In part one, I explained the five tips you can use to make clever, informed purchases of great technology for your practice.
If you’ve taken those on, here are five more helpful hints to turn you into an even smarter tech buyer.
- Buy tools that can be extended. It’s hard to predict the future. But one thing you can predict is that the pace of change – regulatory changes, competitive pressure or client demands – isn’t going to slow down. Rather than buy based on what you need now and what you guess you might need in future, buy tools that can be easily extended later. For example, if you create your website in WordPress, later on you can plug in one of the thousands of WordPress widgets that do everything from social media integration to search engine optimisation, online communities or e-commerce. If you build your site from scratch, or choose a less popular platform, you’ll miss out on those opportunities.
- Buy open technology. Unlike the locked down, closed shop days of the 90s, contemporary technology is created with an open mindset. By buying tools that share information well, your team will become more productive, your processes run more smoothly and you’ll avoid annoying rekeying of information. Buy technology that has a public support community, a published API (the way a system talks to other systems) and a commitment to integrating easily. Beware of vendors who don’t share nicely.
- Buy real integration. Every technology vendor claims that their tool integrates. Scratch the surface to understand what that integration really does. Exactly what data is being shared? Does the data move in one or both directions? Does the data move periodically (say once a day) or after certain events happen (say after a button is clicked or a field value changes)? Does the data stay in sync? Simple integrations can be very powerful, but poor integration is worse than no integration. Look beyond the sales pitch and only buy integration when it does what you need.
- Buy control of your data. It is extraordinary the number of advice practices that still don’t control their own client information. Often the data is locked up in a system controlled by their licencee. Or it’s stuck in an old-fashioned system whose vendor charges, often handsomely, to extract the data. Buy technology that puts you in control of your data and allows you to get at it easily, whenever you like.
- Don’t buy at all. As John Paul Getty famously advised (and as you may have told your clients once or twice), if an asset depreciates, rent it rather than buy it. You need to own your data, and you need technology to extract value from it. But you don’t need to own static, depreciating technology. Instead, subscribe to great technology and effectively rent its features. Most contemporary technology can be rented on a per user per month basis, leaving the complexities of owning the asset to the technology vendor.
Glenn Elliott is the chief executive and co-founder of PractiFI, a company revolutionising practice and relationship management for financial advice professionals.
Glenn is also a technology expert in the No More Practice Transformation Series and features in the No More Practice 30 Day Business Challenge.
