From this month Skandia are no longer accepting paper application forms  for their Selestia Investment Solutions platform.

On the surface this is a bold move – but one that if it is accepted by the industry will give them a cost advantage, which ultimately can be passed on to clients. Many Insurers and Fund managers have invested millions in platforms to gain cost savings but until everyone moves to using Ecommerce they are left running two parallel processes and racking up two sets of operating costs. Given the cost savings of removing one of these processes will be substantial and that Skandia says that 70% of advisers already only submit forms online it may be less of a gamble than first meets the eye.

Of course beneath the bold headline of paper being abolished it is accepted some products are not yet fully automated.  These primarily are their Corporate/Trustee/Pension cases and their Offshore Collective Investment Bonds.  In addition some applications will require additional paperwork. In these cases, the application will need to be processed online and the supporting paperwork posted to Skandia, this will include:

•  Collective Investment Account Irrevocable Account Designation Form
•  ISA Transfer Authority Form
•  ISA Re-Registration Authority Form
•  Collective Retirement Account Transferring Scheme Authority and relevant Discharge Forms
•  Collective Retirement Account Expression of Wish Form
•  Collective Retirement Account Benefit Crystallisation Event Request Form
•  Third Party Payer Form and Employer Payer Form
•  All Power of Attorney cases
•  Re-Registration of a Collective Investment Account

It will interesting to see how many other financial institutions switch off paper in the coming months as well.

The start of a New Year is often the catalyst for people to initiate some sort of change in their lives. However, how much thought goes into these ‘resolutions’ varies, as does the number that are successfully applied!

In business, it can often be the case that the executives and senior managers are so busy ensuring that their business survives – particularly in the current climate – that they miss or ignore the opportunity to reflect on the wider issues and opportunities. Many people and businesses are operating at a tactical level with a focus on cutting costs and saving money. Whilst this approach should not be ignored, they should also take time and create capacity to look at how they can adapt and grow.

We are dealing with truly exceptional circumstances and so we should be careful about relying on past experience. Indeed, it has been said that experience is great as long as the future resembles the past, if not, then experience can be downright dangerous! Focusing on restructuring and re-engineering is fine, but if organisations fail to identify or create the markets of the future, they will find themselves on a treadmill that requires them to keep one step ahead of the declining margins and profits of yesterday’s businesses. Perhaps one example of this is the PC and laptop market where the product manufacturing and support is outsourced and offshored, so becoming ever cheaper… However, there is little more that can be achieved and both quality and service seem to be suffering and it is no longer clear what ‘distinctive capability’ (competitive advantage) exists with these manufacturers, so it is likely margins will decline too.

There are two quotes that I like and that should be borne in mind as we look at how we can not just survive in 2009, but how we can ultimately prosper and grow.

‘Strategy entails making choices. Organisations cannot, anymore, be all things to all people. Choices must be made. Likewise, me too strategies in today’s hostile environment will be punished’. (M Porter)

If staff are the company’s greatest assets, then like other tangible assets, human assets can depreciate as well. Organisations must learn new tricks, they must learn to unlearn, they must escape the gravitational pull of the past, and they must welcome staff with no conventional skills and no industry experience’. (Hamel & Moss-Kanter)

In other words, think the unthinkable and do the impossible!

Happy New Year to you all. However, let’s not just rely on ‘hope’ to make it great, let’s do something positive to make it happen.