Difference and Differentiation: What next for investment platforms? - Paper - Page 10
Same same, but different:
Using service to stand apart
When platforms first arrived in the UK, the vision was for the technology
to be the major player, facilitating the provision of personal, impeccable service
to both advisers and investors alike.
The Australian dream of an integrated technology
stack without the requirement for manual human
intervention was born and, rightly so, the UK market
was excited. Platform providers envisioned a
client base who would adopt a self-serve mindset,
technology that would integrate smoothly with
back-office and third-party solutions, and a simple
operating model that would allow them to manage
by exception and focus on maintaining a relationship
with their client. A stark contrast to the prevalent life
company operating model of the day, built around
monolithic, siloed policy admin systems and within
which paper forms were a mainstay. For the most part
however, this hasn’t really materialised over the last
20 years, but why?
It wouldn’t be unjustified to say that not all advisers
have wholeheartedly bought into the concept of selfserve, or at least as much as it was imagined they
might. Some of this will be behavioural, with advisers
unable, or unwilling, to move away from old habits, or
from providers who will just ‘sort it’ by doing whatever
is needed to secure new business. Much of the time,
though, it’s limitations with the technology that
inhibits the adviser from transacting in the seamless
way promised; for an adviser, some activities are less
self-serve than ‘perform twice’ when they’ve already
captured information and transactions in their own
back-office systems. Where time is normally a healer,
in the case of platform technology time is a nuisance,
with defects or workarounds becoming more complex
with the more clients and more time that passes.
Platform Brands by Technology
GBST
Proprietary
rietary
Proprietary
rietary
Proprietary
Proprietary
Proprietary
Proprietary
ProprietaryProprietary
Proprietary
FNZ
Bravura
Seccl
SS&C
Proprietary
4
4
4
4
4
Figure 4: Platform Brands by Technology
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