi-national team of around 150 people.
SELECTION CRITERIA:
Coller Capital has been using
CenturyLink Technology Solutions
for several years and it has become
the natural first choice for any new
projects that require a robust hosting
solution with a broad global footprint.
continued
The company has recently closed its sixth secondaries fund, with capital commitments
of $5.5 billion and backing from almost 200 of the world’s leading institutional investors.
24/7 GLOBAL ACCESSIBILITY REQUIREMENT FOR EMPLOYEES
Coller Capital develops its IT systems internally. To ensure business continuity it needs
to ensure its people always have access to its data, systems and technology without
any dependency on their physical location.
Ian Flavill is Head of IT Service Delivery at Coller Capital. He is responsible for all aspects
of IT infrastructure, from test and development through to live operational systems. He
explains his challenge as one of global accessibility, twenty four hours a day.
continued
SOLUTION:
Coller Capital use both hosting and network services
from CenturyLink
RESULTS:
Coller Capital has benefitted from:
• A highly available IT infrastructure, with worldwide
presence
“We’re extremely excited about
CenturyLink’s new offering. We should end up
with a hybrid cloud which can support the needs
of our development environment as well as the
day-to-day running of our business.”
– Ian Flavill,
Head of IT Service Delivery, Coller Capital
• A strong and integrated supplier relationship with
CenturyLink that provides high levels of support
“My job is to ensure that anybody who works in Coller Capital can
Coller Capital is particularly satisfied with the straightforward
work from anywhere in the world, at any time, and still have their IT
approach of the CenturyLink team, and their willingness to work
services delivered to them.”
through any issues or problems that might arise.
Coller Capital relies on CenturyLink’s hosting and network services
Ian Flavill said, “Any form of significant and complex change that
Coller Capital has been using CenturyLink Technology Solutions
you inflict upon your infrastructure brings risk. There are instances
for several years and it has become a natural choice for any new
when we’ve had a project that’s experienced teething troubles —
projects that require a robust hosting solution with a broad global
but without doubt, the response of the team to get us over any
footprint. It uses CenturyLink for both its hosting services and as
problems has been superb.”
its network provider.
Ian Flavill believes this gives Coller Capital a stronger relationship
NEW CLOUD SERVICES PROMISE EVEN GREATER
FLEXIBILITY
with its supplier, resulting in a more flexible proposition than using
Coller Capital is confident that any new services it receives from
point providers for each service.
CenturyLink will be provided to the levels it expects, with no surprises.
He said, “We interface with CenturyLink on a number of different
Ian Flavill said, “When you deal with CenturyLink, you’ll get
levels; we’ve got service management on a day-to-day level, and
transparency, you’ll get honesty and you’ll get ownership. What
account management and pre-sales on the commercial side as
they say they’ll sell you, is what you end up buying.”
well. At every level we see ownership being taken — we see
transparency and honesty.”
Flavill is also enthusiastic about future developments and in particular
the potential of CenturyLink’s new cloud services, which he believes
A HIGHLY AVAILABLE HOSTED INFRASTRUCTURE
SUPPORTS DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATIONAL
ENVIRONMENTS
can deliver them a flexible and agile hybrid cloud solution.
Coller Capital is very satisfied with the performance of the
offering. We should end up with a hybrid cloud which can support
He said, “We’re extremely excited about CenturyLink’s new
CenturyLink services and the level of support it receives.
the needs of our development environment as well as the day-to-
Ian Flavill commented, “Our experience with CenturyLink has been
day running of our business.”
exemplary. This includes the account team, the customer service
staff as well as the operations people. We’ve worked together in
With its critical infrastructure hosted inside CenturyLink’s resilient
partnership for five years now, and pretty much throughout that
data centers, Coller Capital can continue to focus on its core
entire period the day-to-day availability and stability of our services
business of providing liquidity to its private equity investors.
has been top notch.”
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