"The acquisition is the start of making new links with other businesses that, like Bluecoat, share a similar ethos and desire to drive efficiency and innovation in the financial services technology market."
Let me explain.
First, I want to be clear in stating that the acquisition of Bluecoat Software is part of our intention to be a market leader in both mortgage adviser and wealth adviser technology markets. Bluecoat has numerous clients in the wealth market, but is also used already by some of the biggest names in the mortgage market (Charles Cameron being a good example).
We believe we can build upon our own experience and skillset, and turn Finplan into a market leader in the mortgage CRM market.
Clearly however, Finplan is one of the few that can operate across both wealth and mortgages - and we intend to make the most of that opportunity.
In the wealth sector, we think that there’s still a huge opportunity to simplify workflows and build deep third party integrations that offer real efficiency in process to users (something we already do in mortgages). So, our acquisition is to make sure that no matter where a wealth adviser is based, no matter which firm they act for, they can deliver the best possible advice in the most efficient, effective and importantly compliant manner.
If we step back for a moment, customers aren’t really wealth or mortgage customers: they are just people with a need for great financial advice. Someone with significant savings may get a different array of mortgage options than someone without - having a “whole picture” view of those we are advising - and for the people who are advising them - should impact positively upon the advice that they are given.
We’ve always made a point of calling our mortgage users ‘advisers’ rather than brokers - because in truth that is what they do, irrespective of the product type - they advise customers on financial products. This being the case, why shouldn’t one single system be able to support advisers, regardless of what product they are advising on?
Final thoughts? First, this acquisition allows us to be great at what we’re already good at. It marks the start of our investment in both adding solutions like Finplan to our list of products, whilst also deepening the strength of our senior team to fast forward our future success.
Second, whilst it’s our first key move, it won’t be our last. The acquisition is the start of making new links with other businesses that, like Bluecoat, share a similar ethos and desire to drive efficiency and innovation in the financial services technology market. We would welcome expressions of interest from any other businesses keen to go on this journey with us.
We’ve built our name on being faster, simpler and more efficient for advisers.
Our recent announcement is an exciting and ambitious step which opens up new market opportunities, but above all – allows us to continue to be market leaders in doing what we do best.
