There is the cost of entering the appropriate data either manually or transferring it from another system and then updating it. There are training costs and the cost to change.
These costs need to be matched against the time saving in terms of salary costs, efficiency, job satisfaction and contribution towards the growth of the business, particularly increasing its value.
Most importantly, it helps you to run an efficient and effective business to give value and benefit to your clients.
Time savings can be achieved once the data and documents are in a good computer system, as information is more easily accessible.
Details can be passed into other systems such as Voyant, Prestwood’s Truth, Capita’s Fusion, and Distribution Technology’s Dynamic Planner for cash-flow modelling; Analytics and Morningstar for fund analysis; O and M for pension analysis; and Exweb, Trigold, Webline, Assureweb and Mortgage Brain for sourcing.
Passing details electronically is more accurate and faster – errors can be made while keying in, and if systems drop out, you can recover details easily.
A significant cost is training – but it is essential. As the software is off the shelf, it is designed to suit all types of business, and it is important to understand how the software house recommends the software be used to best match your business requirements.
Mixing different firms in training sessions is completely unsatisfactory. Talk to two advisers and they each will have different ideas on letter writing, before they start to discuss business priorities. Training needs to be focused and at the right speed to ensure information is absorbed. Before a training day, it is important to experiment with the software, and be ready with lots of questions.
If all the details, documents, faxes, emails and reports are in one place and all properly cross-referenced, the efficiency in your office is significantly increased.
Compliance demands mean you need to be able to easily retrieve documents and data.
It should be easy to find all the suitability letters on a specific type of product or with a specified provider and/or consultant, or find all the disclosure documents for all your structured product clients to check the wording.
Records need to include all your meetings with clients to ensure accountability and continuity of service
Running the software through the internet as a gateway into the firm’s own database means the less-paper office can be accessed from any location.
You can quickly access information while visiting clients. You can form partnerships at a distance with other advisers – and it makes working from home, or on the road, a breeze.
There can be great cost savings on petrol, office costs and the hardware spend if there is no need to drive to the office, print out reams of paper, and maintain servers.
A further time benefit is to use the direct links to providers to instantly import wrap details and fund names, the number of units, price, valuation, surrender value, maturity value and associated dates for all or selected clients and/or products – this saves many hours of collating the details and creating individual reports.
Previously, many financial advisers would only update reports for a few selected clients with up-to-date fund details, as collating the information manually is so time consuming. These valuations are freely available on the client portals.
Significant time can be saved and accuracy enhanced if you take your remuneration statements electronically and match them against your expected remuneration records. Again, this is far more accurate than manual keying.
By having the remuneration details in the same place as the client and policy details, you can easily obtain the statistics required to produce retail mediation activities return (RMAR) reports for management information and for the varying reports for professional indemnity suppliers.
More and more advisers are realising the benefits of consolidating the electronic office using comprehensive client-management software and then prioritising and adopting new features as the electronic office evolves.
One thing to beware of is that the cost of changing software can be even higher than the initial adoption.
It is easy to make the mistake of adopting software that is too simple – it is important to adapt to change and use software that will help the business grow, and add more features as the industry and the business develops.
With the right software, you can do so much more, and there are so many ways you can grow your expertise, as well as the business and its value.
Ann Dempster is managing director of Plum Software
Key points
* Software systems offer you more flexibility and access to a wider range of information.
* Time savings can be achieved once the data has been input, as information is more easily accessible.
* By having the remuneration details in the same place as client and policy details, you can easily produce RMAR reports.
