TAS's new CEO, Shane Baker.
Managed services provider (MSP) to financial institutions, Transaction Solutions (TAS) Managed Services, has announced its chief executive officer (CEO), Guy Light, has retired following a 22-year tenure.
Light will be replaced by Shane Baker, who was approached by TAS as a result of his industry reputation formed through tenures at Australian MSP, Hostworks, and technology services company, The Frame Group.
Baker told ARN that he took on the role as a result of his love for technology and managed services, and because TAS provides executive level engagement with business challenges, rather than being limited to technology.
“Why this company? I thought ‘great unknown’,” he said. “When I started to uncover more about the organisation, I found they have 60 or so customers, a 23-year track record of hosting core banking systems and appreciation for the criticality and availability necessary around those services. I thought this is a solid organisation.”
Baker was also attracted by the fact that TAS had been servicing the finance sector for 23 years without sales people and marketing.
“I thought the opportunity to be able to take TAS to a whole new level by implementing a clearly-defined strategy and bringing in a go-to-market element, and driving that behaviour into the organisation around sales and marketing-orientated culture would bring substantial benefit given that TAS doesn’t have a strong brand,” Baker added.
As CEO, Baker will spend his first six to 12 months bolstering the business in terms of strategy and go-to-market.
On the strategy front, he will focus on taking a high-level strategy and forming an execution plan around it. It reviews the current structure of the organisation, the roles and responsibilities of employee, and processes, and looks at opportunities to improve performance both in house and to customers. This first phase has already been presented to and approved by the TAS Board.
In terms of go-to-market, Baker will work to create awareness of TAS’s value across the broader financial services sector. A key element of his approach is to broaden the business to traditional banking, international banking, insurance, card services, and brokering.
In the same period, Baker’s primary goal is to drive a consultative engagement with existing customers, an area in which he sees great potential
“There’s a huge potential for us to provide additional value to our customers through consultancy engagement,” he said. “What’s missing is the real intimate customer relationship with a consultancy front end that can really understand the business challenges, objectives, and strategies of customers, and help them undertake that.”
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