Aviva is the latest organisation to join the Origo Integration Hub, alongside names already using it like Prudential, Legal and General, Standard Life Aberdeen, LV, and others. There are now 19 users of the technology, with more in the pipeline the FinTech says.
The hub, which launched in 2016, was designed to remove the need for companies to integrate with one another individually, instead enabling them to connect to one another through a hub and spoke technology.
Karl Greenway, head of platform development, Aviva, said: “Joining the Origo Integration Hub will give Aviva cost-effective access to a sustainable, manageable means of integration as well as extending our integration reach with our key technology partners.”
Origo recently published research which showed that integration between platforms, back-office providers and software providers to adviser firms required vast improvement, with 85% of firms citing a lack of effective integrations as a major cause of inefficiency in their business.
The research also found that firms often didn’t know they had integrations or said they didn’t trust their output, preferring to keep to slower manual processing. Firms routinely re-key client data across three or more standalone systems.
Anthony Rafferty, managing director, Origo, commented: “We are delighted Aviva has signed-up to the Integration Hub. Our research shows that integrations between platforms, back-office providers and software providers are not having the benefit for the advisers and subsequently their clients that we can see they should.
“This is because integrations typically are point-to-point; that is one company, based on demand and business case, links to one other company to effect electronic valuations for example. There are time, cost, risk and resource issues with those individual links, and they have all to be maintained going forward.”
Rafferty said a centralised hub, into which everyone can link once and then connect to others in the market also connected to the hub, has huge benefits for the industry, particularly for advisers. According to Rafferty, it will help advice firms improve their efficiencies, profitability and enable them to deliver a faster and better service to clients. For platforms, providers, adviser CRMs and tools such as cashflow modellers, the benefits include speed, efficiency, cost effectiveness and convenience, he said.
Rafferty added: “Momentum for this approach to integrating is growing and we are absolutely delighted that Aviva has joined the Integration Hub, adding huge weight to the community of platforms and adviser software suppliers. This centralised integration capability will significantly improve the overall market’s connectivity.”
Origo publishes the list of providers using the Integration Hub, in alphabetical order:
Adviser Cloud
Aviva
Barnett Waddingham
CashCalc
Creative Technologies
Family Capital
JCS
Legal and General
LV
Metlife
Money Labs
O & M
Phoenix Wealth
Profile Pensions
Prudential
Sprint Enterprise Technology
Standard Life Aberdeen
Time4Advice
Zurich
•• The research results A Disconnected World: The Adviser’s Reality can be downloaded from the Origo website here.
