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About us
Back Office Front Office has originated a new business model; we call it "outsmarting" because it combines outsourcing with Advisory services and management solutions. We can provide all the essential customer facing and operational/infrastructure capabilities required to get a business going, keep a business going, and help a business grow. At the heart of this is our focus: business planning and strategic marketing.
Our Vision
“Work for yourself, not by yourself” is our tagline. It is based on the insight that small and medium sized businesses need qualified, professional and experienced resources to help drive the business. Advice on what to do, how to do it, when to do it and what could happen if it isn’t done, is well and good, but it does not practically move the business forward. Hiring permanent people often is not the answer; and managing relationships with a multitude of suppliers requires a lot of time.
Our ValuesWe believe that quality and customer centricity should be driven into all aspects of service delivery. We believe "know your customer" is at the heart of any business opportunity. We believe competitors can also be your business partners, and that value MUST be an evident component of everything we do. Integrity, as well as intellect and experience, will be our criteria of selection for choosing the people with whom we work. And we will passionately pursue simplicity in taking our products and services to market.
Our MissionOur goal is to be the provider of choice for small and medium sized businesses in the UK, offering an extensive range of customer facing and operational/infrastructure products and services, as well as management tools and solutions that span the value continuum from "commodity" to "strategic". Back Office Front Office also wants to be the supplier of choice for international businesses who need a virtual London "presence".
Our ApproachCustomers are our business, so we offer three different service levels to suit a customer’s preference and needs. Competitors vie for our customers, so we focus on quality, and keeping our services simple to understand, easy to use, and value rich. Delivery makes the difference, so our team is comprised of qualified and experienced professionals who can bring fresh insights to the table, and translate them into pragmatic approaches to achieve business objectives.
Back Office Front Office Founders
The company was envisioned and established by Jack Verkruysse and Alice Gur-Arie.
Jack Verkruysse
Jack's career has focused on financial services where he has launched and managed banking and brokerage operations for global institutions in North America, Europe and India.
His accomplishments over the years are significant. For Toronto Dominion Bank, Jack can claim a number of “firsts”, including building and launching the first call centre for brokerage services in Canada, and the first touch tone activated quote service for brokerage. At TD Waterhouse, a subsidiary of the bank, he was selected to lead the International Business Development team in Europe. In this role Jack doubled market share, met all financial targets, and passed a rigorous SFA audit in the first year. He also directed the integration of the purchased business across all operations, including finance, technology and infrastructure build-out, and HR policies and staffing.
As the first President of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s discount brokerage, Jack captured 12% market share over three years.
Jack also has a proven track record of successes at E*Trade Securities. As Managing Director in the UK, he took the retail business to profitability after losses since its inception 3 years previously. Then, as VP International Operations, Jack spent 3 years in Paris, Sweden and Germany. In this role Jack overcame critical cultural, as well as business hurdles, dismantling barriers between the various local operational entities, especially between the US and the UK, and the US and Sweden. Additionally he improved Swedish operations, saving > $2.4million per year.
Most recently Jack spent a year in Mumbai as COO for an American-Indian joint venture financial services company. In this role Jack had formal responsibilities for the online channel, the call centre, and the product management group. His informal role was advisor to the CEO on ways and means to transform the organization from a “local” branch based player to a market driven, best of breed, online competitor. Jack’s role in India ended when HSBC bought the company.
His accomplishments over the years are significant. For Toronto Dominion Bank, Jack can claim a number of “firsts”, including building and launching the first call centre for brokerage services in Canada, and the first touch tone activated quote service for brokerage. At TD Waterhouse, a subsidiary of the bank, he was selected to lead the International Business Development team in Europe. In this role Jack doubled market share, met all financial targets, and passed a rigorous SFA audit in the first year. He also directed the integration of the purchased business across all operations, including finance, technology and infrastructure build-out, and HR policies and staffing.
As the first President of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s discount brokerage, Jack captured 12% market share over three years.
Jack also has a proven track record of successes at E*Trade Securities. As Managing Director in the UK, he took the retail business to profitability after losses since its inception 3 years previously. Then, as VP International Operations, Jack spent 3 years in Paris, Sweden and Germany. In this role Jack overcame critical cultural, as well as business hurdles, dismantling barriers between the various local operational entities, especially between the US and the UK, and the US and Sweden. Additionally he improved Swedish operations, saving > $2.4million per year.
Most recently Jack spent a year in Mumbai as COO for an American-Indian joint venture financial services company. In this role Jack had formal responsibilities for the online channel, the call centre, and the product management group. His informal role was advisor to the CEO on ways and means to transform the organization from a “local” branch based player to a market driven, best of breed, online competitor. Jack’s role in India ended when HSBC bought the company.
Alice Gur-Arie
Alice grew up in Canada and the Middle East, and holds degrees in English literature, education and business. Alice has successfully spanned two worlds: the world of creative commercial artists and writers, and the world of business. She started her career as a copywriter, working in advertising agencies with exposure to a diverse set of businesses and sectors, including consumer real estate, electronics, travel and tourism, cars, cosmetics, clothing, energy and food.
Several years later, Alice won a competition to design the campaign for the high profile travelling Smithsonian exhibit The Precious Legacy, brought to Canada by the Royal Ontario Museum, and also exhibited at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta. Commissions for campaigns for the Art Gallery of Ontario and the McLaughlin Planetarium followed.
In 1987 Alice moved client side. As Corporate Advertising Manager for BC Tel, she drove the repositioning of the company in anticipation of monopoly services deregulation. In the three years of her tenure at BC Tel, more than 8 awards from international agency/broadcasting associations were won for multimedia campaigns in television, print, radio and magazine categories.
By 1998 Alice had held senior Marketing roles with responsibilities for hiring and directing national English, French and Chinese advertising and PR agencies, and had managed multi million dollar budgets. As Director of Marketing Services at Cantel, Canada’s only national mobile company at the time, she had national responsibilities for advertising (acquisition and retention), PR, research, employee communications, sales support, events and trade shows, and customer communications. She was also “hand picked” by the CEO, to “own” the Cantel Communications AT&T Wireless relationship, and was responsible for delivering the North American strategic co-branding and technology alliance agreement.
Subsequently, Alice joined Green Line Services, a subsidiary of the Toronto Dominion Bank, and as Senior Vice President Marketing, directed the strategic repositioning, global rebranding and multilingual internal and external communications campaigns relating to their successful IPO (they are now TD Waterhouse). Also noteworthy, Alice launched the first ever financial services “television infomercial”, a move which increased assets under administration by $5.5 million in 6 weeks.
Alice came to the UK 10 years ago, and spent 6 years in strategic marketing roles with Syntegra, BT’s consulting and systems integration subsidiary. These roles included Marketing Director, Government Business Unit; International Development Director, IT&Professional Services; and Director EMEA, Global Professional Services. Alice left BT 3 years ago, but was asked back to consult for BT Telconsult, BT’s consulting arm that focuses on business outside the UK.
In this capacity, two Project Director roles were undertaken: the first of these was based in Turkey, where Alice not only improved year over year business performance significantly, she was also credited by the customer as personally responsible for driving improvement to management and delivery of the contract. Alice was in Turkey 9 months. The second project was a one year assignment based in Mumbai, India, on a BT engagement to design the ICT strategy for a new, world class city to be built in the state of Gujarat.
