Abrdn’s latest platform upgrade has left some advisers locked out of their Fundzone accounts for more than a week, forcing them to cancel client meetings.
The upgrade, which included a facelift for the Wrap platform, went live last week (February 22).
It also saw the platform migrate all Fundzone accounts into the Wrap platform, a move Ian Tandy at IT Associates Financial Planning Ltd said has cost his firm time and money through postponed appointments.
In Tandy’s case, he was locked out of his Fundzone account until February 27.
His colleague is still waiting for access, having been told he is unlikely to get back online until Friday.
“I was unable to access any client details, obtain reports or carry out rebalancing and fund switches,” Tandy told FTAdviser.
“I couldn’t tell people what their balances were when they called up. I was losing business, and the goodwill of my clients.
“We have had to cancel many appointments. It really is very poor.”
Abrdn’s platform changes took place between February 16 and February 22.
The provider began communicating to advisers on the planned changes in the autumn of last year.
FTAdviser understands that despite the platform working normally for most advisers since the planned downtime, some have faced issues which Abrdn is dealing with on a case-by-case basis.
At the peak of issues last week, the longest wait time on the phone faced by a Fundzone customer was 40 minutes. As of today, the average call time is back down two minutes.
Tandy said Abrdn told him his two agency numbers were what caused the problem, as the system did not recognise the two different numbers meaning clients were not transferred over.
His colleague, who does not have two agency numbers, is yet to find out what has caused their issue.
An Abrdn spokesperson told FTAdviser “a small number of users” may have experienced issues logging on initially and these have either already been resolved by its support teams or being actively worked on.
Ahead of the upgrade, Abrdn said it did communicate that Wrap and Fundzone would be unavailable from close of business February 16 until the upgrade completed on February 22.
Abrdn told FTAdviser the upgrade was one of the largest and most complex it has ever completed, so anticipated advisers would need additional help and put hypercare plans in place to ensure they were supported.
Communication included an online support hub with tutorials on how to use the new face.
But Tandy said he still felt like he was “fumbling” through the new system with little support, and felt ill-informed about how Fundzone would be impacted by the upgrade.
Abrdn said it saw a higher volume of calls than normal once the upgrade was live, but has seen this volume reduce daily since.
“We’ve also extended our opening hours this week and are continuing to update our service status page on our website so advisers can check this for the latest service information,” a spokesperson said.
Abrdn said it was sorry about any inconvenience caused by call wait times during the first few days following the upgrade, but that it was confident it would return to its average wait time very soon.
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
