It’s amazing how much information is now available at our fingertips and the speed at which we can access it.
Imagine watching some terrible television programme on an obscure channel 10, or even five years ago, and recognising an old face from a programme in your youth. Imagine the debate with yourself and anyone else in the vicinity as to who it was and where you recognised him or her from.
Now fast-forward to the present day where instead of a good old fashioned debate and days of frustration until you receive a memory bolt from the blue, usually at the most inappropriate of times, a laptop and any one of the multitude of search engines can quench your memory thirst in seconds.
Now where is the satisfaction in that? Quite a bit if you are correct of course, but I use this example to illustrate our ever increasing desire to fulfil our needs as fast as humanly, or more to the point, technologically possible.
We are in the midst of a modern day ‘must have it now’ psychology and this is also becoming more and more apparent in how we are looking at doing business. 2008 will see a great many challenges to overcome as we still feel the backlash of the credit crunch and the implications of this turbulence mean it is vital that all firms look towards greater cost savings through increased efficiency.
Streamlining the process
Technological innovation can be a great way to help streamline processing and therefore increase efficiency and there is little doubt that during 2008 the master brokers with the best technology will almost certainly pick up the most business from introducers.
In all areas of the mortgage market brokers are demanding quicker response times and constantly improving service. This is no different in the secured loan market and it is up to secured loan packagers to address these needs.
By improving IT systems and solutions it is certainly a major stepping stone to achieving the holy grail of guaranteed speed and efficiency.
The secured loan industry is still crying out for improved technology that will streamline the process but brokers are fast waking up to the idea that they would like to source their own deals and this has resulted in secured loan sourcing systems generating far greater exposure and momentum within the sector.
The issue of brokers doing their own secured sourcing has been a grey area for quite some time and there has been a huge reliance on master brokers to source and select the right secured loan deal for their clients.
But surely it must be better to give the individual broker the opportunity to find that deal themselves?
Fortunately secured loan sourcing systems are improving and the recent introduction of Trigold’s secured sourcing module and the launch of Promise Solutions’ system has stimulated this area even further.
Nowhere near obselete
Of course, I now have to stress this does not mean that master brokers will become obsolete, far from it. As I have already mentioned, master brokers grasping the concept of improved technology and processing will always be able to add value to brokers looking at the secured loans sector and will continue to prosper.
Indeed, 2007 saw record numbers of brokers realising the value of secured loans and there is no reason why this year will be different. Technology also helps play a vital part in upholding the finer principles of the Financial Services Authority’s ‘Treating Customers Fairly’ (TCF) agenda.
It plays such an important part in TCF as it takes the human element out of sourcing the products and can help in providing a robust audit trail, therefore bringing greater transparency to the advice process.
The TCF initiative is paramount to the ideals of the regulator and the more we can embrace and embed these principles into our everyday business practices, the more the perception of the market will improve.
Looking forward, my advice for any broker unhappy with the service they receive from their existing packager is to find another one. In this day and age there is no need to accept inferior service as there are plenty of master brokers out there offering exceptional service and technology.
It is time for us all to take a step back and access how we can evolve, cut costs and speed up processes. Technology can allow us to do this but it is all about picking the right technology partnership for you.
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