PLATFORMS VERSUS INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS –
THE FUTURE OF SUPERANNUATION TECHNOLOGY
The superannuation landscape is changing faster than ever before. With increasing member expectations, regulatory
intervention and competition, funds need their technology to keep pace.
The drive to engage with members has never been greater. The demand for richer, connected systems never more
urgent. Product-centric administration systems offer only a fraction of the capability that superannuation needs to
thrive.
Tomorrow’s funds need integrated technology capable of linking employer and member records across member
accounts, advice (scaled, electronic or strategic), insurance (group and underwritten), marketing, sales, education
and reporting. This is no longer just desirable; it’s essential.
www.practifi.com
COMPARING PLATFORMS TO INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS
Superannuation funds are looking beyond simple point solutions and have seen the potential of broad technology
platforms.
These platforms are almost infinitely adaptable. Their industry agnosticism maximises the market size for the vendor,
who can then create slick demonstrations to show the potential for any given vertical industry.
A consistent complaint with platforms is that the raw product is just that: raw. Executives make the decision to move
to a platform only to discover later that the reality is vastly different to the sales promise. Rather than some kind of
turnkey, feature-rich nirvana, platforms such as SAP & JD Edwards in the ERP arena, and more recently Salesforce
& Microsoft for CRM, have been found to be just the beginning of a long, expensive and often risky journey.
The shock for the buyer is the size and complexity of the path from powerful toolbox to ready-to-use solution. The
cost and effort to reshape the platform for a particular vertical is often grossly underestimated.
That’s where industry applications come in.
Industry applications reshape a platform to meet the needs of a specific community. This product-based approach
saves time and cost for buyers without compromising the base platform’s inherent adaptability.
THREE QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU DECIDE THE BEST TECHNOLOGY
APPROACH FOR YOUR FUND
How long will it take to get up and running and what will it cost to implement,
support and maintain?
Starting with a raw platform is like any traditional software development project: ultimate flexibility arising from
maximum effort.
First you have to define business requirements for every conceivable scenario. Then you need to convert them
into a solution design, which is then built, tested and eventually released. For large firms, this is typically a project
measured in millions of dollars and years of effort.
From that day forward you’re a software owner, with accountability to maintain code, deliver enhancements, test
releases from the platform provider and, of course, try to evolve the system as needs change.
The result? You finish up doing the very things you were trying to avoid when you chose a platform in the first place.
By contrast, an industry application has done most of the work for you. The tech vendors are closely aligned to
the industry they serve, so they anticipate your business requirements and offer configurability to allow you to add
your own flavour. The product includes most of the data objects and fields you’d expect to see. This brings you to
a starting position for your project that’s much of the way to the end. The savings in time, effort and risk are huge,
allowing you to focus your attention on integrating existing systems.
Best of all, industry applications evolve in line with the changing needs of their vertical, whilst also leveraging
emerging features from the underlying platform.
www.practifi.com
MARKETING
CAMPAIGNS
DOCUMENT
STORAGE
BUSINESS
TOOLS
EMPLOYER
WEBSITE
INSURANCE
CLAIMS
ATO
REGISTRY
FOR SUPERANNUATION
CONTACT
CENTRE
MEMBER
WEBSITE
ADVICE
SCALED, ROBO,
STRATEGIC
What does the integration ecosystem look like and can we connect our
existing point solutions?
When you’re choosing core technology, consider the strength of the surrounding ecosystem. A rich ecosystem
brings ongoing innovation; a stagnant or non-existent one brings trouble. Think Apple versus BlackBerry.
Contemporary platforms such as Salesforce have impressive, ever-expanding ecosystems of related apps for
common business needs. But what about tools for specialist industry functions like advice, insurance or asset
management? Platform ecosystems lack these integrations because the demand for them is narrow and specialised.
An industry application has an ecosystem that leverages common integrations like telephony, email, document
storage, marketing and digital signatures from the underlying platform, then adds industry-specific integrations to that.
In superannuation, that includes registry systems, government tools (such as SuperMatch), financial planning
applications, member benefit calculators and insurance claims systems.
www.practifi.com
How well does the provider understand our industry and will the solution
evolve with our needs?
Introducing new core technology into your fund is a big deal, so it’s worth making sure the provider you partner with
really understands your world.
Broad technology platforms, and the teams who sell and support them, are jacks of all trades; they have to be in
order to succeed across a range of verticals. Salesforce is a perfect example of a powerful yet generalist platform.
It’s sold broadly across industries and implemented by third-party consultants and system integrators who are
themselves generalists.
In contrast, PractiFI is a genuine superannuation industry application created natively from the Salesforce platform.
It’s purposefully crafted to cater for the needs of members with one or multiple accounts, contributing and
default employer arrangements, even customised large corporate plans. PractiFI enables a single lens on the
member, whether viewed from the contact centre, employer relationship team or even financial advice. Group and
underwritten insurance details can be managed directly in PractiFI and, depending on your administration platform,
direct integrations are available right out of the box.
PractiFI’s analytics bring superannuation dashboards to life incredibly quickly. Just pick the statistics important to
your fund and you’re off and running.
PractiFI is built from within the industry, for the industry. Our focus is laser sharp.
PRACTIFI RUNS YOUR WEALTH BUSINESS
You can’t grow a wealth management business with just point solutions. PractiFI runs the show
across all your divisions, giving you the visibility and control you need to scale.
Get in touch, we’d love to talk.
www.practifi.com
+61 2 9262 1649
Do you want to
achieve benefits from
technology faster?
Would you rather focus on
value-add integrations instead
of basic functionality?
Do you want your technology
to evolve with the superannuation
industry’s needs?
Do you want to be able to
influence the future direction
of your technology?
Do you want to work with
a partner who speaks
your language?
IF YOU ANSWERED “YES” TO ANY OF THE ABOVE,
THEN PRACTIFI IS THE INDUSTRY APPLICATION
FOR YOUR SUPERANNUATION FUND.
www.practifi.com