Blog: Technology at the heart of business

Nick Eatock, CEO of IntelliFlo, on how advisers can get RDR-ready by making the most of their technology spend.

With so many facets to the Retail Distribution Review, it’s sometimes hard to see the wood for the trees. There have been numerous papers, forums, blogs and comments about the various details of the review since its inception, but time is ticking away and we all need to be fully prepared and ready to trade in accordance with the rules by 2013.

There would be too many points to cover in this article but if we focus on a couple, not only are we seeing the more tangible, regulatory and charging issues, but there is obviously a huge impact on the end consumer. The RDR was after all designed to improve clarity to consumers, address adviser remuneration and to increase professional standards of advisers. Amongst these key items I would like to talk about how adopting the right technology can address many of the issues advisory firms face.

You can be certain the majority of us utilise the services of a particular retail enterprise, from favourite coffee houses to preferred mobile phone networks. Simplistically, from a consumer’s point of view, if you receive good service and value for money, you are more likely to use those services on a regular basis. With the new charging models coming into force with the RDR, advisory practices will really need to offer value for money whilst also streamlining their business processes and keeping costs to a minimum.

There are many elements that make up the advisory process and in order to keep up with all of these elements, technology can play a huge part in delivering a good service whilst still being profitable. To complicate matters further, it’s not just a case of rolling out a generic service across a whole client bank, but tailored services specific to client segments will need to be delivered.

To achieve this efficiently, advisory practices will need to embrace technological solutions that offer cost effective end to end processes. If a particular solution can incorporate automated functionality as well, then this can only be of great benefit. The less time spent on administrative tasks, the more time advisers can devote to actively building the adviser to client relationship. Once this relationship has been established and regular contact made, it’s fair to say the client will see greater value in the services offered.

If you were to think about your client bank and how it’s been segmented (if at all), how many of them would come into the category of actively managed? What percentage of your clients would you service on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual and annual basis?

The more services a particular client receives, the greater the potential remuneration. Furthermore, you would still need to service these clients in the most efficient way and to do this you should make sure your technological solution can automate as many as possible.

To go to a deeper level, have you ever considered what percentage of your daily tasks are taken up by commission/fee processing, research, valuations, client reports, management information, compliance and client correspondence? These undertakings can all be reduced by using a solution that offers fully integrated functionality via an end to end process.

Furthermore, to add some further weight to the RDR conundrum, advisory practices will also need to concentrate their efforts over the next couple of years on becoming “RDR Ready”. From reviewing and demonstrating profitable business models, additional value to clients, risk and investment processes, client segmentation, service propositions right through to technology audits, it is clear that the  next couple of years will be a busy time for advisers, let alone trying to still run a business.

At the end of the day, advisory practices want to improve the services they offer to their clients in order to progress and develop their business and more importantly, adhere to the spirit and letter of RDR.

Technology sits at the heart of any business, but using it prudently and to the maximum potential is key.