A number of advice firms are pursuing Iress for thousands of pounds in refunded fees, after suffering “nightmare” technical problems with its Xplan software.
Xplan is an end-to-end system which offers portfolio management, client communication and business management tools.
Australian technology provider Iress also owns software programme Adviser Office, following its acquisition of Avelo in 2013.
Iress says Adviser Office users are under no obligation to move to Xplan, but last autumn it introduced a new process to transfer those who wish to do so.
Since then advisers moving to Xplan say they have experienced problems including inaccurate valuations and delays in transferring data from one system to the other.
Money Marketing understands at least four advice firms are seeking to claim back all fees paid to Iress in respect of the transfer.
Interface Financial Planning director Alan Moran moved from Adviser Office to Xplan in November, but decided to leave Iress in March.
He says: “Those five months were the worst of my 25-year career. I was charged £3,000 for something that didn’t work, and lost several thousand pounds in income due to the time spent trying to resolve the problems.
“It was a nightmare. I outsource my remuneration to another company, which was not able to reconcile a single penny with Xplan.
“The client portal didn’t work, and valuations produced silly numbers – one client with £50,000 came out as having £2.5m. Errors like that undermine clients’ confidence in my professionalism.”
Another adviser, who wishes to remain anonymous, says: “Xplan was marketed as a finished product but that is not the case. If I had known how bad it was going to be I would not have bought it.”
Iress executive general manager for wealth Mark Loosmore says: “For those who want to move to
Xplan, we introduced a process in the autumn to take them across and hold their hands. That has been successful but a small number of clients have experienced some teething problems.
“We take client dissatisfaction seriously and have put in significant resources to help them overcome those individual issues.”
There’s leading edge and bleeding edge.
Every time I think about dipping my toes in the Xplan waters I call a few trusted advisers who are already using it and they always say “It’s not ready yet, I’d leave it a few more months”.
My worry from Mark Loosemore’s comment is that IRESS have yet to recognize that they have a problem. If they don’t think they have a problem, they won’t ever solve it…
I’ve just switched from AO to XPlan and am duplicating work because XPlan is not yet fit for purpose and I’m still running AO in the background. I keeping a list of items that don’t work and I’ve already filled a couple of pages with various problems. I’ve just received my first invoice for which I am paying for a client online facility. When I rang the help desk to check how to set this up I was told this is system is currently not working.
IRESS need a major rethink about this system that is not intuitive or easy to use.
Chris Green it sounds like you might be slightly ahead of us on adoption and I am keen to share info. There are 2 pages of your name on the FCA register so may I cheekily ask you to email me sw@fffp.co.uk
We spent a lot of time looking at XPlan and came to the conclusion a few months ago that the UK version isn’t ready, and I had suggested to Iress that it’s really “vapourware”.
I was phoned out of the blue by Tessa last Friday and it always worries me what reporters are going to write.
A big thank you Tessa for leaving out the bad bits! I was concerned that you would print all of it.
I know that businesses out here in Asia have tried to implement XPlan too and had so many frustrations with it. Which is a huge pity as we desperately need something out here!
As Sesame mortgage and protection brokers, we have been forced to use The Key (unwieldy) or XPlan, which I felt was not fit for purpose. I think it is called Hobson’s choice.
Chris Green it sounds like you might be slightly ahead of us on adoption and I am keen to share info. There are 2 pages of your name on the FCA register so may I cheekily ask you to email me sw@fffp.co.uk
classic case on paying the penalty for being an early adopter ?
I do find it strange that Mark Loosemore hasn’t felt the need to respond to any of the blogs on this subject. My worry is that the development of AO is on permanent hold whilst the idiots at Iress push on blindly and in denial with XPlan
Hello all. I don’t run a back office at the moment but am a big Truth cashflow user. I am really tempted to explore Xplan as a “whole” system possibly replacing Truth. From they way they are marketing themselves, the system does look good but they seem reluctant to let me have a trial instead telling me I need to sign up and have the training in order to understand the system properly. I’d be really keen to know if the cashflow module is something which is as good as Truth or if it is just a mere pretender in comparison. Any comments would be gratefully received.