These days few people have the time to spend looking for the best deal on mortgages, investments or insurance. As a result, a large number of financial services brokers have cropped up to do all the hard work for you. Providence Financial Services is one such firm.
Based in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, Providence was established in December 1999 by John Lowe, who decided it was time to set up in business by himself after spending some 27 years working for other companies in the financial sector.
Lowe who is probably best known to most Smart Company readers as Newstalk 106 FM’s personal finance adviser, ‘The Money Doctor’, was convinced of the need to use technology as the foundation on which to build his fledgling company right from the start. Lowe, who freely admits to being a technophile, first learnt how beneficial technology could be in gaining competitive advantage during his years working for First National Building Society. While working for that organisation, John became the first person in Ireland to sell a mortgage via the Internet; the knowledge he gained from carrying out that ‘virtual’ transaction would prove useful when he decided to establish his own financial services company.
Providence offers independent advice on a wide range of personal finances including guidance on mortgages, insurance and investments. The firm prides itself on offering a totally unbiased choice across the full range of financial services and currently it represent all the Irish and Scottish lenders operating in the Irish market for home loans and commercial property mortgages as well as the ten insurance companies and several of the state’s investment houses.
Early on in the company’s existence, John felt that it was important to invest in a technology system that could be used to manage every aspect of the firm’s business. Given that he eventually hoped to employ advisors from all over the country, he needed a system which would not only be used by employees in the Stillorgan office, but could also be used by staff who were based outside of the company’s headquarters.
However, when John looked to see what systems were available to firms such as his, he was disappointed. ‘Four years ago, when we started checking out systems, there were a few software programs available to purchase, but none of the applications we sourced, covered all the areas we worked in,’ says Lowe. ‘The Irish Brokers Association for example, has a software company attached to them which set up a computer system specifically for brokers, but, it didn’t cover mortgages, stock brokering, asset financing etc, nor did it let you write letters to clients at the touch of a button.’
Lowe decided to take the plunge and develop his own in-house brokerage system, which would serve as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, an administration system, accounts system and quote system in one. ‘I met up with a software developer, told him what we needed and he started working straight away on developing it. The original idea was that we’d produce the product and then sell it on to other companies afterwards. But I eventually realised that the system we were developing was too much of an advantage to competitors to sell, so I bought out the original developer and got someone else in to complete it.’
The system, known as ‘Maximus’, enables staff in the Stillorgan HQ to input important data. Just as importantly, it also allows Providence’s growing band of financial advisors to access their client’s data even though they may not be based in the office. ‘Our advisor in Navan for example, doesn’t have his own office but he does have direct access to Maximus via our website. We supply our advisors with their own laptops so that they can find out information on their clients transactions and can get in touch with the administrator back in Stillorgan if they want application forms for clients or to arrange re-evaluations of property, etc. The advisors’ section of the website is protected and each one of them has a specific password for their particular client databases.’
Lowe claims that while Maximus was expensive to develop, it is now paying dividends because rather than having to rent offices for advisors based outside of the capital, he can simply give them a laptop and Internet access. This is good news, as the company plans to take on more advisors from around the country over the next two years. ‘We are planning to grow over the next couple of years, but our employees won’t be working from office but from home, which will enable us to cut costs significantly,’ says Lowe.
Common touch
Parallel to the development of Maximus was the building of the company’s website. Recently, the firm overhauled the site to get its message across better. The website includes a number of useful tools including a mortgage calculater. However, despite the fact that Lowe has had experience in selling mortgages via the Net, he feels that with such an important investment decision, the majority of individuals still want the common touch. ‘We do have an online mortgage application form on our website,’ says Lowe. ‘But for a transaction that is this big, people are not happy to deal with a screen, they want to sit down with someone.’
All in all, Lowe is happy with the investment he has made in technology and his advice to other small businesses is to ensure that they choose the right people to work with. ‘I was very lucky when it came to building Maximus because I trusted my developer implicitly. This was essential because while I am computer literate, I don’t know a thing about the back end of things. For this reason I think that you really do have to trust those to whom you give responsibility. Therefore its important to find the right people at the start so that they’ll do the job properly and won’t rip you off.’
18/11/2003
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