Steve Donkin, Group CEOProcentia is owned by the biggest UK private pension scheme, BT Pension Scheme, which has a long-term and aligned interest in the future of the business and continues to provide growth capital. A global leader in pensions administration technology, the company is innovating its proposition and has modern and leading-edge pension technology solutions. Following is the conversation that Manage HR had with Steve Donkin, the Group CEO at Procentia about what makes the company a FinTech disruptor and now a leading technology solution provider.
Could you mention some of the current trends in the benefits administration space, and how has Procentia translated those trends into its services and offerings?
Self-Service: Unprecedented levels of self-service have been achieved from automated enrolment, online switching and real-time quotes to full self-service retirement processing.
Secure for the web: Procentia’s products provide the highest data security and all the functionality a modern pensions administration could require, in a single, cost-effective package.
Pensions Calculations: With GMP Equalisation and correction exercises common with changing legislation to reflect societies current values, the calculations engine at the heart of IntelliPen has a pre-configured library of common actuarial formulae and calculations used in pensions calculations across the globe.
Can you kindly elaborate on the Procentia’s core offerings?
Procentia is the one-stop-shop partner for all types of pensions schemes (DB, DC, CDC, Cash Balance) and a digital champion that has cutting edge technology and successful implementation that rivals competitors (in the UK, US, EU, GCC and Far East). All our products are designed for pensions administration and so come with a degree of pre-configuration of best of breed administration practice for the global pensions market. First is IntelliPen, which is a family of products that delivers a complete occupational group pensions system with a sophisticated database and data structures that deal with the complexities that occur in large schemes with multiple employers and payrolls. Second in line is IntelliPlan which is based on the same core system as IntelliPen and supports pensions administration in the US and Canada. US pensions products are fully supported and the language and terminology is appropriate for the North American region.
Further, Procentia’s IntelliCalcs powerful calculation engine can be set up through a simple interface that enables complex calculations to be created and documented by proficient end users rather than software technicians. Source control, tracing and code analysis are supported. We also offer IntelliPay that provides complete pensioner payroll functionality including generation of payment files, payslips, exceptions and full payroll reconciliation reports. IntelliPay has a range of statutory and elected deduction options. Lastly, our IntelliCount is a fully featured pensions and cashbook accounting system including full trial balance, nominal ledger, transaction analysis, journals and accruals. It has the capability to produce SORP and a range of other accounting reports.
Procentia is the one-stop-shop partner for all types of pensions schemes (DB, DC, CDC, Cash Balance) and a digital champion that has cutting edge technology and successful implementation that rivals competitors (in the UK, US, EU, GCC and Far East)
Procentia’s innovative, web-based software provides unparalleled functionality for users and is built around client requirements – whether that is administrators, employers, trustees or members, delivering clear benefits to its partners. This market-leading functionality and flexibility reduces the need for external resources and IT support, driving operational efficiency for clients, in contrast to many legacy systems. Uniquely, the website is integrated into the back-office system and open architecture enhances interoperability – all supported by the highest after sales and ongoing customer service. Procentia is at the heart of a business.
In addition, we offer one single core package implemented to cover millions of pensions, hundreds of schemes for dozens of clients from Alaska to Hong Kong.
The other feature that differentiate us is that the quality of our software is nothing without the first-class support and after sales service that Procentia is well known for in the industry. The value of our products combined with our first-class support has led to almost 100% retention of our user-base. We also exhibit the ability for trained end-users to make changes to workflows, outputs, reports, calculations and screen layouts themselves builds a collaborative relationship, rather than one where an existing client is constantly paying for small changes.
How has Procentia supported their clients and the industry during the Coronavirus Pandemic “WFH 2020”?
We have had the responsibility of keeping payments going out to pensioners, helping those suddenly made redundant get retirement quotes to feed into their life re-planning, and providing reassurance that probably the biggest savings plan most people have, their pension, is still there when they need it.
Procentia have 15 clients here in the UK that range from some of the smallest to the largest blue-chip occupational pensions schemes, as well third party administrators that manage hundreds of schemes and thousands of employers, and product providers that pay hundreds of thousands of annuitants a month. So many people in the UK have relied on our clients to be there when they needed them, being off-line at this time wasn’t an option, yet offices were closed, and everyone was working from home. Procentia’s technology has been designed from inception to operate over the web and our innovation in 2020 was to reconfigure the many features and aspects of the IntelliPen system described below into a package to support arguably our clients’ biggest strategic shift, working from home.
We were fortunate in some respects; whereas larger companies had extensive office buildings on stand-by, ours was a distributed BC model - all staff have laptops and access profiles that allowed them to work from home with no additional infrastructure from day 1.
