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Cryptic clues
When a technology issue becomes the second most commented on story on the Money Marketing website, it is clear that some-thing major is happening.
Last month, 46 comments appeared in response to Sesame insisting that advisers take action to protect client information in email communications.
This is a crucial business issue and Sesame is to be applauded for showing leadership in putting an option forward for their members and clients. However, I believe there are wider issues that should be examined before reaching a decision on the best solution. To be fair to Sesame, they are saying that their members must use secure commun-ication and for corres-pondence between the network and their members requiring firms either to use their selected solution or a secure file transfer site.
Last year, my organisation was asked by a number of insurers to carry out an analysis of the business issues facing adviser firms as they implement secure commun-ications with clients.
This work did not look specifically at the suitability of the Origo Secure Mail solution advocated by Sesame but more generally at the whole issue of secure communications with customers. This column will share some of the lessons learned.
It was noticeable that the comments on Money Marketing’s website split pretty evenly between those for and against the Origo service but some posters suggested they were having problems with the encryption software when using other applications, with 1st Software, Citrix, Microsoft Small Business Server and Windows 7 all mentioned in this context. There appears to be pressure for improving the level of technical support.
I believe there may be worthwhile lessons to be learned from organisations such as banks and utilities. I have not come across any such companies using encryption to deliver email to their customers.
This begs the question why we need encryption for IFAs. Invariably, such companies will send the customer a message to say they have mail waiting for them and the consumer then logs on to the organisation’s secure area to collect this.
This strikes me as a simpler solution and a number of organisations, such as Focus, IFA Systems and True Potential, have already built exactly this infrastructure which their clients can use.
Both Focus and True Potential are offering this capability as an optional part of their overall proposition whereas IFA Systems will supply a standalone component that can be operated with an adviser’s existing website (see www. client-info-centre.co.uk) for a one-off fee of £275 plus £20 a month for up to 200 clients for firms who sign up before the end of January. After this, the price increases to £395 for set-up plus £30 a month. (All figures are subject to VAT). Over 250 adviser firms are already using this service. One of my main concerns is that if information is encrypted now, how easy will it be to access that information many years in the future?
What if it is needed when those originally involved in correspondence may long since have left a firm? With the Financial Ombudsman Service currently having no backstop on claims, this seems to me a major business risk. In addition, how easy is it for the adviser firm to change supplier or, once you have encrypted with one organ- isation, are companies effectively locked into a relationship forever unless they are prepared to lose access to critical data? These are just a few of the issues that I believe should be debated.
A number of other things about the Origo proposition do not make sense to me. First, the obvious place to position any security mechanism that an adviser might use is as an integrated part of the email service and record-keeping within a client management system.
There are many advantages to operating single comm-unications, not least integ-ration with client reporting and TCF monitoring. Therefore, I would have expected to see such solutions rolled out in partnership with the leading client management system suppliers.
The Origo initiative currently appears to be operating independently of these key adviser systems. Having spoken to a number of key suppliers, they do not appear to be being included as much as they might.
It might be that the service that Origo are proposing can help the industry but right now they are not making a good job of getting their case across.
Customer security is undoubtedly going to be one of the key business issues of 2010. In my view, the case for the Origo Secure Mail is unproven and it may bring with it far more problems than it solves.
By comparison, the secure communication infrastructure put in place by the software providers above seem a more user- friendly alternative.
There is no doubt that businesses need a solution to this crucial business issue but if we encrypt without fully working through all the ramifications, this could put massive barriers in the way of easily accessing essential business data in the future.
Before grasping the first thing offered, I believe advisers should review the options and I would certainly want to know what client management system providers could put forward as an alternative before committing to any other solution.
In the coming weeks, I will be talking extensively to the leading suppliers in this area and will report back on these pages. In the meantime, I am not dismissing the Origo solution but they would do well to better articulate the case for their proposition.
