There is no doubt the future of most professions will be dominated by regulations and technology over the coming years.
The ability to find solutions for both while operating efficiently is key to any strategy, writes James Pearcy-Caldwell, chief executive of Europe-based network OpesFidelio; for which he built his in-house tech, Money Trove.
The coronavirus has also propelled the idea that technology can assist in areas where previously people thought business could only be conducted face-to-face.
With those things in mind, people are looking for tech solutions and some may even be tempted to do it themselves in-house.
First steps
We started building our own tech solutions in 2013, although this was after years of using a database on the internet to allow clients to log-in and see information about themselves.
Our first idea was to use an interactive PDF for fact finds, to upload data without having to re-key it.
There is no doubt the re-keying of data generates more work and room for errors, and so avoiding it has pluses.
Our PDF worked well for six months, but then the underlying programme was updated leaving us with two choices:
- Spend more money having the form updated, or
- Work with the one we had.
We chose the second option but within 12 months, we had clients sending unused forms back saying they would not operate on their PCs.
So, the first problem we encountered was compatibility and the endless updating of programmes and operating systems.
You can waste a lot of money, so if you are going to build in-house tech you need to do it in such a way that you avoid compatibility problems, testing products on current systems and past systems.
Otherwise, your new shiny in-house tech goes out of date quickly, or older system users can no longer use it, both of which somewhat defeat the point of having it, and is frustrating for you and your clients.
Ongoing expense
The next problem follows on from the first. It is never a one hit process.
Once you have your own tech, you need to continually develop it, and that means providing a constant budget.
In 2014, we created online interaction for risk questionnaires with client feedback built-in.
The clients loved it and it looked impressive.
But we ended up with different versions of it again because of compatibility issues.
So, while some loved it, others grew frustrated; and some we still ended up manually doing with paper.
At this point I should move onto client resistance and adviser resistance.
Very quickly you find advisers who will tell you every one of their clients cannot use the systems you created.
Of course, it is not the clients, it is the advisers as others use the system without problem.
Don’t overlook the UX
The next tech problem you have to overcome is engagement.
You have to make the system attractive, easy to use and you have to demonstrate the time saving that all tech provides.
It may sound obvious, but 15 minutes on a system that creates automatic PDF output for clients saves hours of time later, avoids manual re-keying and writing of letters.
However, a system user experience can still frustrate and portray the opposite.
An adviser in the middle of actioning something on your in-house tech creation experiencing internet crashes, or worse, will have to go back and input data again for a second time.
Even though they continue to save time over paper input, their focus is on the lost time of replicating what they have already done.
Therefore, the next big tip for anyone creating in-house tech is make damn sure data is backed-up and stored at each part of a process.
Time and money
Next, be confident that whatever cost you think it is going to be, and whatever timescale you think it will take, multiply both of these up!
On that basis, make sure that your tech is going to be viable based on efficiencies and, in our industry, compliance with regulations.
I have commissioned projects that have never made it to market. For example, the moment I realised an off-the-shelf solution created by someone else was better.
Once you are into building tech though, be prepared for the lure of more!
There is no idea nor business process that cannot be made more efficient and more profitable. You end up being sucked in; as your developer says, ‘yes, we can do that and we can make it look like this’.
Therefore, my last tip is never trust the developers you engage!
Of course, you are totally reliant on them but they will always come up with new ideas that cost you more money and delay the use of the system, and then they take ages to make them work.
Back to the present
So where are we now?
Well, we engage several developers, and we work with IT full time within the business.
We spend around 10-20% of our turnover as a group on IT solutions becoming a business within the business.
We build complete solutions, have digital signatures and AI that can pick up on client changes, automatically calculate annual renewals with projections and generate PDF with 15 seconds for risk, client reports, projections and compliance.
Sounds wonderful?
Just remember we have spent over £1m ($1.22m, €1.11m) over the years, have a full-time team dedicated to tech, and have a lot of experience of the pitfalls as well as the advantages.
If we did it again, we probably wouldn’t!
My advice to anyone else thinking of doing it would be to highlight you have to be totally dedicated and committed to time and budget overspends and occasional failure.
If not, buy something off the shelf that works.
This article was written for International Adviser by James Pearcy-Caldwell, chief executive of advisory firm Aisa Group and OpesFidelio.
He is also the driving force behind the creation of Money Trove, which was recognised with the Excellence in Digital Innovation award at the European Best Practice Adviser Awards 2019, held in partnership with Quilter International.
