SaaS and fintech are all the rage right now. Software is only bound by the minds that create it. But beyond the excitement, noise and buzzwords, there are clever solutions to a financial planner’s biggest problems.
Opex isn’t some ordinary SaaS company. We build software solutions that solve problems.
Managing Directors, Hamish Hockley and Paul Campbell, are financial service industry natives. They’ve been working together for over 20 years – 10 of which have been dedicated to running Opex.
Hamish began his career in paraplanning, which led to a role in a financial planning practice and onto a head office position at a dealer group that held the AFSL. He was responsible for advisor systems and the software financial planners used to generate advice. It was here where Hamish discovered that ‘there has to be a better way to get more out of software, such as Xplan.’
Paul was on a parallel journey, running his IT consultancy and helping practices build software and maximise its use. Software is expensive and financial practices require collective buy-in to fully leverage it. Practices lacked personal support.
The pair had a ‘let’s do this ourselves’ epiphany.
“I have this technology. How can I get the best out of it?”
Opex started by serving a few consulting clients, helping answer this question. Hamish and Paul would support financial advisors with the many ways technology can be leveraged to enable operational efficiencies.
This was a two-pronged approach: software and operational capability. It was better to re-engineer and improve internal processes to make software work better than to design the technology from scratch.
A client’s collection of problems led to a managed service idea, where we packaged up all the software solutions to make it work for financial practices.
This included financial planning software, brokerage processing, and CRM data integration – the three pillars of Operational Excellence.
Our ‘we simplify, we support’ ethos remains unchanged today.
The need for a simpler way to do CRM activities led to the creation of our sister company, Xeppo. The cross-pollination of data didn’t exist at the time, until Xeppo – a data warehouse software spearheaded this solution. Much like Opex, Xeppo was a natural extension of a widespread industry need (and a ‘let’s build it ourselves’ attitude).
A tech partner with intelligent software solutions.
While we know technology is an enabler, it doesn’t replace the high-touch nature of our support. The financial services industry is still about relationships. So are we.
By engaging with our clients as their end-to-end technology partner, not just a software service provider, we can build real solutions to everyday problems.
This is imperative, in this complex industry and regulatory burden.
We don’t sit behind the keyboard, rolling out solutions from assumptions. It’s collaborative problem-solving by engaging our clients’ experience and insights to inform our software design.
Our clients are expert financial advisers. We overlay our expertise and the conversation is always outcome-focused, driven by what our clients are trying to achieve.
Creating more efficiencies, confidence, and profit.
The strength of the technology is only as good as its implementation. Without collective confidence in the software and the ability to use it, a ROI is difficult.
This is what many software providers miss – the personal training and change management piece.
It’s not the ‘sexy’ part of software but it’s vital in order to embed within a practice. The change management plan is one of the most important parts of an Opex software service. Solving the biggest problems and uncovering opportunities within a financial planning business is a journey. One that never stops.