Software as a Service is a major driver of superannuation funds transforming their business model. It lets funds focus on innovating services for members and the benefits digital technologies now offer whilst also being a great way to keep up to date with compliance requirements.
Super funds under management totalled $2.6 trillion assets at the end of the December 2017 quarter – all held within 29 million separate superannuation accounts across the country (ASFA March 2018).
Today’s name of the game is streamlining how to meet the needs of those 29 million members whilst delivering regulatory change, and Software as a Service (SaaS) is one of the more efficient ways to deliver a double whammy technology and business innovation roadmap.
The recently launched managed service model for Iress’ Acurity is all about outsourced software and solutions delivery. It meets a range of needs for funds and their members and is an exciting new way for a fund to 100% digitally enable its business.
The cost of remaining compliant
For super funds to routinely meet compliance requirements, they need to understand and respond to the legislation to ensure their technology solution meets those needs – each and every time a legislative and compliance update is released.
In 2017, over 1,000 significant legislative updates were integrated into Acurity and this year super funds have to meet a broad range of legislative updates including the Member Account Attribution Service (MAAS), the Member Accounts Transaction Service (MATS), the First Home Super Saver Scheme and Downsizer contributions just to name a few.
A significant commitment is required by super funds to ensure any update is tested and implemented within its administration platform prior to the legislated deadline. The benefit of a managed service model for Acurity is we can now build in the cost of compliance which can lead to the automatic delivery of any platform updates. This helps to keep a fund up to date with its regulatory and compliance requirements. This also meets our goal to raise the bar on any type of straight through processing.
The benefit of a managed service model for Acurity is the automatic delivery of any platform updates, keeping a fund up to date with regulatory and compliance requirements.
SaaS ebMS messaging service innovation
We also recently launched an ebMS messaging service, a SaaS only solution for the super industry – delivering a cost effective, resilient and robust messaging solution that eliminates the need to use multiple system interfaces to send non-financial data to the Australian Tax Office (ATO).
The ebMS messaging service can be used across funds and different registry systems. It’s our responsibility to keep it up to date with the way transactions are reported to the ATO. Super funds are only responsible for acceptance testing and staying focused on adding more value to member services.
It’s our responsibility to keep it up to date with the way transactions are reported to the ATO.
