Never before have the demands on dealer groups and advisers been greater: implementation of FOFA that involves systems and business process change and client considerations; an increased focus on governance and compliance by dealer groups; and at the same time … Continue reading
Keep Alert
Practice management systems can be underutilised in many ways, much of which relates to how they are implemented and used in the practice. Good systems should be able to help advisers in so many ways: facilitating planning strategies, creating advice … Continue reading
Posted in Practice Management, Regulation and Legislation
A Safe Harbour
In this blog, we have extolled the virtues of technology and functionality covering web, tablet and mobile, mind mapping, and social media. IRESS embraces new capabilities that provide our clients with real business benefits but we mustn’t be blinded by … Continue reading
Posted in Practice Management, Technology, UK
Buy vs Build
Ever since I start working within the financial advice IT sector (which is longer than I care to mention!) there has been debate about whether firms should build proprietary systems or use products from a third party vendor. While this … Continue reading
Posted in Technology
OK. Let’s chat.
IRESS recently announced launch of IRESS Chat in XPLAN 2.6. This allows users within and across XPLAN to communicate via an embedded instant messenger, integrated to core XPLAN features. XPLAN offers workflow automation and features to support interaction across people … Continue reading
Posted in Practice Management, Technology
Read all about it
Google recently advised that it will discontinue its Google Reader service on 1 July 2013. This has caused a discontent raucous online by many people and businesses who have come to rely on Google Reader to aggregate and distribute news … Continue reading
Posted in CRM, Practice Management
XPLANtouch for advisers
There is no doubt that one of the biggest trends in recent years has been the rise of tablets. Tablets are not wholly new. I remember in my first IT role in the early 90s, working for NCR, where we … Continue reading
Posted in Practice Management, Technology
Google Nexus 7
Over the January break, I spent time thinking about a few related topics: 2013 as the year of the tablet (research suggesting 60+% growth rate in tablets this year), tablet warfare, the rise of Android, tablet form factors (research expecting … Continue reading
Posted in Practice Management, Technology
Meaningful Integrations
I’ve been with IRESS in the UK for almost a year now and as well as being an excuse for colleagues to demand a batch of unhealthy treats from me, I have also reflected on my contribution and what I … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Planning, Technology, UK
A ticket to the loungeroom
Expectations for professional communications and contacts continue to increase as consumers get more and more from strong retail brands and marketing departments. There is no doubt that this increases the expectations on communications from advisers. In the UK, Google has … Continue reading
Posted in Practice Management, Technology