Count says Xplan will increase productivity

Count Financial expects that its strategic software partnership with Iress Market Technology will result in a 50 per cent increase in productivity of the advice process, according to Count chief executive Andrew Gale.

Count announced the partnership to the Australian Securities Exchange yesterday, with Gale stating that Iress’s Xplan was expected to bring substantial productivity gains and benefits to the advice and client review process. He added that it would also assist with upcoming regulatory changes, such as the ‘opt in’ requirement.

“There were several key reasons why Count selected Xplan,” Gale said. “In particular, the comprehensiveness of functionality in advice modules, the flexibility to be configured to uniquely reflect our value proposition to clients and the wider business efficiency and CRM benefits to our network of advisers.”

Xplan will replace Count’s own WealthPlanner system, which was implemented in 2000, and the new system will be rolled out early next year.

Iress managing director Andrew Walsh said it was “becoming increasingly apparent” that dealer groups were shifting their focus in relation to technology,

“Critical to their strategy is the ability to provide their advisers with technology that better exploits the proprietary knowledge and unique content that already exists within the group,” he said.