P&I
Platforms & Intermediaries
Over recent years, platforms and advice firms have grown and evolved, often into complex operating models and technology estates. These complexities and legacy stacks are driving up costs and hindering process optimisation. This de-centralised, siloed way of running a business prevents the ability to fully leverage innovative solutions and the power of data insights.
A new generation of investors is initiating a shift in expectations from the traditional advice industry, driving the need for redefinition of operating models and market offerings to fulfil customers’ needs. Those who aren’t positioned to deliver change in a fast, agile manner risk the opportunity cost of not keeping pace with changing client needs.
Our experience across the value chain enables us to help our clients to resolve these issues and position their businesses for future success.
How we work with clients
We provide experienced teams to co-create and deliver a range of services to support platform providers and adviser networks in optimising their business for future success.
Our support includes:
- Market participation strategy. Helping you to define where to play, how to win, and how you can differentiate in the competitive retail market
- Distribution transformation. Deep-dive assessments of distribution effectiveness, operating model and alignment to corporate value creation
- Platform transformation. Leveraging our market leading skills in the full spectrum of investment platform implementation, integration and transformation
- Cost optimisation and outsourcing. Bringing our extensive experience and industry-leading benchmarks to ensure that the costs of your organisation are allowing you to compete and win
- Bringing digital into the organisation. Not everyone is convinced by digital. We help make the case and define a strategy which aligns to the broader business strategy
- Redesigning the client experience. By defining personas, processes and journeys, we help businesses deliver a full omni-channel experience
- Helping you manage regulatory change from impact assessment to implementation
- Pre-deal services. Conducting market scans and due diligence, operating cost synergy cases, as well as divestiture support, enabling you to make the best decisions for your future business
- Post deal services. Helping you to mobilise, define and implement a new, integrated business model post-merger
Why Alpha?
Our extensive experience delivering tailored solutions means that we understand your business’ needs. Our specialism ensures that we will bring experienced consultants that understand your challenges and opportunities, to work alongside your team and deliver rapid results. Alpha has an unrivalled understanding of all the vendors in the industry and brings a unique knowledge of the capabilities of technology vendors and the outsource provider landscape.
Q&A with Dan Mahony
What is driving change in investment platforms?
The platforms market has seen a period of sustained disruption and challenging market conditions, meaning that continued levels of consolidation through M&A activity are likely. Firms are looking to invest in core infrastructure and acquire new capabilities to create a resilient, differentiated offering, with a renewed focus on increasing productivity and improving profitability.
To maximise operational and cost efficiencies from an acquisition, it is important to define, mobilise and implement a new, integrated business model post-merger. Those who don’t invest in execution strategies risk preventing seamless integration and not maximising value from the transaction.
How can the advice industry adapt to meet the expectations of changing customer needs?
Hybrid advice service models are being developed to meet different types of interactions and digital experiences that today’s customers expect, in an effort to close the advice gap and reach an untapped portion of the mass market. This use of technology can be capitalised to produce productivity gains and reduce the cost-to-serve, for example, through the reduction in travel time/ costs and the centralisation of client services.
Enhanced regulatory consideration will be given to the fair treatment of customers who engage with robo-advice offerings as these new D2C capabilities are launched online. Adoption of automated advice capabilities also provides the opportunity to simplify historically complex areas such as risk and compliance through real time risk management. Firms must consider both the opportunities and risks which adopting digital client experience can bring.
How can Alpha help our clients to meet these challenges?
Alpha have built a reputation for creating a truly differentiated client experience with market specialism and delivery excellence at the core of the business. We have extensive knowledge of the vendor landscape and are uniquely placed to streamline the process to shortlist relevant vendors that meet both client requirements and regulatory requirements.
Our SMEs have the relevant industry experience to understand the importance of client experience, the complexities that these challenges bring and are uniquely placed to help you meet your strategic objectives. We know what good looks like, meaning that we can rapidly highlight and quantify key gaps to optimise change and create winners in the industry.