Iress has notified users of the Adviser Office product, that support for the back-office service will no longer be supported from mid 2023.
Current Adviser Office clients are being encouraging to migrate to new Xplan packages offerings as soon as possible. They have been offered the opportunity to upgrade to equivalent functionality in Xplan Essentials at no additional cost.
The three new Xplan packages – Essentials, Plus and One – are securely hosted in the Iress Cloud Platform and cater to a wide range of advice business needs:
• Xplan Essentials: Is a fully-hosted and managed solution, built with best-practice templates, workflows, automation and digital technology.
• Xplan Plus: Includes everything in the Essentials package, plus the option to customise workflows, reports and client-facing documents that use Xplan data.
• Xplan One: Is suited to advice practices with specific customisation and hosting requirements.
Each package is modular by design, meaning advice businesses can choose either out-of-the-box functionality or customise solutions to complement their business processes.
Iress’ chief commercial officer, Simon New, said: “The changing dynamics of the advice industry means we’re seeing more businesses demand customisable, scalable services that offer increased flexibility and cutting-edge functionality.”
He added that the future lies in cloud-based, API-enabled, modular technology which can scale and adapt to evolving business needs.
The new Xplan packages he said included functionality like client portal, digital signatures and automated workflows available out of the box. “Because it is cloud-based, product information is always current and accessible from anywhere.
“By offering Adviser Office clients the choice of an upgrade to Xplan, we’re helping their businesses become more efficient, reliable and secure as well as supporting the delivery of a better client experience.”
Commenting on the ‘end of life’ announcement, Ian McKenna, founder of AdviserSoftware.com and the Financial Technology Research Centre, said: “While the retiring software still has a very loyal following, the reality is things can’t go on forever and the technology behind the system is now very dated. There will come a point when security updates will no longer be available so it’s important for advisers to migrate to new systems to maintain security.
“A number of other technology suppliers have made similar announcements in recent months and moving clients to a new platform is the right thing to do.
“It’s now approaching nine years since Iress announced the acquisition of Avelo. When they bought the business, I don’t think anyone thought Adviser Office would still be running in 2022. Iress deserve credit for keeping the service running as long as they have.
“If I was an Adviser Office user, I would not be leaving migration to the last minute. Inevitably there will be firms who do, but it would be better to get the support from Iress now and have the maximum transition time.”
