Abrdn has completed the “biggest and most complex upgrade” of its platform since Wrap launched in 2006 and has further developments in the pipeline.
The platform’s boss is confident the work carried out on its AdviserOS offering will be “game-changing” for the market.
With Abrdn having almost completed its separation from the nearly 200-year-old Standard Life brand – sold to Phoenix Group in 2021 – it is now able to turn its attention to what matters most, Noel Butwell told Money Marketing.
The chief executive of Abrdn Adviser said: “The separation activity as a result of the sale has been significant.
“You’ve got years and years and years of infrastructure, connectivity and technology intertwined that you’ve got to unravel and move.”
“We’ve been working on that internally for a few years now and that has been quite a distraction for us,” he admitted.
But, he said the upgrade has “laid the foundations” for the company to build for the future based on what clients want and need.
“We want to be able to help our clients do what they do best, which is to be in front of their clients and give advice,” he said.
Phoenix Group acquired Standard Life Assurance, the insurance entity behind Standard Life, in 2018 and subsequently bought the brand in 2021.
Shortly after Standard Life Aberdeen rebranded to Abrdn.
Butwell suggests advisers should judge the firm from now.
Has the Abrdn unveiling been ‘a burden’ for SLA?
“Hold me to account as CEO of this business if you’re an advisory firm that has been working with us for a number of years or potentially would like to work with us,” he said.
“Judge me from this point going forwards in terms of what I will deliver and work with you on to help you grow your business.”
Abrdn completed the bulk of the platform upgrade in February but has since acknowledged this may have been too close to tax-year end – a very busy time for advisers.
Butwell said other developments coming down the line will happen after that point.
He stressed the work undertaken does not constitute replatforming.
“Replatforming is a change of technology supplier, custody, administration, operating model – we didn’t do any of that,” he said.
MM Meets: Noel Butwell – Abrdn Adviser chief executive
The firm continues to use FNZ as its technology provider.
“It was a migration of client asset data into a fantastic future-proof proposition and has been operational all the way through.”
Butwell added: “At no point did we have any platform outage. Trades have all gone through.”
But he outlined there were “inevitable issues” with an upgrade of that scale and was quick to point out the company responded to it all.
He said: “We’re now several months on and we’ve got a proposition that is doing exactly what it needs to do.
“We’ve had positive feedback from the clients we work really closely with.”
Butwell said everything the platform business does going forward will be based upon how to help advice firms build and grow their business.
He said he wants to “spread the love” and broaden Abrdn’s footprint.
