Overview
It’s no secret that some providers in the life and pensions market have found the the administration of products quite challenging. In recent years, there has been a small but growing trend for providers, particularly the large life companies, to outsource elements of their business to specialists.
Additionally, the self-invested personal pension (SIPP) market has seen completely new entrants to the market. Commonly these products are marketed by one organization, but actually administered by a specialist SIPP administrator.
Going forward, securing robust distribution channels and strategic alliances, including interaction with fund supermarkets and wrap platforms, will be the key to survival and prosperity.
The network economy has become a reality.
Businesses can no longer hide their data in back office systems. Business partners, clients, trading engines, HM Revenue & Customs and regulators increasingly believe they have a right to access it – and the data must be
correct !
Sharing data securely and effectively in a network economy is a real challenge.
The Need
Suffolk Life, a specialist SIPP administrator, recently embraced the idea of sharing its data with other parties when they entered into new partnerships with the Prudential, Norwich Union, and another well known financial institution.
The partners sell products administered by Suffolk Life through their established adviser channels, however the partners wanted their advisers to access these plans through their web site.
Additionally to attract potential investors, the solution was to have fund supermarket trading fully integrated.
The Solution
The solution involves a highly secure architecture.
Users from Partner sites are directed to Suffolk Life’s website, using the Partner’s authentication, so the users don’t have to re-login.
Users transparently access pension data held in the Suffolk Life back office systems. As they access the web pages they are dynamically branded. The net effect is that the Partners investment is minimised but they have access to the whole solution.
Once access to the site is provided, Partners and Advisers can view all their plans administered by Suffolk Life. Advisers can additionally buy and sell unit trusts online, through a real time web service connection into a fund supermarket.
Data is exchanged between the website and their back office systems - Microsoft Dynamics-NAV. All exchanges are performed securely via web services using XML.
The Benefits
Strategically, Suffolk Life has been able to open new distribution channels, offering its services through partners. Additional business has been achieved with out an exponential growth in headcount.
Operationally, Suffolk Life have provided access to their plan data through these channels in a way which simply could not have been achieved without the use of the internet. And the business partners get the benefit of Suffolk Life’s web services, without having to replicate the functionality themselves.
Importantly, advisers can now access information 24/7, making life easier for them. So Suffolk Life are now witnessing increasing volumes of web-based enquiries, alongside greater use of the online fund supermarket dealing service. 24/7
And of course all of this means that Suffolk Life can handle significantly increased volumes of new business, whilst continuing to provide their award-winning high quality service.
