Things will be joined up, eventually...
Paul Hunt is a marketing consultant
For seven to eight years after 2007 it's safe to say that there was very little innovation in the market, whether that was from a risk/credit perspective, from a product perspective or the use of technology.
Despite the advances in technology during that period that have affected our everyday lives, little evidence of this was seen in our sector. I would even argue that compared to the rest of financial services, mortgages were a tech backwater with a few dominant players who had no competitive pressure to innovate.
In the last few years though, we have seen the landscape change with a variety of solutions available including CRM, new product sourcing options, criteria search systems, broker robo advice, full robo advice, ID verification etc. However, at present, very few of these solutions are joined-up and so brokers have a disjointed user experience jumping from one system to another when working on an individual case.
At present, because all these new systems and tools help brokers like never before, then there is a general feeling that they can work around these limitations for now, but will they always feel this way?
I don't think so and from talking to many people on the tech side of the argument, there is a growing belief that a solution will have to be found to address this.
But, and it's a big but, I doubt whether one provider will deliver a full end-to-end solution that can work across the industry and also how long would we need to wait if it could be done? A more realistic future is where providers who are specialist in their chosen area, say criteria searches or CRM, link with other IT solutions, so that brokers can choose almost a menu style option without having to go all in with one provider.
I am encouraged by what I am hearing and seeing from many of the tech firms that are supporting the broker sector. Therefore, I would suggest to brokers that for now, just choose the best tools for the job and get on with using them to make your working day easierand let the techies figure out how they join things up, because they will, eventually...
