Reinsurance is one of the most important parts of international business and the economy in Bermuda.

But behind every successful company is a team of experts running an equally effective and efficient back office operation.

And that is exactly the make up of Flagstone Re — the Bermuda-based reinsurer with accounting and IT facilities in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Situated on the seventh floor of Cogswell Tower with stunning views looking out across the harbour, Flagstone Management Services (Halifax) Ltd. boasts the staff base and technology to match its location.

When the company changed hands from West End Capital to Flagstone, chairman Mark Byrne and CEO David Brown set about starting up a top quality accountancy and IT unit over in Halifax, as group controller Gloria Reid explained.

"Primarily we do accounting and IT," she said. "We have 22 accountants and do accounting for all the company.

"The IT infrastructure here is for our worldwide operations, with a group of programmers working out of here.

"The servers are all in Halifax — they support India, Switzerland and Bermuda and there is a small HR presence here as well and our facilities manager for our worldwide operations is also here."

Since its inception, Flagstone's back office operation has grown to 60 staff, with plans to recruit another ten over the course of the next year, while also looking to expand from half a floor to the whole floor in the not too distant future, but Ms Reid said the real secret to its success is down to the good connections with Bermuda and other bases across the world, and the advantages each location brings to the equation.

"The links with Bermuda work really well," she said. "It is a convenient commute and I think certainly it has been easier to recruit in the Halifax market than it has in Bermuda.

"We have a large talent pool with the universities here and if you look at Canada, this size of city is easier to attract someone to rather than the likes of Toronto or Montreal for example. It is large enough that you have this talent pool, but small enough to be safe and an easy commute."

But, above all it is the day-to-day communication with Bermuda that is the real beauty of being situated in the Nova Scotian capital, only a two to three hour flight away and on the same time zone.

"We talk to Bermuda every single day," said Ms. Reid.

"It is a very hands-on relationship both ways.

"We have videoconferencing facilities in both meeting rooms, we text frequently and I report to a gentleman who works out of Bermuda.

"In general, I think because Flagstone is an international company and it has offices in both India and Switzerland and we can videoconference into those countries, that it is quite an effective way of communicating and working alongside each other.

"I travel to Bermuda quite a lot — I have been here since November last year and have been there four times in the last year, and our technology allows us to go down there and start work because it is all aligned.

"The link between the two countries just seems to work because we have done it from the time Flagstone started up and it does present its challenges, but because we are on the same time zone then it works really well."

Another advantage to the ties between the two nations is the steady flow of Canadian employees in either direction, and the hope that Bermudians will soon follow suit, Ms. Reid said.

"We have been able to bring in Canadians that had gone to Bermuda to work," she said.

"There is a nice symmetry there because Canadians that have come back home are able to stay with a Bermuda-based company and that is great because they know exactly the way that business operates.

"At one point I had a Bermudian student with the company and we'll continue to help support that kind of thing."

Outsourcing to places such as Canada and India is always a pertinent issue for many of Bermuda's big international firms, but not one Ms Reid believes there is reason to worry about.

"I am sure it is done for more economic reasons," she said.

"The cost of housing in Bermuda, whereas salaries would generally be lower in Halifax. I suspect, retention would be less of an issue and just the sheer talent pool — when we go to recruit it is just easier.

"And I suspect it is not just Bermudian companies that are coming to Halifax for that, such as Blackberry for example.

"Certainly these decisions made by those companies to relocate to Canada are down to economics."

And just like fellow Bermudian company Butterfield Bank and other international firms set up in Halifax, Flagstone are reaping the rewards of the Nova Scotia Business Inc. (NSBI) payroll rebate programme for reaching recruitment targets for Canadians, according to Ms. Reid.

"The NSBI has actually marketed the city as a business destination for companies worldwide," she said.

"The government have been very supportive of us certainly and obvious attraction to Halifax would be the human resource talent.

"Because we are a new company and being a start-up it is easier to establish back office operations here than a long existing company which has already based its functions elsewhere.

"This has given us the great opportunity to build a disaster plan and we can be up and running here if something happens in India or Bermuda, or vice-versa, they can run the ship in those places."

For now though, the plan is keep up the good work and maintain and develop solid business relationships between Bermuda and Halifax, said Ms. Reid.

"I think it has gone really well," she said. "I am really pleased and its great for our economy."