In the good old days the demarcation between a front office and backoffice system was clear and many distributor IT programmes had different suppliers for each. Openwork had a POS system from Focus and a backoffice from Sirius, Intrinisic had a POS system from N4 and a backoffice from Vertex.
However in the less successful projects, two suppliers often meant two ets of licence fees, two parties blaming each other, poorer integration between systems and confusion where functionality overlapped. As a result more and more clients have started to look for a single supplier across both areas. Vertex were one of the first to respond launching Adviser Evolution to compliment Adviser Office but others have followed. Back office suppliers like Intelliflo have strengthened their factfind capability and generally improved their front office credentials. Others, like the recently launched DPOS from Distribution Technology redraw the split between front and back office leaving policy administration and commissions management as back office but moving CRM functions (traditionally the domain of the back office) into the front office. Others persist with the traditional separation on the basis that the two disciplines are different and experts in each, partnering together, will produce the best solution.
Who is right or wrong will ultimately depend on the individual distributor that is looking to implement the solution and there is no, one right answer for everyone. Budget, size, complexity of distribution, product range, culture, IT strategy and the skill set of the sales force will ultimately lead the distributor’s decision but it is a decision that is getting more and more complex, but with so many good new systems out there, more and more rewarding.
