I recently had the pleasure of joining Dan Jones, Editor-in-Chief of FTAdviser, at their Smarter Business Summit – along with Ian Mckenna, Founder and Director of the Financial Technology Research Centre (FTRC), and Heather Hopkins, Managing Director and Founder of NextWealth – to discuss new age tech and digitisation.
Dan (the other Dan – let’s hope this doesn’t get too confusing!) started the discussion by outlining the many challenges the industry is facing in the wake of COVID-19.
“Now there is a new kind of crunch time approaching advisers…” he said, “and it’s the question of how they can stay afoot. We must look forward as well as back. This is not just about the pandemic – the advice business itself is on the brink of a back office revolution.”
New technology and digitisation
For me, the future of the industry can be split into two themes – new technology and digitisation.
We see digitisation everywhere – every time we order and Uber or order Deliveroo – and the process is usually pretty seamless. When you go into the investment space, however, there is a massive disconnect between a user’s experience of the interface, and their experience of in tech other areas of their life – such as when they order a takeaway.
This is a problem for advisers, whose clients will look to them to see why this is the case…
“Your business can only ever be as efficient as the weakest link in your technology chain.”
Is technology holding you back?
There are two questions you need to ask here…
1. Is technology limiting your business, or does it allow you the flexibility to grow with the market?
If the answer is the former, you’re building in a limiter that will prevent growth and keep your business stagnant.
2. Should you replace one piece of technology with another?
Really, you need to take it up a level and ask how you can make all your systems connect up and talk to each other.
We talk solutions
After this overview and explaining a bit about my background and role at Seccl, I thought I’d kick the topic over to the panel, so we could talk more broadly about the challenges facing the market and how we can use technology to resolve them.
Watch the video here, and be part of the discussion…
If you want to chat afterwards, get in touch to book a demo or schedule a meeting. I’m always up for a conversation, and I’m happy to answer any of your questions!
Dan’s our Head of Customer. A qualified financial adviser, he works directly with our clients to understand their commercial challenges, and explore how technology can help them to build stronger, more sustainable businesses.