Many IT systems’ providers currently talk about ‘Whole of Office’ solutions addressing the needs of both the adviser and the administrator, a market move welcomed by a large number of distributors fed up with paying two suppliers, in effect double the licence fee and double the implementation fee to cover their IT needs. The solution, however, addresses some commercial and implementation issues but doesn’t explore any new potential benefits of technology.
Some suppliers now however are putting an end consumer focus to their systems, allowing a consumer to view and value their portfolios, update fact finds, and potentially perform some analysis of their needs remotely, prior to an adviser’s visit. In doing so they are stretching to areas where technology can help in the whole value chain.
Positive Solutions have invested in this dynamic with the True Potential system exposing key elements of their systems to the end user, through their own online presence. These client websites allow the end user to view details of all of their policies, run real time valuations of their portfolio , to view, edit and add to all of their documentation, including factfinds, post and their own contact details.
Similarly IntelliFlo provide the end client access to Intelligent Office via their client portal, empowering them to run automatic valuations of their portfolio.
Clearly the balance of functionality presented to the end client needs to be carefully judged as it would be dangerous to give too many advice tools directly to the consumer as they may not have the knowledge, experience or training to understand the analysis and the valuable role of the adviser must not be undermined. But the efficiency gains and marketing potential of exposing some functions are substantial. One area of marketing potential that client tools of this nature bring back to the fore is in the area of worksite marketing – the provision of financial services within the work place. I have been bemused for a while why this opportunity is so under exploited in the UK but advisers continually relate that the time overhead of working a GPP as a set of individuals, each with their own up-sell opportunities is too high, especially as often it simply ends up with additional contributions to the GPP scheme. Through such empowerment of end consumers, GPP schemes become more manageable with basic administration being handled by the end consumer and the adviser being used for qualified opportunities where advice is truly needed.
Many other opportunities potentially arise from the innovations described above and I will watch with interest to see how the use of this approach develops in the near future.
