PES

2005 Consensus Software Awards

Product Description

The PlanTech Enterprise Solution (PES) is a complete distribution management system for the financial services industry. Browser based, PES has been designed to support the distribution of financial advice and products such as life insurance, investments, general insurance and banking through multiple distribution channels. These channels may be -

• Call centres

• Salaried financial advisers

• Independent Financial Advisers (IFA’s)

• Branded partner channels

The operational hierarchy supports both Enterprise and Practice views of the world. It is the integration of the practice management, research and planning functions within the adviser practice domain and the distribution and remuneration management functions of the enterprise domain that makes PES unique.

The first research and planning module to be built within PES is Short Term Researcher (STR) which provides needs analysis for personal general insurance products such as motor vehicle, house and contents. STR then provides for an analysis of comparative premiums from a range of product providers. From the returned premiums the user can then select the preferred product provider and complete the application form on-line. All applications are lodged centrally from PES Comms Manager to the respective product provider for processing.

Development continues for additional research and planning modules within the PES framework. Our second module, which is currently under development, is Risk Researcher and 4Cast .Net which addresses the advice and distribution model for life insurance products. This is due to be complete in June 2005.

The PES system has been developed using the Microsoft .Net framework and takes advantage of the ACORD XMLifE standards.

Innovation

There are many innovative aspects to PES. Probably the most significant is the inherent integration between the adviser domain and the enterprise domain. In the context of this integration there is little on offer in the market that has been purpose built for the financial services industry. Often one might find adviser planning tools being loosely integrated with institutional enterprise systems however there is usually fundamental disconnects in the benefits these integrations can deliver.

An example of this is ability to view all lodgements of prospective new business. Traditional integrations usually only recognise activity after the sale has been transacted and commissions/brokerage paid whereas PES can deliver this view as work in progress across the Enterprise prior to the transaction. Given the new business processing cycle can be up to 8 weeks the ability to forecast revenues and cash flow is greatly enhanced by PES.

Another innovative aspect of the PES system is the holistic approach to financial planning with all aspects of wealth management being addressed - general insurance, life insurance, investments and banking. Most solutions focus on single needs whereas we seek to address them all. From a compliance point of view adviser (user) access to each research and planning module is controlled from within Enterprise Manager. These can be activated once the adviser has met all training and accreditation requirements.

The ability for PES research and planning modules to readily integrate and lodge new business electronically is also a major innovation. This serves to reduce turn around times for both adviser as well as product manufacturer. It also reduces margin for error in re-keying of client data onto different systems.

PlanTech is the first Australian company to adopt the ACORD XMLifE data standards which is widely adopted in North America, parts of Europe and South Africa. Subscribing to such standards allows us to adapt our solution readily in territories using XMLifE. It also allows us to participate in industry wide initiatives such as Astute in South Africa which is an industry data warehouse for client policy and investment information.

Performance

PES, as it’s name suggests is an enterprise targeted system with it’s first deployment being to a major South African bank’s general insurance call centre. Initially deployed to support up to 200 call centre operators the intention is to eventually extend access to the STR application to multiple other distribution channels. This could eventually see the solution deployed to over 1500 financial advisers and several hundred call centre operators.

STR has been a redevelopment of an existing desktop system. The cost of deploying and supporting software in the South African market is becoming increasingly prohibitive and the STR project has been enthusiastically supported by our client both from an economic and productivity point of view.

Further cost benefits are delivered in the fact that each discrete piece of information is only handled once during the various stages of the transactions. Not only does this increase productivity but reduces the incidence of error.

Of note in the bank environment has been integration with the bank’s Siebel CRM system.

In delivery of Phase 1 of the STR project to our South African client the first round of UAT resulted in only 99 issues being reported which is considered a fantastic result given the fact that approximately 2000 man days of development were invested in the building of the system.

Mentioned in other sections of this response is the fact that PES is based on the ACORD XMLifE data schema. This international standard has been adopted by PlanTech as a cornerstone of our international expansion. This has rung true in our South African experience where XMLifE is the accepted standard by all financial institution. Hopefully financial services organisations in Australia and New Zealand will also follow suit in time.

Potential

PlanTech believes the PES system has extraordinary potential in both Australia and broader international markets. As more international financial services markets start to focus on compliance and regulation the need for a system such as PES increases dramatically.

Prospective clients for the PES solution include –

• Banks

• Life insurance companies

• Fund Managers

• General Insurance companies

• Wholesale distribution groups

• Individual adviser practices

A primary focus in the development of PES was a movement towards a configurable system as opposed to a customizable system. This became a prerequisite for our architecture so that we could readily adapt the system to different geographic regions, languages and character sets.

Early in our prototyping of PES with Microsoft .Net we successful proved the ability to readily switch language and character set. The prototype nimbly switched from Afrikaans – English – Chinese to Japanese (a fact that drew applause from Japanese life company execs on a recent study tour!). We see this as being important as we look to take our expertise to other geographic regions. Interest in PES has already been shown from Hong Kong. The architecture we have built with the .Net framework stands us in good stead for further international expansion.

Other information the judges should know

PlanTech has been operating in offshore markets since 1996 when we first entered the New Zealand market. We extended our reach in 1999 when we initially researched the South African marketplace. In 2001 we secured our first major institutional client in South Africa and since then this market has grown to represent approximately 30% of our gross revenues.

PlanTech Media Kit (Word document)

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