Many companies claim to have the digital capacity to support their clients, especially in the kind of extraordinary social distancing circumstances that COVID-19 created. And the proof is always in the digital process pudding. At the recent Glacier IdeasLab 2020, hosted on 8 and 9 September, Johann de Wet, Head: Business and Investment Solutions, outlined just how Glacier’s digital strategy was put through its paces during lockdown, ensuring that ‘business as usual’ remained a reality for intermediaries and clients alike.
The importance of data at Glacier
Platforms that were not ready for COVID-19 lockdown felt the impact on their business, says Johann. An advantage at Glacier is the availability of data which is critical to help us respond to client needs and challenges in an intermediary’s business. An example of this was monitoring the spikes in numbers and the nature of the queries of calls and emails that reached our contact centre early in lockdown.
However, the numbers subsided as clients and intermediaries were offered the freedom to complete business processes on multiple digital platforms. As a result, quotes and document signing could continue seamlessly and queries handled within the turnaround times promised.
Intelligent business
Glacier has invested in leading business technology to help us understand and manage our business through:
- data insights
- business tool; and
- insights from our customers.
Intermediaries now have access to yet another solution from our suite which includes, amongst others, compliance, financial, legal and tax.
The benefits of our focus
Our focus on digital enablement and business intelligence positions us as a leader in the investment platform space. With these tools, we are able to respond to industry challenges because we invest in technology. We design solutions around the intermediary practice and provide new opportunities by enabling the intermediary to interpret and use the data we gather.
Glacier into the future
Glacier digital strategy will always support its business strategy, and at the heart of it is supporting the intermediary’s practice and giving our clients relevant access and information. Going forward, the focus on creating a paperless environment will continue, as will the focus on our offshore offerings, says Johann. Additionally, we are beefing up reporting across all solutions as well as enhancing wrap fund management. Our passion is to use data to understand intermediaries’ business and client behaviour.
