Platforms shift from consolidation to upgrades

Major platform providers across the industry are now moving away from a heavy period of platform consolidation to focus on developing and upgrading the remaining products, particularly from a technological perspective.

IOOF completed a major overhaul of its platforms earlier this year that resulted in eight offerings being reduced to three. IOOF general manager of distribution Renato Mota said work in the next six to 12 months would revolve around upgrading the technology of platforms and systems.

There are still a couple of different technologies running across the three platforms, which will be something to work on in the longer term, he said.

The next wave of enhancements for IOOF's independent financial adviser-focused Pursuit platform will concentrate on front-end functionality and online portfolio management, and on developing online tools to help advisers with opt-in.

"We're trying to remove legacy products. We're trying to create an environment where we continue to evolve existing products rather than building new products," Mota said.

"As soon as you release new products you're creating legacy issues for your financial advisers, which creates administration issues in the back office, which we're trying to avoid."

AMP director of sales Barry Wyatt, who was previously general manager of marketing and strategy at AXA, said the group's flagship North platform had this year completed an upgrade to move beyond its traditional guarantee product to also include a full platform offering including a share trading service and term deposits from different banks, while increasing the managed funds available from roughly 100 to 200.

AXA's Summit and Generations platforms are still on sale and serve as a complement to North. Although they are unlikely to be consolidated further in the medium term, the group is looking to consolidate the technology behind them to run the same as North, Wyatt said.

North is now also being rolled out to some AMP Financial Planning and Hillross financial advisers and is seeing rapid take-up, he added.

Executive general manager of investment platforms for MLC and NAB Wealth Michael Clancy said the group had just finished a major migration of 30,000 clients, shifting from Masterkey Custom to MLC Wrap, and would be doing a major relaunch of mass offering Masterkey Fundamentals in the next few weeks.

The group would now look from consolidation to upgrades, and could look to implementing changes that would be required under Future of Financial Advice reforms once the Government provided some more clarity around them.

BT Financial Group general manager adviser distribution Chris Freeman said the group is looking to spend $150 million over the next three years on project Next Gen, a whole new platform to take the group's business and platform offering to the next level.

It is currently cumbersome trying to make changes because the systems that the current BT Wrap platform was built on were developed in the late '90s.

The new platform would be built on current technology, which is modular and internet-based, and would be more nimble with less paper, he said.

The group will also spend around $20 million in the next 12 months on compliance-related platform enhancements, he said.