Background
Colonial First State (CFS) is one of Australia’s leading wealth management organisations, managing more than $70 billion in funds across diversified portfolios. Through platforms such as FirstChoice and the recently launched CFS Edge, which reached $1 billion in funds under administration in just 200 business days, CFS services a broad range of clients including advisers, licensees, individual investors and institutions with bespoke mandates.
Headquartered in Sydney, CFS has built a reputation for reliability and innovation, with deep connections to adviser networks, custodians, and fund managers across Australia. Yet behind its market-leading platforms, the company’s order management processes had long been constrained by manual effort.
Challenges
Before joining the Calastone network, CFS’s order routing relied heavily on manual workflows. Trades were often received via email and, in some cases, even by fax. This meant thousands of transactions each week required staff to rekey data, reconcile errors and monitor for delays. The process was time-consuming, resource intensive, and inherently risky.
As Yolande Rozanic, Executive Director, Customer Relations at CFS, recalled, “We were in a position where operational risk and inefficiency were limiting our ability to scale. Some clients were still sending trades by fax, and many told us the challenges they faced when investing into CFS funds. We knew we had to act.”
The pressure to modernise was particularly acute as the business scaled up with the growth of CFS Edge. A manual framework would not be able to sustain that pace of expansion.
Selecting Calastone and Implementation
When evaluating options to modernise its order processing, CFS recognised that automation through Calastone would deliver both immediate and long-term benefits. The solution aligned perfectly with the firm’s strategic goals: to reduce operational risk, increase efficiency, and enhance client experience. Importantly, many of CFS’s institutional clients were already familiar with Calastone’s global network, which meant adoption would be seamless across the market.
“We saw Calastone not just as a technology solution, but as an industry standard,” explained Yolande. “It gave us the opportunity to set a new benchmark for efficiency and client service in Australia. The decision was ultimately about doing what was best for our business and for the investors we serve.”
CFS established a dedicated delivery team across operations, product, distribution and IT to work hand in hand with Calastone’s experts. Together, they ensured the project followed best practice at every stage, from integration and testing through to staff training and client onboarding. According to Yolande, “The onboarding was seamless. Calastone’s guidance, from technical integration to live demonstrations for our staff, meant we were confident from day one. Any challenges were quickly resolved by the Calastone staff, who were ultimately focused on great service for CFS customers.”
Benefits
The impact of automation was immediate. In the first week after going live, between 21 and 25 July, all 2,414 trades were still processed manually. Just one week later, however, nearly 90 per cent of trades were fully automated via Calastone. By the start of August, that figure had climbed even higher, with over 93 per cent of trades processed seamlessly through the network.
This rapid adoption transformed how CFS managed its daily workload. What once required six staff members could now be handled by just three, with the remaining team members freed to focus on higher-value tasks. Error rates fell significantly, while straight-through processed trades required virtually no checking at all. Processing times also improved dramatically, with trades executed and confirmed without the delays that had previously been common.
Clients noticed the difference immediately. “Our clients are over the moon,” Yolande said. “They’ve been quick to tell us how much easier and faster it is to submit trades, and the change has strengthened our relationships. It has been one of the most positively received operational changes we’ve ever introduced.”
Ongoing Support and Looking Forward
Calastone’s support did not end at go-live. The team has been instrumental in helping CFS work with clients to transition away from legacy behaviours, whether that meant moving clients off fax submissions or resolving issues with incorrectly formatted account numbers. When a minor incident occurred soon after launch, Calastone’s IT and operations teams collaborated closely with CFS to resolve it quickly and provided a detailed incident report that underscored the robustness of their processes.
The network itself has proved extremely reliable, with no disruptions since implementation. Yolande praised the responsiveness of the partnership: “Calastone’s operations team are on top of everything. They’re quick to respond, thorough in their analysis, and always available when we need support. It gives us enormous confidence in the stability of the network.”
Looking ahead, CFS is exploring ways to extend its collaboration with Calastone to additional modules such as Transfers [link] and Reporting [link]. The early success of order routing has created momentum for further automation, and clients are already encouraging CFS to expand its use of the platform.
As Yolande concluded, “Calastone has set the gold standard for order processing. The transformation has been remarkable – not just for our operations team but also for our clients. As we continue to innovate and grow, we see Calastone as a trusted partner in shaping the future of our business.”
