SSFS engages Midwinter for cloud overhaul



State Super Financial Services (SSFS) have deployed Midwinter's cloud-based platform, Advice OS, in a bid to overhaul existing business operations and prepare the firm for future growth.
SSFS managing director, Michael Monaghan, said the company had identified Midwinter as a key business partner to help with its "paperless office" transformation.
"We have successfully implemented an end-to-end advice system that has accelerated the delivery of our advice process and allowed us to bypass para-planning completely," he said.
"This has required a strategic approach to investments in future capabilities and the delivery of the business transformation program. Midwinter has been a key partner through the first phase of this transformation program."
The partnership allows SSFS to implement real-time compliance checklists, retirement modelling tools and a built-in management approval process where certain recommendations require management approval to continue.
Midwinter managing director, Julian Plummer, said that implementing registry and digital will be part of the second stage of SSFS' transformation in the coming months, helping shift SSFS to a cloud-based system that will "surpass" that of local financial institutions and banks.
"In terms of innovation, we want to ensure our clients have a cohesive framework for advice. This means clients [looking at] the digital solutions that we have and investigating the benefits of advice, [before] escalating to other phone-based [options] or to a face-to-face interaction with a planner," Plummer said.
"You don't want to lose any of the customer information and you want to make it as frictionless as possible. Being able to escalate and ensure that the advice is frictionless is where we are looking to innovate the most."
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