Point of view 31/08 – Time to extend professionalism

Financial Planners have rightly focused on professionalism, but too many have not paid enough attention to the operations side of their businesses. Anyone in finance not currently reviewing transactions management could be heading for trouble.

Much of your reputation today for service quality and responsiveness comes from how you do business, which is why the spotlight is on transactions management. There are grave risks in being highly professional in terms of qualifications and advice, while providing sloppy service delivery and transactions.

New technologies have made excellence in service delivery possible, but many financial advisory firms have not seen the new picture. As months go by, the risks involved increase dramatically.

Service delivery is now everything in financial services, to the extent that the old divide between the front office (marketing, client relations) and back office (administration, transactions) is being buried.

In addition to the challenge of the Internet and other technologies, the customer has changed, from a loyal stable one to a highly mobile customer, ready to move on to the promise of better service.

The combined effect of new technologies and financial customer mobility is producing a revolutionary change in how Australia's financial sector does business.

The new financial customer wants a "smoothing" in their affairs, with a complex array of services delivered by simple transactions with comprehensive reporting. Providing this simplicity is the most complex challenge facing financial services businesses.

To move fast enough in this climate and produce the best transaction results, most financial services providers are having to form strategic alliances. Business alliances are playing a key role in corporate risk minimisation, especially technical and personnel risk.

The whole changing scene highlights the critical importance of brand reputation. Smooth transaction processing (the back office) contributes to brand reputation, perhaps today even more than advertising, signage or shop front presence.

Successful financial brands (including financial planning firms) "own" the reputation for quality, responsiveness and convenience, rather than being merely a company which provides a product.

Today, for financial planners, one of the biggest factors in brand reputation is transaction flexibility and efficiency, resulting from getting the back office right. It's almost as if things are now "back to front".

By Alasdair Thomson, Managing Director, Australian Clearing Services.

Australian Clearing Services Pty. Ltd. (ACS) is an independent Applications

Service Provider to the financial sector. It is also the premier provider

of equities settlement ("clearing") and related services in Australia. ACS is part of

alliances with leading banks, leading insurers, major stockbrokers and

others in finance, ranging across margin lending and other products.