Aon Hewitt
Aon perform strongly in the areas of General Information, MI & General Reports and Platform Service Availability. Enhancing their Scheme Setup, Group Contributions, Joiners & Leavers and HR Functionality should be earmarked for inclusion in future development plans as these are areas where they are losing ground to their peers. Aon are another company who would benefit from the inclusion of a Behavioural Finance module.
JLT-BenPal
JLT (BenPal) claimed the final eee rating in this year’s study with a proposition which performed strongly in the areas of Group Contributions, Joiners & Leavers, Tools, Valuations & Client Reports, Access and Charges information. If we were to identify areas where improvements could be made, we would suggest they bolster the section of their proposition which deals with Range of Benefits and also incorporate Behavioural Finance functionality.
Citrus4Benefits
Citrus4Benefits lead the field for Benefits Selection and Charges information, where they outperformed some of their larger competitors. They also achieved a solid second place overall for Benefits Promotion. They would benefit from developing their offering in the areas which cover Online Facilities, Valuation & Client Reports and MI & General Reports.
System Suppliers
This was the most keenly contested section of our study with all four entrants scoring within 7 per cent of each other. Each solution has their strengths and weaknesses, which means it will probably be important for any organisation seeking a supplier to have a keen understanding of what their own requirements are in order to identify the firm which best fits the proposition they wish to deliver to client employers and scheme members.
It is perhaps not surprising to see the system supplier score slightly below the leading benefits consultants as, in many instances, it is in fact their technology powering the EBC systems which in turn the EBCs will have supplemented with their own additional content and bespoke additional features.
SBC Systems
By the finest of margins, less than 0.1 per cent, SBC Systems comes top in this category. They impressed by achieving top marks for Range of Benefits, Online Facilities, Tools and Valuations & Client Reports, together with a second place overall in the Provider Integrations section of
our survey. They should also be commended for being one of only five companies to include Behavioural Finance functionality in their proposition. Additional enhancements to the areas of their proposition covering Benefits Promotion, Scheme Setup, Implementation & Training,
Communication and Platform Service Availability would be beneficial, all of which were areas where they finished in the lower third of participants.
Staffcare
Despite coming second overall in this section by the closest of margins, it is clear how much several Staffcare customers owe to the company for their own strong performance, with the identical scores in first place for several key areas including General Information, Scheme Setup and MI & General Reports. These were assisted by second and third place finishes overall for HR Functionality, Platform Service Availability, Range of Benefits and Provider Integration. Strengthening their Joiners & Leavers and Charges information would serve them well, both of which featured high on the list of adviser/EBC requirements and the inclusion of a Behavioural Finance module would be welcomed.