The Beatles sang “It was twenty years ago today Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play”. Well twenty years ago today, almost to the day, in 1995 Troika was born. In the same year Peter Cook died and John Major struggled with his small majority.
We started with three clients and ten users; now over 600 people log into Troika somewhere in the world every day. Back then visiting our user sites was a simple task, two in London and one in Jersey. It’s a little more complicated now with users in Scotland, the major cities of the North, Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds to the West country, Bristol and Exeter and then of course London and the South. We have an expanded group of users in Jersey and Guernsey and further afield now, Gibraltar, Malta, Lichtenstein, Mauritius and Monaco. While we are counting mustn’t forget the BVI and Ireland!
The software has of course changed hugely. We started with a Trust Accounting system and now we have a fully fledged wealth management offering covering all aspects of private client functionality from Trust to Estates, and from Court of Protection to Family Offices. OEICS, SICAV’s and offshore entities can all be managed by Troika and most recently we led the way with FATCA integration.
The landscape in which our clients operate has changed too. Changes to the legislation for Trusts in the UK caused some consternation; indeed some commentators were predicting the end of the trust as a practical vehicle. Such reports of the demise of the trust were indeed premature. Offshore too regulation has changed. Jersey and Guernsey have adapted well and businesses have grown since regulation was introduced; a number of them have used Troika to aid their growth. Then of course there is FATCA. Initially a number of people were convinced that it didn’t apply to trusts. They were wrong!
Software doesn’t develop itself and we have been so lucky to have a tremendous team here. Of those who joined during our first five years all but one are still with us and the one who isn’t retired last year! We keep our team together because we develop good software, respond to our clients needs and it’s an exciting work environment. We keep our clients too for the same reasons. Our client base is diverse from small firms of lawyers and accountants to major names in the private client sector, banks, family offices and offshore trust companies.
So what for the next twenty years? The internet, cloud computing and different ways of working will all be huge challenges. Software developers have to work faster and smarter as there will be far more rapid change than over the last twenty years. More flexible working with data available via mobile devices is a challenge with a clear offset between access and security. Exciting times ahead and we and Troika look forward to the next twenty years!
