The Pensions Administration Standards Association (Pasa) has launched a whitepaper, Focusing on a Saver-Centric experience, encouraging pension schemes to leverage technology to ensure that recent admin enhancements aren’t “tactical and short term”.

The whitepaper found that an “overwhelming majority” of those interviewed viewed eAdmin as a ‘must have’ in today’s environment and have set aside the required budgets.

It also found that developments are being prioritised by assessing the saver experience, operational efficiency, environmental impact and regulatory requirements, and are no longer purely based on a return on investment/cost view.

However, the research revealed that regulatory requirements, such as those around pensions dashboards and GMP equalisation, are also key to driving change.

A focus on data was also found more broadly, as the top reported priorities administrators are all data dependent, with specific examples including pensions dashboards, and automation of calculations and processes due to admin resource constraints.

In light of this, Pasa argued that schemes need to ensure they have a clear data management plan to ensure enhancements aren’t “tactical and short term”, stating that enhancements need to be made across both the back-end and front-end.

Indeed, the whitepaper argued that while administrators are capacity constrained because of a number of regulatory changes as well as resource shortages in the market, competitive advantage can be achieved by those willing to innovate and adopt technologies proven in other sectors.

“Investing in eAdmin isn’t as daunting as stakeholders may anticipate and the costs associated with making these changes are an essential investment,” it stated.

“An initial focus on tactical, short-term fixes has meant the overall benefits haven’t been unlocked. It’s important to have stakeholder buy-in at all levels of an organisation, as well as a clear vision and measurable objectives to quantify improvements”

Adding to this, Pasa eadministration working group chair, Kim Toker, stated: “We need to focus on how we leverage technology to deliver improved saver experience.

“DC Schemes are leading the way in driving engagement by ensuring saver portals have engaging content and financial wellbeing modelling tools to help savers make better decisions about retirement.

“There’s no one size fits all, but there are steps to be taken in improving data quality, processes and ultimately driving the sector forward.”

The Pensions Regulator also welcomed the guidance, with director of regulatory policy, analysis and advice, Lou Davey, stating: “All savers deserve well-run pension schemes which deliver secure savings and a positive user experience.

“We welcome this guidance, which gives practical suggestions on how administrators can leverage advancements in technology to provide savers with better services.”

Also commenting on the report, Pasa chair, Kim Gubler, added: “Financial services companies have invested heavily in data, infrastructure and user experience to facilitate end-to-end processing and a seamless end-user experience.

“The pensions sector can now adopt best practice and leverage this work to support savers on their retirement journeys.

“In other parts of financial services, companies are leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to deliver hyper-personalised digital experiences.

“To deliver a personalised saver experience in pensions, the data fundamentals must be in place. i.e. complete and accurate data, including behavioural data, to develop the right personas and user journey.”

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