Consultancy companies that customise the XPLAN financial planning software system are simply offering a service, although there is a concern that those without the requisite knowledge could damage the brand.
This is according to IRESS senior business development executive, Michael Kinens, who added he does not see these companies as direct competition.
One of these companies is Evolve Logic, which markets itself as an XPLAN customisation business and claims it can increase productivity by over 50 per cent.
“Evolve Logic aims to make XPLAN’s functions more user-friendly by creating automated workflows and threads for every process,” said Evolve Logic principal strategist Stephen Bell. “Over half of financial planning firms use XPLAN to manage their business processes — but only a handful of those firms are using the full suite of XPLAN’s capabilities because of its complex design.”
Kinens argued that the core of the issue is not complexity, but the high degree of flexibility that XPLAN affords planners.
“That may be misconstrued as complexity,” he said. “Because you are presented with so many options, it can sometimes be a slightly confusing road to getting an answer.
“From a financial planner’s perspective, they know a lot about their business but they don’t necessarily have the time to do a lot of these things. Therefore, getting someone like Evolve Logic in they can focus on the client-servicing side of the business and someone else can look at the more operational and technical matters.”
Kinens admitted there is a concern that the brand’s reputation could be damaged by those that do not know enough about the XPLAN system.
“That is always going to be something that needs to be considered, because from an adviser’s perspective they don’t necessarily understand where the product starts and ends. Given the flexibility and the ways things can be done, it also means that the system can be customised to work poorly.”
The only solution IRESS has is to maintain close relationships with all the clients, and make sure they understand what the system can do.
“Dealing with groups like Evolve Logic, we have a reasonable amount of confidence that they know the system well enough, and they know to come back and ask us questions when they are unsure about how they should approach matters,” said Kinens. “There certainly have been cases where staff from financial planning practices have gone out and consulted for other businesses, but they don’t really know the system as well as they should. But because they know more than the adviser that they are helping, they come across as an expert.”
