Abrdn’s chief commercial and strategy officer, Jonny Black, said the firm has learnt lessons from its previous platform upgrades and will go into a “hypercare” period when it launches AdviserOS later this year.
In an announcement earlier this week (May 25), Abrdn said AdviserOS will see the current platforms Wrap, Elevate and Fundzone sit together on one common tech stack.
The firm said this approach to platforms will enable advisers to do less, achieve more for their clients and grow their business.
Speaking to FTAdviser, Jonny Black, chief commercial and strategy officer at Abrdn, said: “We've just done a fairly large technology release on what was known as Wrap up until this point and I think that's gone really well.
“We've moved 200,000 customer books and records onto the new system. You get the hiccups, the wait times etc, but everything seems to be pretty normal and we are as of today, three months since that release and things are looking really good.”
Black said in that context, the firm needs to make sure that it takes the lessons from that, rolls them forward and “amplifies them for anything else”.
“We have gone through it in February so we now know what it's like. It’s in our muscle memory in terms of making sure that everything is where it needs to be and making sure the information is where it needs to be.
“We've got the resources on the phone lines ready. We've got the resources in the sales team ready. We will go into a hypercare type period.”
However, he explained that the upgrades to come are much smaller because the firm has already done the heavy lifting.
He said it’s more about switching features and making small changes.
“The actual changes to the platform to come are not large, the work you might not see yet but under the bonnet, it's all there,” he said.
“There isn't a huge technical change to come.
“We've done the foundational stuff already. So the way we transformed the platform in February is that the components are now separable and more modular."
He added: “[For example], we only have to test this little bit rather than historically where everything was coded and intermingled and you had to do top, middle and bottom.”
Advisers’ perspective
Black explained that Abrdn plans to keep engaging with advisers to work with them and make sure that they understand what is going to change and what it is going to look and feel like.
“Our platform consultant and our relationship managers will be out in our clients' offices running training sessions and things like that.
“That's where they can have more than a platform because we want to deploy our resources to make sure that they're ready for it.”
The firm also has some mechanisms for the sales teams to grow and reach people and it is also looking at launching an adviser community that will allow people to come together and talk more openly about the pain points, their problems and how Abrdn can help solve them.
AdviserOS claims to simplify processes, prioritise service and deliver end-to-end technology enhancements around advisers’ needs.
This ‘less is more’ approach will enable Abrdn to better serve firms, so advisers can focus on: building relationships with clients, delivering financial advice and growing their business.
Black said until the launch, Abrdn will provide information and drops into its client base around what version 1.0 will include and what it should look like.
“The real beauty is we've got 2,600-2,700 clients on our platforms today and each one of them wants to grow their business in a different way.
“Today, we're giving them three choices, pick one: Wrap, Elevate or Fundzone. With the OS, they can take the core and then say 'well, I have a bit of that, a bit of that and a bit of that, because if we take those combinations, that will fit how my business evolves'. That's really the beauty of it.”
He explained that one of the big shifts will be that the AdviserOS will be talking about “versions not releases”.
“In technology, there's quite a sort of big monolithic release that happens once a quarter, the OS will be far more version driven,” he said.
“Even the concept of it will be numbered so the thing that we are launching later this year will be AdviserOS 1.0.”
He said Arbdn plans to be more regular, more transparent and more upfront, rather than doing nothing for two years and then having something big come out.
Wrap - Elevate - Fundzone transition
Black explained that the transition will be done in different stages, depending on which platform legacy the adviser comes from.
For Wrap and Fundzone customers, they will upgrade to the AdviserOS first later this year.
“That will be coinciding with the launch of our new pension. So when the platform pension comes through as part of the adviser experience programme, that is the moment when AdviserOS 1.0 goes live and the Wrap and Fundzone are moved into that ecosystem.
“Elevate advisers will then be upgraded at a later date; we've not gone into the specifics on when that will be yet but not too far down the line.”
Black explained that the transition should be over a weekend but it does not have any dates at present other than definitely in 2023.
sonia.rach@ft.com
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