Coin cements its foothold in software market

CoinFinancial Software’s foray into the financial planning software market is gathering pace, with a number of dealer groups either signing up or in advanced talks to incorporate its flagship offering, Strategy.

ABN Amro Morgans,Suncorp,AustChoice/Deakin,BongiornoandFinancial Services Partners Grouphave all recently signed up to Strategy, and the group is currently in discussion with three large and eight smaller dealer groups, and two broker firms, saysvan Eyk Researchhead of distribution and Coin director Darren Pettiona.

Strategy is the brainchild of VisiPlan creators Ian Litster and Suwandi Tan and was launched at Coin’s inception back in July 2003.

Pettiona says the web-enabled software, which is being pitched squarely at financial planners in both the Australian and international markets, has additional applications to incorporate insurance and debt — the latter through an alliance with software provider Boss to use its life research.

Strategy has an alliance with van Eyk Research, allowing users to access the research company’s database, which includes details on more than 7,000 products, and offers portfolio blending and qualitative information.

Like most providers, Pettiona says Coin is attempting to become the best of breed in its market, but unlike some operators, the group isn’t attempting “to be everything to everybody”.

Pettiona stresses this is both impossible and unnecessary, particularly given that as the market evolves, some areas of service provision become less important and perhaps even irrelevant.

“For instance, whether we like it or not, 80 per cent of fund inflows are now coming via platforms, so there’s no point in us developing large portfolio management systems when the market doesn’t require it,” he says.

According to Pettiona, the group is also being careful in signing up new clients, as it wants to focus on growing and enhancing Strategy rather than potentially being tied down by scalability issues.

“We don’t want to slow the development growth of the product, because as you scale up heavily, you may shift focus to support mode, and we’re very keen to ensure the development horizon continues,” Pettiona says.