Start with a cheerful thought. The most annoying part of your day is also the most fixable part of your business.
You know the feeling. The client’s address lives in one system, their income in another, last week’s documents in a third. Somebody retypes it all. Deloitte even has a name for it. Swivel chair processing, where a person turns from one screen to another and retypes what the business already knows (1).
The good news is that this stopped being a hard problem some time ago. It is now a solved one.
This is where the easy wins are hiding
Wealth Management at the Crossroads named integration as one of the largest untapped productivity opportunities in advice (2). Untapped is the encouraging word there. It means the gain is sitting in your practice already, waiting.
Deloitte’s adviser research shows what happens when the systems start talking. Advisers report better collaboration with clients (67 per cent), better self service (60 per cent), faster plan preparation (52 per cent) and a lower cost to serve (41 per cent) (3). Every one of those is a good day at work.
FE fundinfo found that integrated platforms bring better data quality, faster client servicing and room to grow (4). Celent adds a reassuring point. Connected platforms let you add capability in pieces, so you improve without ever rebuilding (5).
Enter it once, use it everywhere
That is the whole idea and it is genuinely satisfying the first time you watch it work.
Change an address once. See it appear in the fact find, the portal, the review pack and the file note. Nobody touched it again. Nobody had to remember.
Deloitte found the gains stick when data is captured once, checked at the source and passed along automatically (6). There is a bonus in the same research. Get this foundation right and everything you add afterwards works better, including artificial intelligence (6). The order is in your favour. Do the simple thing first and the clever things come easily.
What it really buys you
Room.
Deloitte’s interviews with thirty five wealth technology leaders described connected tools as the way firms grow adviser time without growing headcount (6). That is the real prize. Not a tidier system. A practice that can look after more people without needing more people.
The nicest part is how it arrives. There is no launch day and no fanfare. One morning somebody notices they have not retyped a client’s name in a fortnight, the review pack was right first time and nobody had to open a meeting with an apology about an old number. That is what a well joined practice feels like from the inside.
Behind our recent work
This is why we rebuilt the AstuteWheel connection to Xplan rather than patching it. More configuration, deeper exchange of information and a lot less double handling. Microsoft 365 now sits inside the platform too, so your email and diary keep company with your client records. More connections are coming.
Come and see it on Wednesday 12 August at 12pm, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane time. Bring the person in your practice who does the retyping. They will enjoy it most.
References
1. Deloitte (2024) The Digital Wealth Manager of Today: A Perspective on the Current State of End-to-End Digital Transformation of Wealth Management Businesses and Platforms and the Path Ahead. Deloitte.
2. Australian Wealth Management (2022) Wealth Management at the Crossroads. Available at: https://www.firstlinks.com.au (Accessed: 18 July 2026).
3. Deloitte (2020) Wealth Management and Advice in the Time of Coronavirus. Deloitte LLP.
4. FE fundinfo (2026) The Value of Integrated Tools for Advisers in 2026 and Beyond. FE fundinfo.
5. Celent (2025) API Monetization Schemes in Wealth Management: Microservices and Integration as a Service. Celent.
6. Deloitte Global (2026) From Ambition to Execution: Wealth Management Technology. Deloitte Global.
