Advice professionals say practice management systems are the weakest point in their advice tech, more so than their chosen platforms.

At our HomeGame 3 event in Edinburgh, we asked the in-person audience and those watching online to tell us about how they work with the various systems in their businesses. Through a series of polls throughout the day, we also asked about the areas where they’ve seen the most improvements and their biggest tech pain points.

Half of respondents identified practice management systems as their ‘nemesis’ or weakest point in their tech, ahead of around 27% who said their secondary/legacy platforms and almost 13% who said their primary platform.

Some 58% of attendees said they felt happy with their existing kit, but acknowledged they could be getting more out of it. Just over 4% felt they’d completely nailed their tech selection and were using it well, while 14% said their advice tech was the “bane of their lives”.

We also asked whether tech issues stemmed from choosing the right providers and systems and getting them to work, or having the right people to get the most out of them.

Overwhelmingly respondents said it was more difficult to get the right people and resources in place when it comes to tech, rather than the tech itself posing problems (72% people vs 28% tech).

For many attendees, they got the most help on deciding the best tech for their business from their peers, with 56% saying they relied on peer review for due diligence support. Some 14% said they turn to their team for help, while 10% use a specialist tech consultancy.

Consistent with our findings elsewhere, only 4% relied on ratings to inform their tech selection.

We were also interested in understanding where advice professionals felt progress had been made, if any. We asked which areas of the market had made progress worth saving, with respondents able to choose more than one answer.

Cashflow modelling tools were deemed by more attendees to have made the most progress, with 35% of the vote. This was compared with platforms at 32% and, echoing our earlier results, practice management systems at 6% of the vote.

Finally, we asked where people thought progress and improvements in their tech stack would come from for themselves and their firm.

Over a third of respondents (38%) felt that progress would come from getting clear on what they want their tech to do. One in five said they would look to build their own tech, and we heard from several planners during the day who had chosen to do just that. A similar proportion said they would seek progress by trying to make the most of their existing tech.

For more insights from HomeGame 3, you can watch the videos back (including our session with three practice management bosses), or check out some highlights on our website:

The big platform debate: Where does innovation come from?

The evolution of platforms: For better or worse?

And if you want to get in early to secure your place at our next London event in February, you can do that here

A massive thanks again from us to everyone who made the event possible and to everyone who joined us and joined in. See you in February.