Fresh of their win for Back-Office System of the Year at the 2018 Professional Paraplanner Awards, Intelliflo continue to keep making improvements to what is probably the most comprehensive back office system in the UK market. After the acquisition of Intelliflo by Invesco, the global investment management firm, the system continues to develop rapidly and currently supports approximately 30% of UK advisers.

The Intelligent Office (IO) system provides a range of functionality focused on back office, pre-sales advice, point of sale and ongoing servicing of clients. Whilst IO does not provide own built financial planning tools they aim to provide “best of breed” integrations to third party planning tools based on adviser demand.

The system aims to automate the processes an adviser firm would go through by heavily re-using data to minimise the need for re-entry of data. Intelliflo offer one API that covers 150 data items which third party software can plug into in order to reduce re-keying and streamline an adviser’s advice process. Intelliflo provide an IO store that enables users to select a best of breed approach when considering third party tools. They are able to select which tools they wish to use (from a range of integration partners) and switch them on from the menu enabling transfer of data from IO to the third-party tool.

Intelliflo is able to incorporate an integrated platform as a service (iPaaS) via Jitterbit which enables firms to connect to a number of applications from different environments within the business and automate them. This helps firms integrate with a number of different applications (available via the IO app store) and help drive greater efficiencies. The Dev Hub which is Intelliflo’s developer platform, which allows firms to create their own ecosystem which means they can create a bespoke back office system that cater to their exact needs.

Intelliflo offer more valuation and income reconciliation links than any other supplier in the market, helping them to provide advisers with more information on their client’s valuations.

If users need to contact their clients, the system allows clients to be contacted securing via the client portal with the customer receiving push notifications when a message is received. Clients also have the capability of reviewing, editing and signing documents via the client portal (PFP) which feeds directly back into the system. PFP has proved to be incredibly popular with more than 1,170 registered users.

The advice process can generally be quite disjointed, especially when recommendation and annual reviews are included. Advisers usually have to juggle a plethora of systems and very rarely to all the systems talk to each other. Research for investment business can take an awful long time and can be a very manual process especially when information has to be copied from one system to another.

However, IO provides users the ability to choose how research is conducted. Some providers within the IO app store allow corresponding research to be inserted into a suitability or annual review report. This not only reduces rekeying, but provides the user with the capability of having correctly rendered graphics inserted directly into the report maintaining the correct level of professionalism.

Further integrations such as Wealthlink provides a fully integrated business submission hub that allows users to electronically submit information direct to some of the UK’s leading provider platforms, again reducing the need to re-key data and provides a full two-way new business submission process which can be extremely valuable to firms looking to create efficiencies.

Intelliflo also provides the ability for users to produce an aggregated cost and charges document which comes as either a standard report or customised report created using document designer. The aggregated costs and charges document, shows the annual charges relating to adviser services and the impact that the costs have had on investment returns. With increased demand to highlight costs associated to clients, it is imperative a back-office system is able to do this, as advisers have highlighted their concerns and the time constraints presented when advisers have to do it manually.

• The system also provides a number of management information reports which provide further insight.
• Intelliflo provides the ability for users to produce an aggregated cost and charges document which comes as either a standard report or customised report created using document designer.
• The aggregated costs and charges document, shows the annual charges relating to adviser services and the impact that the costs have had on investment returns.

• Clients also have the capability of reviewing, editing and signing documents via the client portal (PFP) which feeds directly back into the system.

• Wealthlink provides a fully integrated business submission hub that allows users to electronically submit information direct to some of the UK’s leading provider platforms, again reducing the need to re-key data and provides a full two-way new business submission process which can be extremely valuable to firms looking to create efficiencies.

• Provide the ability for firms to submit new business via the system with more companies.