Advisers unhappy with the chaos engulfing the rollout of Tenet’s new back office system have threatened to leave the network.
Tenet advisers faced disruption for more than a month after the network switched to the Intelligent Office back office system in late September.
Mortgage brokers and advisers who had been using a different system previously were hit particularly hard as data in the old and new systems failed to match, leading to a backlog in adviser payments.
However, Tenet issued a fix for the payments issue last night (November 7) and FTAdviser understands the backlog is now largely resolved.
FTAdviser has heard of at least three advisers intending to leave Tenet as a result of the issues, with two saying they have already handed in their notice.
Tenet did not want to comment on the contractual situation of individual firms.
But it stated it has not heard advisers cite the new operating system as a reason for leaving. To the contrary, some advisers have joined because of the new system, a representative said.
One mortgage adviser, who asked to remain anonymous, told FTAdviser: “The situation that we and so many other Tenet AR firms find ourselves in is a total disaster, it’s seriously damaging our businesses and costing us so much money in additional staff just to do what we were able to do prior to 25th September.
"The problem is the IO system it is simply not fit for [our] purpose, it’s not logical, it doesn’t flow, it is geared to IFAs and doesn’t even function properly so we can’t integrate sourcing.
"We are basically processing everything through our old systems and then have to also complete everything under the IO system. It’s taking more than twice as long to process a case, which we can’t sustain.
"We have resigned from Tenet but were informed we had a 1-year notice period and they will not release us despite the issues."
An Intelliflo spokesperson said: “The Intelliflo system is different to what many Tenet mortgage advisers have been used to and training is available that enables them to use it effectively.
"We are continuing to work with Tenet to address any issues raised by their members.”
Colin Taylor, who runs Colin Taylor Mortgages in South Wales, said he was sufficiently frustrated with the new system to want to resign in 2020 when his current agreement with the network ends.
Another mortgage adviser, who wished not to be named, said: “Last January I had no intention of leaving Tenet. But the lack of communication about this new system means I have resigned, it is as much about that as the fact the system doesn’t work for us.
"I trialled this system before it came in, and I told Tenet I did not think it was suitable for mortgage advisers. We are a small firm and we went one month without receiving any money.”
A representative of Tenet said: "There has been a minimum of one communication a week from Tent to advisers, via email. Plus there is an extranet and a dedicated email address for people who want to highlight issues."
The spokesperson also said: "There was extensive consultation and collaboration with a number of member working groups, existing IO users and many of the ‘plugin’ software providers which operate on IO.
"The payment system was extensively tested, like all other parts of the system. However, with 25 years’ worth of data to transfer, we always envisaged a period after launch when we’d have to work on that data to get the matching to previous levels.
"This work continues as a priority and we have seen positive improvements."
david.thorpe@ft.com
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