Making the right advice technology choice
By James Blanton, National Account Manager, Enzumo
As we head into the new financial year, we’re seeing many advice practice owners making major decisions about the future of their business. The industry is going through change and change can always be a catalyst for reassessing a current situation to ensure it’s still delivering what your business needs.
For many practice principals, it will involve assessing their current licensee and whether the organisation is still a good fit for the growth and scale of their business. For others, it will be exploring what it means to get their own AFSL and what ongoing support they might need to do that.
Whatever decisions are being made, it’s likely that advice technology is featuring heavily in the outcomes. For practices that use Xplan, the outcomes of their decision may mean they need to find a new hosted Xplan solution or assess whether their own Xplan site is the right option.
We explore in more detail what both options could look like for an advice practice exploring new technology territory.
What would your own Xplan site look like?
When set up properly, having your own Xplan site can help facilitate more effective business processes and deliver a whole lot of practice efficiencies. However, managing your own Xplan isn’t always straightforward and many practices find they fail to master its full potential.
Nevertheless, having your own Xplan site can bring benefits to your business, such as:
Full control and ownership over the development of your Xplan site
The potential to build your own Wizards, templates and reporting
No approval is required to make changes to the layout or fields
Customisation is exclusive to your business, clients and processes
Of course, having all of this does come at a cost - setup and implementation expenses, as well as higher ongoing costs. It also means the responsibility to maintain the site and templates lies with you, as the site owner.
But it could be the right solution based on the size, budget and growth aspirations of your business.
How would a managed or hosted Xplan site work for my practice?
A managed or hosted Xplan site is when you share an Xplan site with a variety of other advice businesses. This solution can provide cost savings to practice owners and is aimed at serving the members on a group level and generally has very little individual customisation.
But there are benefits to having a hosted Xplan solution when you go with the right provider. Things like:
Quick and easy to set up
Lower setup fees and ongoing costs
Templates are maintained by the provider
Wizards are created for you
Ongoing site maintenance is done by the provider
Plus, you have a provider there to support you and make sure you’re using the system effectively. They will often have other addon solutions you can access, which will allow you to expand your business efficiencies and provide more value to your clients.
The key is choosing the right provider with the support frameworks and service offering to meet your firm’s needs.
Does Enzumo have a hosted Xplan site solution?
Yes, we certainly do. It’s called Enzumo Xpress.
The Enzumo Xpress solution is a managed Xplan site that comes with our standard suite of solutions implemented and ready for use. It’s designed as a plug-and-play site ready to go when you are, taking the stress and hassle out of setting up and maintaining your own Xplan site.
As the site is fully hosted and maintained you don’t need to worry about the administration side - we manage, maintain and develop the site for you.
The templates included are widely recognised as best of breed and we provide all ongoing maintenance essential to meet legislative requirements. We also have innovative wizards, which will accommodate your own logo, managed content additions and adviser preferences, such as document layout and order of content. The site also comes preloaded with strategy flyers and other practice tools.
The Xpress site is built around a core package with a choice of additional features. This allows you to select what functionality and templates you want and not pay for things you won’t use. Our team can also provide dedicated data conversion support, to make sure you are using the system and accessing client data from day one.
We also want to make sure your team is engaged with the system and understands how to efficiently use the most critical piece of technology in your business. To do that, we provide induction webinar training, with follow-up transition support, as well as a range of online training modules and guides.
The team at Enzumo is one of the most widely recognised Xplan customisation consultancies in Australia and has been providing support to advisers for over 15 years. Enzumo Xpress is a customised version of Xplan, integrating years of Enzumo’s technical expertise and development into one solution.
Enzumo recognises that some practices will want their own site solutions and others will be better suited to a hosted site, which is why we offer both options. Our goal is to help you navigate the best advice technology solution for your business and support you to get it implemented well.
If you want guidance on what your next steps should be, reach out for a discussion.