Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 21 | Page 77

INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Software for Business

IRESS opens software design to users through IRESS Labs

Financial technology business IRESS has announced a new initiative , IRESS Labs , that means more users of its software will be able to input directly into the design and development process and use future functionality in advance of general release . IRESS Labs , which operates in South Africa , is now available to users through the latest version of XPLAN and will be used in additional IRESS products over time .

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Through IRESS Labs , more users are actively sharing their opinions , experience and insight on what matters to them and their clients . This feedback is being directly used to create functionality for all users . Financial advisers test and provide feedback on prototypes during a development phase , before co-designed features are released .
Labs also enables IRESS to regularly roll out new and updated functionality meaning users will be able to get the benefits of new functionality as soon as it ’ s available . Recent releases of XPLAN include co-designed features resulting from IRESS Labs . These are : a combination of technology and IRESS ’ products . We ’ ve always included our users ’ ideas and suggestions of what they would like to see in our software and what business problems they are looking to solve with technology . IRESS Labs means more users will be able to participate more easily , with the software being even better for it . IRESS Labs is starting with a focus on XPLAN , with 75 firms having already participated in development experiments to date and codesigned functionality already released .” design stage are taken into development , with the same users iteratively testing and providing feedback on prototypes to ensure the software works the way they need it to
3 . Delivery of co-designed functionality – the new co-designed interfaces and features are released into the latest production version of the software , with the option to toggle between the new functionality and the earlier version
• A refreshed and contemporary screen design
• A much simpler menu structure to make navigating XPLAN simpler and quicker
• A new opportunities management capability that enables better management of the advice and review business pipeline , accessing the rich client data in XPLAN
With a further series of experiments across XPLAN ’ s CRM , Advice and Portfolio modules scheduled for 2018 and 2019 , the number of users contributing their insights and experience will grow significantly .
Emily Chen , Product Executive , IRESS said : “ Labs expands IRESS ’ existing face-to-face user-centred design processes by using
The three stages of Labs
The IRESS Labs approach takes concepts from end users into development , through user experiments , culminating in the delivery of co-designed functionality . This is done in three stages .
1 . Design discoveries – a collaborative process where users are actively involved in designing the functionality and interfaces by providing insights on what ’ s most important to them and has the greatest impact on their business
2 . Development experiments – where the themes , functionality requirements and common user journeys defined in the
Development underway
Development experiments already underway include :
• Adviser and client dashboards – presenting summary information in a better way
• Advice documents and presentations – preview of advice documents and tools to help advisers present advice recommendations to their clients
• Goals building and tracking – to help advisers better monitor progress against clients ’ goals and tools to support review conversations
• Workflow – enhancements to the task management function •
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