In our recent Portal Report (click here for more information), it was interesting to see how all of the existing and new portals have grown their quotation transaction volumes. This growth is despite a decrease by some portals in the number of products covered (a trend we believe is likely to be reversed, if RDR leads to new distribution structures as currently proposed, to ensure a advisors will be able to consider ‘Whole of Market’).

When increased use of Portal quotes is added to that fact that the major POS and Back-Office solution providers are also growing their user numbers, it is clear that technology is playing an increasingly important role in supporting how Financial Advisers are doing their jobs. Sure, there will still be those who are technophobic, but with the increasingly complex requirements of information gathering and provision, along with the need for auditability – often driven by regulation – we believe that technology is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity.

Despite the positive picture, the actual electronic submission of new business through portals remains disappointingly low! Whilst the picture improves if online submission through Providers extranets are taken into account (usually because of commission incentives) a report by Datamonitor this year shows that Advisers are still reluctant to complete applications online with only 50% doing bond applications online and only 37% doing pensions.

The reasons for not using online services vary and include ‘old habits’, the process being too lengthy, poor website design (including claims that they cannot find online applications – even when it is there!) and/or that they don’t always have the necessary information to hand when completing the application. With more and more people now being comfortable with online purchases from books and white goods through to supermarket shopping, the financial services industry should consider why more applications are not completed online and how it can improve this so that speed of processing opportunities and cost savings can be achieved.

A recent datamonitor report, “Financial Advisors’ Views of Service”, stated that out of the 100 UK financial advisers they surveyed, 57% stated that they spend more than 20 hours per week undertaking administrative tasks. In a 40 hour working week that’s 50% of their time not selling!

Looking below the surface a large number of those surveyed were sole traders, the same group that has fallen behind in their investment in IT systems.

It is essential that IT vendors get cost effective solutions to these IFAs to help make them more efficient and ultimately more profitable.  A key sector of the IT community that has effectively been reaching the smaller IFA is the Portals and with this in mind AT8 have commissioned our own survey to see how the Portals are faring. 

The results of this survey will be published next week but from initial analysis the use of the Portals has grown significantly this year both when looking and quotation volumes and electronic applications.  Good news for all.  However further time savings are needed. Most of the Portals offer either directly themselves, or through partners, a more complete e-trading platforms including front office and back office systems and it is here substantial further time savings can be made by streamlining  processes further. Wider use of the Portals vendors services in this way, to provide a full e-platform for the whole of the distributor’s business really will pay dividends.

There are plenty of opportunities for efficiency gains let’s hope they become accessible to as many advisers as possible.

Recently a client was telling a story about a business colleague who had crippled his small business when he lost all his data due to a fire – it transpired that he never thought his equipment would fail. The story is far from unique, but it always brings home to me the number of individuals and businesses that fail to back up their data.

Now I know there are lots of stories about the need for robust Business Continuity planning, including the backing-up of vital data, hot-standby premises, replacement kit etc., but it still surprises me the number of people who have not considered even the simplest of backup regimes.

Nowadays storage is cheap – very, very cheap – there really is no excuse not to acquire a plug-in USB type device for around £50 and copy your vital data on to it and take it off-site.

Of course, as your enterprise grows, you’ll need more formalised procedures for data backup – setting up daily, weekly and monthly procedures, using local back-up methods, eg RAID disk arrays, Network Addressable Storage (NAS) and more conventional Magnetic Tape solutions.

One area that has seen significant advance is online backup solutions – vendors such as the recently launched Apple MobileMe and also BT Digital Vault to name just two, offer solutions that enable your valuable data to be uploaded via the Internet to what has become known as ‘The Cloud’. MobileMe offers the chance to use your data in many locations, too – so you can treat it both as a backup resource as well as a data distribution method to allow others to access your core information.

The bottom line is – if you don’t back it up, you’ll lose it; if you lose it, you might lose your business.