It seems just five minutes since we saw out 2018. However, looking back we achieved a lot and set the scene for how we’ll support our clients and our users this year.
We’ll continue to look for the right answers to help your business and improve the quality you rightly expect from us. To give you a clear picture, here’s a selection of what we are working on, to meet our (and your) goals.
Designing with you in mind
If you haven’t already come across Iress Labs, it’s our method of working with our users to research and design concepts, and showcase new ideas and features. We want to bring users into our design process and work together to make the right improvements. We’ve long undertaken a user-centred design approach with software such as our trading solution, ViewPoint. Labs formalises and helps us to scale this approach.
We’ll continue to look for the right answers and improve on the quality you rightly expect of us.
This open dialogue means we’re hearing opinions, experiences and insight first hand on what matters to your business and to users of our software. There have been some honest conversations and we’re listening.
Over the coming months, you should start to see some changes as a result of this collaborative process. This will include making it easier for you to use Xplan, including its rich functionality. We will share more specific details soon.
We’re introducing Labs to Xplan first, and later this year it will be introduced to more of our software.
And expect more stuff like this. One of the top priorities for our teams is to give you software that’s easier to use
Read more here about Iress Labs.
There have been some honest conversations and we’re listening.
Open APIs, the easier way to do business
Another 2018 announcement we made to benefit our users in 2019, was to open up our existing APIs though Iress Open. It’s now easier for third party software providers to directly access and integrate with Xplan and over time, more of our software.
We’ve been working with a number of providers. Myprosperity is available now in Australia. And we expect the following to be available soon:
Client portal and account aggregation tool
UK
Voyant
Adviser planning tool
UK
CashCalc
Cashflow modelling tools
UK
Practifi
Business management platform
Australia
Advisor Promoter
Smartphone marketing technology
New Zealand
There are a number of additional providers who are in the process of integrating with Xplan. From the end of March, we’ll have a dedicated page on our website for updates.
Unleashing the value of data
This is a huge area of focus for us. There is a growing realisation about the potential of the data held in financial services and just how important it is in providing powerful insights for your business and your clients.
We’re asking how businesses can access data they hold within Iress’ solutions to leverage its power.
Our mission is to ask how businesses can access data they hold within Iress’ solutions to leverage its power and to look beyond just data protection and compliance. We want to help your business unlock data for real competitive advantage.
There’s some pretty powerful insights which could be used to help evolve software, based on how users are using it too. There’s a lot to work through and we’ll keep updating you on our progress here.
Improving our trading software
We are currently working to improve the mobile capability of our trading solutions. We’ll be providing more specific details, including dates, in the second half of the year.
We’ll be replacing Iress Investor with ViewPoint. We will incrementally add features to ViewPoint this year to directly position Viewpoint for simpler retail trading needs as well as for more sophisticated user needs. This flexibility will provide clients with a single technology platform but with flexibility to serve different needs. In addition, HTML Iress will be updated with a more modern solution.
Connecting the mortgage market
Our mortgage sales and originations (MSO) software has been powering the mortgage market in the UK for some time. It's been recently adopted in Australia and there is so much potential for it to help clients in other markets.
This year will see us continuing to connect the mortgage market, bringing lenders and brokers closer together to deliver a better customer experience. To do this, we are focussing on reducing waste and duplication in the end-to-end application process between applicants, mortgage brokers and lenders. Lender Connect will remove the rekeying of data gathered through the advice process and transmit it to lenders securely and efficiently. Watch this space for more on Lender Connect as we near launch.
Client Portal - the next generation
Our client portal was launched last year and while we’ve had really positive feedback on it, we think we’ve only scratched the surface.
Client portals address the needs of so many sectors as clients increasingly want interaction 24/7. The foundations have been laid for more personalised, data driven experiences which could span marketing, automation and self directed capabilities within them.
Then there’s work to bring the wealth of functionality to mobile devices.
The foundations have been laid for portals to offer more personalised, data driven experiences.
It’s a hugely exciting area and one that lends itself to all areas of financial services. The possibilities are endless.
Until next time
These are just some of the project on the go, and some of our key areas of focus. I’ll keep you updated on progress as we move through 2019.
