Albridge Solutions, Inc.

An affiliate of Perishing LLC, a BNY Mellon company Client Services and Support Center

Company Description

Albridge Solutions, Inc. an affiliate of Pershing LLC, is a leading provider of enterprise solutions, custom technology and business consulting services to institutional and retail financial organizations and independent registered investment advisors.

Albridge draws on its financial services experience and technology expertise to help financial organizations enhance their operating performance and maximize their productivity. Albridge's wealth management technology consolidates and reconciles client account information from hundreds of data sources that represent banking, brokerage, insurance, retirement, managed accounts and more.

Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon company, is a leading global provider of financial business solutions to financial organizations and independent registered investment advisors. Pershing is committed to providing dependable operational support, robust trading services, flexible technology and an expansive array of investment solutions, practice management programs and general service excellence.

Growth Projection

Dedicated to customized, high level client service, the Albridge Solutions Contact Center is a very specialized business unit poised for growth and expansion. Committed to developing new business opportunities and to enhancing technology, Albridge will continue to provide clients more functionality and choices to access the organization through electronic and personalized contact.

Contact Center Description

Albridge Solutions is headquartered in a new, secure and modern office building centrally located in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, near shopping, restaurants and highways. Security personnel are on site and security cards are required to enter the offices. There is a free fitness facility and a café on site along with walking trails and ample free parking right outside the building.

The senior management teams are located in the same suite as the Contact Center. Support staff, front line staff and the Service Quality team are located near one another, also on the same floor. This physical proximity demonstrates senior management's strong commitment to ensure quick resolution of caller issues.

There are many indications of corporate excellence and recognition visible throughout the office including: Contact Center goals and Six Sigma certifications are posted, and plaques for individual, team and company awards are displayed.

The Contact Center is decorated in a neutral color scheme with abundant natural light streaming in. Service professionals are arranged in rows by team; each in their own cubicle with their name plaque. All cubicles are the same size and have the same chairs, ergonomic wrist pads and keyboards, ample lighting, and dual 19" monitors to reduce eye strain. Employees are invited to decorate their cubicles with personal items.

CCEOC Certification - Bronze 2013/2014

The Albridge Solutions Client Services and Support Contact Center is recognized for its people-focused approach to management.

The Albridge operation is recognized for its people-focused approach.

Management notes:

• People are energetic, friendly and dynamic
• Open-door policy
• Great facilities
• Robust and flexible scheduling options
• A world-class coaching program

Virtually all associates concurred that Albridge Solutions is focused on its associates. The following categories: management/employee relations; career advancement; employee involvement, customer satisfaction and personal enjoyment scored over 80% strongly or moderately agreed in the survey.

Organizational Structure

The Contact Center reports to the Managing Director & Senior Vice President of Operations & Services. There are 25 service professionals at this site serving accounts from coast to coast.

The Contact Center is comprised of four support teams, each focused on a different client sector: 1. Advisor Management: Largest volume, Financial Advisor support 2. Premier Client: Financial Advisor support for high net worth clients 3. RIA: Registered Investment Advisor Support 4. Home Office & Partner Support: Broker-dealer back-office support

Scheduling and coaching are handled by the Client Service Managers. Quality monitoring is handled by the Service Quality team and training is handled by the on-site Corporate Trainer. IT handles the hardware and technical support requests. HR is responsible for all recruiting and new hire orientations. The ratio of Employees to Managers is 25:3, and Managers to Director 3:1.

Key Perfomance Metrics

Service Level

• 80% of calls are answered in 30 seconds or less
• 90% or higher boast point of contact resolution
• 3% or fewer calls comprise the abandonment rate
• Email replies are sent out within 24 hours

Quality Metrics

• 95% or higher overall email & call quality score

Employee Satisfaction Metrics

• 90% or higher overall satisfaction

Client Satisfaction Metrics

• 90% or higher overall Satisfaction

TECHNOLOGY

Albridge uses an Avaya ACD with the BCMS reporting system. VOIP, instant messaging and an on-line knowledge base are used to streamline client contact. Siebel is used for CRM and email management, Wygant for call recording/screen capture, Parature for an online knowledge base, and Survey Monkey for corporate surveys.

CCEOC ATTRIBUTES

Health & Wellness and Work/life Balance

As an affiliate of Pershing, a BNY Mellon company, Albridge has access to the corporate Employee Assistance Program (EAP) called "Wellbeing, My Health". This EAP provides employees with many different programs to support good health, including: 10,000 Steps Program, 30x5 Program, Eat Well, Emotional Wellbeing, Global Fit, and Work/Life Program to name a few.

Other health and fitness related benefits available to employees include: membership discounts at external fitness facilities, sports leagues and teams in the building and bowling events. Employees are encouraged to eat healthy meals. Albridge offers up to two weeks paid time off to engage in volunteer, or charity work.

Communicating Employee Expectations & Corporate Developments

The Albridge leadership believes that it is crucial to communicate effectively with its employees. To support an open door policy at Albridge, management holds town hall meetings with the CEO, quarterly operations and service meetings, team meetings, one-on-ones, and "Skip level" sessions where an individual team member meets with the Managing Director.

Call stats and new product releases are previewed on display boards throughout the center. Corporate communications, including the Albridge Intranet and the BNY Melon Portal Intraweb, inform employees about tests and training available to them.

Competitive Pay and Benefits

Staff are compensated at above market rates for the high skill, knowledge and experience levels required of them. Additional financial benefits include:

• 401K
• Company Retirement Contributions
• Annual Bonuses
• Life insurance – term, regular
• Health plan – flex benefits, long and short term disability, health, dental, vision
• Tuition reimbursement

Rewards & Recognition

There is no better way to ensure that employees are engaged and committed than to maintain an effective rewards and recognition program. Albridge provides a number of opportunities for employees to be recognized and receive rewards, including referral and performance bonuses. A points program allows employees to accrue points when they go above and beyond the call of duty to help their clients and peers. When a certain number of points are reached, the employee can choose a gift card from one of several merchants.

Management acknowledges and welcomes new employees on-board when they start with the company. Promotions, certifications and degrees are all publicly recognized by the organization. Plaques and trophies in the foyer display center-wide recognition from Benchmark Portal, IQPC and ContactCenterWorld. Accolades from clients are shared and posted by the managers in an effort to reinforce the good work done by the client services team.

Community Involvement

Albridge recognizes that increasingly, community involvement is becoming an important component in creating the feeling of a great place to work. The company sponsors many initiatives and activities to support various charities. The Community Partnership Campaign empowers employees to make a difference by contributing their money and time to the communities where they live and work. Employees also have the option to participate in "Powering Potential" which focuses on charities that provide food, shelter and workforce development opportunities for people who face economic challenges.

Training & Development

Because of the technical nature of the job, training and development are extremely important to sustain the success of the Client Services division. New hires are trained for six weeks before sitting in with the client service team.

Other training initiatives include:

• Refresher training
• Online courses, "MyLearning" (Community, leadership, financial)
• Six sigma training – Yellow, Green and Black
• Certified Financial Planner (CFP)^®
• Albridge Certification, levels 1 & 2
• New release training
• Client training

A career mapping process lays out a path and requirements for promotion inside and outside the Client Services area. For example, Advisory Management Group is the entry-level support team with Premier Client and Home Office Partner & Support (HOPS) offering promotional opportunities within Client Services. Someone who wants to become an Account Manager would seek to be promoted into Premier Client and someone who wants to become a Data Analyst would plan to move into HOPS.

Lunch & Learns and literature from different areas of the company on select topics help to educate staff about the inner workings of the organization. Also, Client Services uses American Society for Quality (ASQ) information to help maintain their high quality standards.

Coaching & Monitoring

Albridge conducts call sampling and provides monthly feedback to each employee. They offer coaching to ensure that people always feel valued for their contributions and help them understand ways they can continue to grow. They hold one-on-one meetings with employees to discuss daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly goals. Monthly meetings between Client Service Management and Service Quality are also held to review best practices, operating procedures and to provide feedback and a forum for discussion.

Employee Involvement

The Continuous Improvement Team is another opportunity to get employees involved. People are given the chance to lead a project and pursue new Six Sigma belts. Teams get together regularly to discuss and implement ways to increase satisfaction for higher maintenance accounts. They use strategic problem solving and client conferences to help develop solutions.

Management gets continuous feedback from the team on how to do the job better through focus groups, one-on-one meetings and informal conversations. In addition, presentations are made to senior management on how to improve processes.

Employees can submit ideas for change, or improvement using online standard operating procedures. Client Services professionals communicate with all levels of the organization.

A Social Culture

The best way to describe the Client Service culture at Albridge is "professional and fun." It's a competitive group with lots of discussion about sports teams which plays nicely to their "team fit" approach when looking to hire new staff. It's also a family oriented, warm and welcoming place with many different social activities set up throughout the year, including an end of year holiday party, an annual company picnic and lots of pot luck lunches. Albridge has a passionate and energetic staff. Management respects diversity in the workplace, encourages employees to contribute in their own unique ways, and has an open door policy always making time to listen to employee concerns.

In 2009 Albridge Solutions won the IQPC Best Contact Center award. Employees surprised the Managing Director by decorating the office with over 1000 balloons to show their pride.

Above and Beyond

Above and Beyond are the big and little extras that differentiate Albridge Solutions Client Services Contact Center from the rest.

These include:

• Employees grew up with the company and are very committed
• Employees were involved with changes from the start and are very loyal
• An "All hands on deck" and "Do whatever it takes to get the job done" attitude promotes team cohesion from the SVP down to the front line
• Overall support from upper management, including Service Strategies, Six Sigma, IQPC
• Cutting edge technology such as voice recognition technology
• Highly trained, skilled and experienced employees
• The Albridge Data Service reconciliation team and small company attentive attitude provide real competitive advantages