Babson Capital – One of the nation's most innovative users of technology
01/03/2007 -- Babson Capital was listed on the InformationWeek 500 for 2006, placing it among the nation's top 500 companies that transform, innovate and succeed through the strategic use of technology, according to the magazine.
InformationWeek, or InfoWeek as it is commonly referred to, has been compiling its annual report card of innovative users of business technology since 1988, and this is Babson Capital's first appearance. Rather than simply list companies by total information technology (IT) budgets, the InfoWeek list, published September 11, highlights companies that apply technology in new or unique ways and seek to measure the impact.
Babson Capital, similar to others in the financial services category, has made significant investments in IT to help keep its expanding global operations communicating effectively. The firm has grown to have $93.4 billion in assets under management (including subsidiaries as of Nov. 30, 2006) with institutions and other sophisticated clients in the U.S. and abroad. In the past two and a half years, Babson Capital has added subsidiary offices in London and Tokyo to join its six U.S. offices.
"Our firm has a growing number of offices around the globe, and our people are on the move as never before," said Rick Farquharson, Managing Director and head of IT for the firm. "We want to help them do what they need from wherever they need to be." Helping the company accomplish that, IT is using grid technology, blade servers, virtual server management, remote access through Citrix and wireless-enabled laptops to support the business, Farquharson noted.