Mastermind Thinking Required For Whole-Of-Fund Digital Transformation
Superannuation funds have become so big and so heavily regulated that managing any sort of organisation-wide change is a steep up-hill journey. Medium to now behemoth-size funds, not to mention funds that have recently merged, find major change particularly onerous and costly.
With true digital transformation or even optimisation programs, the member and every business unit are likely to be impacted. A whole-of-fund lens is a critical factor to running the fund of today and building the fund of tomorrow, all while ensuring best member outcomes.
As the industry moves away from ad-hoc or project-based optimisations to more holistic and integrated digital capability, the fund needs ‘mastermind’ thinkers on the transformation program, ideally with the trifecta of technology, data and superannuation pedigree.
Each super fund is often so nuanced that without deep industry ingenuity, even the most brilliant and future-focused digital transformation strategists battle the sheer size and complexities involved.
It is a huge challenge to transform the hopscotch of back-end systems, data-silos and historical operational processes. New technologies open up a whole gamut of risks, regulatory implications and complex transitions from legacy technology. Things can quickly turn into a quagmire of confusion, over-engineering and scope creep, and some funds will fail to achieve their goals.
It’s not only technology that needs to be transformed, but often siloed business units who can tend to see the fund through their own lens. They have their own mandates and target measures, and each unit has different ways they believe these measures can be achieved.
The whole-of-fund view and the value proposition behind transformative change must be adopted by every person involved at the fund. This requires clear and positive communication, KPIs, sometimes rewards and ongoing support so people can adapt to new ways of doing things easily.
Digital transformation is long-haul and very demanding. In striving to advance to the next level of maturity, it is crucial to invite fresh and holistic perspectives around the current achievements and learnings so that the digital vision can continue to evolve at the pace required.
QMV offers significant expertise across digital transformation, data transformation and deep superannuation industry know-how. We help super funds pursue a greater degree of integration, agility and capability across fund technology and processes to achieve world-class member experiences and outcomes.
Stephen Mahoney – Executive Director / Head of Advisory
If your organisation needs assistance with digital transformation, QMV can help. Please reach out to QMV for further information on p +61 3 9620 0707.
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QMV provides independent advisory, consulting and technology to superannuation, wealth management, banking and insurance organisations.
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