Dealer group Australian Financial Services (AFS) will adopt Dealer Management Services’ (DMS) Adviser Online solution, building upon its use of the administration provider’s core back-office system.
“;We’re 100 per cent certain that we’ll take up Adviser Online…It’s only a matter of time befor it comes on stream,”; AFS chief executive, Peter Daly, said. AFS went live with the DMS core back-office system last month, replacing the Client Management System (CMS), which it built in-house in 2001. Daly said the use of Adviser Online was a natural progression. “;The fact that an adviser can look up administrative data for themselves is another efficiency.”; He said the expansion of AFS – the adviser-owned dealer group has established an additional seven practices this year and has more than 85 practices – was the determining factor behind the decision to use the DMS systems. “;We were concerned that the existing system would fail to cope with the growth we’re experiencing and have got planned.”; DMS sales and marketing manager, Kurt Smyth, said the progression from core back-office administration to Adviser Online was common among the company’s clients. “Dealer groups usually get the back-office in place, get it bedded down, then move onto Adviser Online,” Smyth said. The DMS core back-office system enables planners to manage various streams of remuneration (such as commissions, fee-for-service or rebates from wrap providers), maintain databases of client and product information, segment clients into a hierarchy according to the size of their investments and group clients for reporting purposes. It also facilitates tailored reporting to planners. Adviser Online catches this administrative data and stores it on a secure server within 24 hours. Planners can then access the back-office information online. Daly said the transition to the DMS system was “seamless”, since AFS used the software in parallel with CMS while completing the switch. “;We’ve been working with DMS for the best part of six months,”; he said. DMS processes more than $200 million in commissions and $6 billion in investments each year.
Since taking over the top job at the $44 billion Funds SA more than a year ago, chief executive John Piteo has ushered in an investment function overhaul and wrapped up an important stage of the fund’s five-year data transformation program. It pledges to recentre around investment performance and more efficient processes, as the “missing piece” has been found in incoming CIO Con Michalakis.
Darcy SongJanuary 10, 2025
