Just weeks out from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) making its final decision on the eligibility of Link to bid for Pillar Administration, a Super Review survey has confirmed superannuation funds attribute high importance to the durability of administration technology platforms.
The survey, conducted during the recent Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia conference, asked respondents to rank what they regarded as most important when selecting an administration provider, with technology platform far outweighing price as the key determinant.
Just as importantly, respondents indicated that they placed a high price on the quality of products and services delivered by administrators, as well as the quality of staff.
Thirty-five per cent of respondents ranked technology platform as being the most important consideration when selecting an administrator, with 25.5 per cent ranking product and service, and 20.2 per cent ranking the quality of staff.
The findings of the survey are important in circumstances where the ACCC's preliminary findings with respect to competition in the superannuation administration market identified the cost of pursuing appropriate technology platforms as being a key barrier to entry.
It stated that the ACCC understands that a superannuation administration services (SAS) provider needs to either have its own proprietary IT record keeping platform (such as Link does), or have access to one through a third party licensing arrangement (like Pillar does) to be able to provide SAS.
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