There is no denying that we live in a data-driven world. From our online searches to our binge-watching and shopping habits, everything we do is being transformed into data points.

For finance and superannuation, data is a powerful resource. It can provide unparalleled insights to enhance services, improve member experiences and help funds stay competitive. However, to fully capitalise on this, funds need to be able to access, understand, and transform clean, accurate data. 

After looking at optimising the cloud in our previous blog, this final blog looks at the fourth step in our digital transformation journey – how superannuation funds can engineer and optimise their data platforms to prepare for future challenges and opportunities.

Data in superannuation – moving beyond third-party platforms 

Superannuation funds have traditionally relied on third-party data platforms to manage member data. While suitable for basic reporting and compliance purposes, these platforms don’t offer the flexibility and access needed for modern digital services and next-generation technologies like AI.  To drive innovation and create value-adding digital services like personalised member journeys and advice, funds need real-time access to accurate, well-structured, usable data.

So how does a fund set about optimising their data platform? Here are our four key steps.

• Treat data as a product. To unlock the potential of data, funds should adopt a  “data-as-a-product” mindset. This means treating data as a valuable resource that must be curated, maintained, and optimised for use, just like any other product. Delivering clean, high-quality, and accessible data is key to driving decisions that enhance services and fuel business growth. Find out more in our Data Products Playbook.
• Build strong data pipelines A common challenge for superfunds is managing large, unstructured homogeneous databases that don’t work harmoniously with each other or with insight-gathering tools. By establishing data pipelines, funds can ensure that data flows smoothly across the business and works across numerous dashboards, analytics tools or predictive AI models. Investing in reliable, automated data pipelines allows super funds to handle large amounts of data in real time and ensure the insights gleaned are based on up-to-date accurate information. Find out more in our Data Pipelines Playbook.
• Enable centralised access to data via a data lake  Breaking down data silos and enabling secure, centralised access to a data lake is key to maximising the potential of data. Rather than data being held in disparate systems and only accessible by a select few, creating a data lake means teams across finance, customer service, and operations can access the information they need, when they need it, to drive better decision-making.
• Strengthen security and governance Security and compliance remain crucial, particularly in highly regulated industries like superannuation. Funds need to ensure member data is protected by embedding strict security controls and monitoring in data platforms. Using a pipeline approach can also help to minimise security risks by limiting the blast radius should an issue occur. Read about how we helped an Australian financial services organisation implement this approach and dramatically improve its data platform security.
  

Putting data into action with artificial intelligence

Superannuation funds that spend time optimising their data now will be able to maximise the effectiveness of next-generation technologies like AI sooner. It will enable them to create insight-driven innovations that drive better customer experiences and help differentiate themselves in a highly competitive environment

For example,  AI can help reduce membership churn by automating and streamlining resource-heavy processes such as complaints handling. Our AI-enabled concept analyses unstructured data from multiple customer channels—calls, forms, and messages— and categorises and triages the complaints. It provides the complaint handler with an action plan for the next steps, a response template and a timeline, all based on Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) regulatory requirements.

With the potential to be implemented at a fund in just 12 weeks, it could transform the complaints process. It can support the fund in delivering better, faster responses that improve customer service and reduce the likelihood of a member deciding to leave the fund, all while maintaining regulatory compliance. 

Data ready for the future

Engineering your data platform can be a tricky, time-consuming process, but with the right tools and expertise, it can be transformative for superannuation funds, and drive the next generation of AI technology.

Ready to engineer your data platform or want to see our AI complaints management concept in action? Contact us now or join us at the ASFA Conference in Sydney from November 19-21, 2024 for more digital transformation insights.

Cloud computing is transforming how Australia’s businesses operate, offering greater flexibility, scalability and cost-effectiveness compared to on-premise systems. 

With 70% of businesses using cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives,  Gartner is predicting that public cloud spending will reach A$23.2bn in Australia this year, up 19.3% from 2023.

Cloud isn’t just another IT tool – it has the potential to be transformative across all industries, including finance and superannuation. However, as highlighted in our earlier blogs, understanding your current situation and laying solid foundations is essential before embarking on a digital transformation.

In this third blog of the series, we’ll explore how finance organisations and superannuation funds can optimise and scale the cloud to unlock greater business value.

The importance of a cloud strategy

Cloud is a top focus for CIOs, with 79% listing it as their second-largest tech funding priority after cybersecurity. Despite its advantages, we regularly hear from our clients that their cloud costs are continuing to rise without returning the expected business value. Why? Because simply lifting and shifting everything to the cloud without a strategy leads to inefficiencies. 

In the early stages of cloud adoption, many companies used it for one or two limited purposes without giving too much thought to the overall architecture or configuration. But as businesses grow and add on more cloud applications, a lack of a cohesive strategy can lead to inefficiencies and spiralling costs. 

As we found in the first blog, conducting a comprehensive cloud health check is key to understanding your current environment and defining an effective strategy. Cloud computing isn’t just about moving away from on-prem systems—it’s about preparing the groundwork to enable future innovations and meet business goals.

Optimisation for the future

Think of it this way – if you want a supercar designed for speed you might spend a lot of time and resources crafting the body to maximise its aerodynamic qualities. But if you then install a tiny, low-powered engine, you won’t get the speed and acceleration you expect from a supercar. You’ll have wasted all that money and effort.

It’s the same with cloud computing. For businesses wanting to perform complex tasks in the cloud or use cutting-edge AI technologies, cloud infrastructure optimisation is critical. Without the right cloud foundations, these innovations won’t deliver their full potential and could end up being costly.

Tools like automation, consistent monitoring, and regular testing within Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines are essential cloud optimisation steps for speeding up deployment times and creating more reliable systems.

Maximising the unique functionality of the cloud to simplify repeatable tasks across an organisation can also make a huge difference. By establishing digital platforms with paved roads—standardised processes that ensure consistent deployment and development across teams—organisations can further improve cloud value, accelerate time to market, and reduce costs.

Governance and security regulations can also be implemented within these paved roads, helping organisations maintain compliance and security best practices and limit the blast radius of security incidents.  In contrast to bespoke on-prem systems, where incidents could have catastrophic consequences, the cloud makes it easier to separate and contain services, reducing the overall impact on business operations, costs and reputational damage.

Cloud computing for finance and superannuation

Within the highly regulated and increasingly competitive landscapes of finance and superannuation,  an optimised cloud enables faster innovation, better compliance and improved service reliability. 

For example, Spirit Super’s move to the cloud enabled it to grow and scale its platform with the business while remaining adaptable to regulatory changes. By optimising its cloud processes from the outset, we helped Spirit Super increase its team capacity for new initiatives from 5% to 66%, eliminate downtime and create reliable cloud-native services in just three months. It’s provided the catalyst for Spirit Super’s cloud platform development and is enabling it to deliver greater value for its members. 

Discover more cloud optimisation strategies at the ASFA Conference 

Cloud has endless transformation potential but to fully unlock its business value, organisations need a clear strategy for optimisation – whether that means reducing cloud costs, focusing on security and compliance or speeding up product development. 

For superannuation funds looking to differentiate themselves in a highly competitive market through new innovation and technology, optimising the cloud is vital step on this journey.

Interested in finding out how to optimise and scale your cloud capabilities? Contact us today or join us at the ASFA Conference in Sydney from November 19-21, 2024, where we’ll be demoing our AI-enabled superannuation complaints management concept and exploring cloud optimisation approaches.

When you’re a new parent, enjoying a long, leisurely retirement seems a lifetime away. And, let’s be honest, who’s thinking about how to maximise their retirement fund when there is a crying newborn demanding their attention? 

Superannuation funds were certainly the last thing on our minds when my wife Samantha and I welcomed our two children into the world. We were too busy getting to grips with feeding schedules, bedtime routines and the joys of parenthood. But, with Samantha taking maternity leave from her job as a firefighter (swapping saving lives for an even harder, more exhausting job as a mum), her superannuation contributions paused. We watched as my retirement pot continued to grow while hers stalled.

But this isn’t an uncommon experience. It’s a reality for millions of Australian women each year. 

Women retire with 24% less super than men on average

Research by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work found that women earn $136,000 less in superannuation over their working lives than men, based on median income data. Alongside the impact of the gender pay gap, women are more likely to take longer breaks from full-time employment due to maternity leave and the ongoing demands of raising a family, with a 55% drop in earnings for mothers in the five years following childbirth. 

Fewer earnings and less time spent in the workforce means new mums are saving less money in their super funds. When you factor in the impact of compounding interest, even a small reduction in contributions or a $75 fund fee paid unnecessarily can have a significant impact at retirement time. When you scale that up to the 300,000 women giving birth each year, it’s millions of dollars lost. 

But the superannuation sector is working to address this issue. Fund providers recognise that a person’s employment isn’t static – it’s a journey with many stops, changes of direction and differing priorities on the way. To deliver the best services for their members, including women and new mothers, funds need to provide better access to information, advice and support to help their members every step of the way.

How technology is helping families to update their superannuation 

One of the ways to better support members and deliver a better experience is to embrace digital transformation. Technology is often unfairly maligned as putting distance between people and providers; haven’t we all suffered from bad website chatbots and automated responses? But it can also help close the gap and make it easier for people to be proactive about their finances.

For example, women taking maternity leave are often required to update their employment status with their super fund provider themselves. This can be a time-consuming and arduous process, firstly finding out who to contact and how to contact them, then completing all the necessary steps to register the change. At a time when families have more pressing concerns – the imminent arrival of a new baby – it can quickly slip from the to-do list, leaving women being charged unnecessary fees or unable to access schemes to keep their superfund growing.

We have recently worked with Employment Hero, a forward-thinking Australian HR & payroll software provider, to give women better access to their super accounts when taking maternity leave. In just 12 weeks, our accelerator supported the creation of “Embedded Super” a simple integration for superannuation funds which allows members to easily manage and update their superannuation account without the hassle of having to contact their provider. It’s a low-cost, low-effort solution which can have a huge and immediate impact on super fund members and their retirement savings. 

Join us at ASFA Conference to find out more

As a trusted superannuation partner, we’re excited to be sharing our work at the ASFA Conference in Sydney on the 19th – 21st November 2024. Taking a cue from this year’s conference theme – Inspiring Excellence – we’ll be demonstrating the embedded super solution and hoping to inspire more providers to embrace this innovation in their system so their members can begin to benefit. 

We’ll also be sharing insights into how we’ve helped: 

• Spirit Super to increase capacity and deliver improved digital services as it rapidly grew in size. Read the case study or watch the video
• Improve digital capabilities so a super fund can quickly respond to new regulations and discover new opportunities to enhance returns for its members. Read the case study

Visit us at the ASFA conference at stand 36 or contact me in advance to find out more.