Despite the consolidation in the number of suppliers of practice management systems there are still numerous suppliers out there with a wide variety of systems. They each have a different focus on functionality, they each have different backgrounds and different pricing propositions. How can distributors choose between them?
The vendors do break down to a number of categories to ease choice though. There are a few mortgage specialists for example – lead by TrigoldCrystal and Mortgage Brain. Choosing a mortgage system isn’t however a two horse race as IntelliFlo, 1st -The Exchange and Plum all have revitalised mortgage propositions.
There are also those with clear focus on financial planning end of the market with specialist planning tools linked directly to backoffice systems. Prestwood and JCS would fit into this category. The mainstream providers 1st – The Exchange and IntelliFlo have increasingly strong offerings in this space as well though.
The tools are also divided into those that have come from a back-office background and those from a front office/POS background. 1st – The Exchange, Plum and IntelliFlo all have a very strong pedigree in the back-office and lead the functionality charts in this area along with True Potential. Focus and TrigoldCrystal have strong POS backgrounds, while Distribution Technology, JCS, CCL and Prestwood have built upon their original strengths of supplying sophisticated financial planning tools. 1st – The Exchange’s recent acquisition of N4 improves their front office capability, especially in the mortgage area. While most of the vendors have now extended out from their initial position to support both front and back-office, True Potential has always supported the breadth of front and back-office functionality and has added depth to the functionality over the last few years, making them overall winners in the functional review.
Few of the vendors have shown that they can scale to support large corporate projects but Focus, Distribution Technology, Crystal and N4 have established capability here. IntelliFlo has made some inroads to the Corporate space with projects at AXA and AEGON (Scottish Equitable). The acquisition of N4 by 1st – The Exchange could be a springboard for them to extend into this space.
For the smaller organisations, there are a number of aggressively priced systems available including Durell, CCL and Plum.
To help navigate this maze of supplier decisions AT8 have produced our Practice Management Upd8. Our report takes a comprehensive look at the suppliers, tracks their functionality, their integrations and their price points. It makes direct comparisons of their functionality at point of sale, the middle office and back office. We also look at the industry standing of each supplier and their key differentiators. The report is available at £2,500 plus VAT. Anyone interested in receiving a copy of the survey should contact us at marketing@at8-group.com or phone +44 (0)121 314 2504
