CIO50 2O23 #4 Richard Exton, Aware Super

Name: Richard Exton
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Company: Aware Super
Commenced role: 2017
Reporting line: COO
Member of the executive team: Yes
Technology Function: 140 staff, 9 direct reports

Superannuation is highly complex industry rooted in paper-based administration, making it historically slower paced than the rest of the financial services sector, and a digital laggard in the Australian economy.

However, the industry is now experiencing a seismic change with increased consolidation of funds seeking to achieve significant scale at speed and lower costs to members, says Richard Exton, chief technology officer of Aware Super. Aware is an industry fund that provides superannuation, advice and retirement services for all Australians, with a long history of supporting essential workers in our nation’s public services such as education, healthcare, police and the public service.

“As a result of these mergers many funds, like Aware, now have complex, often multiple, legacy technology solutions that are both high cost and high risk,” Exton tells CIO Australia.

“For an industry that has long relied on paper-based forms and third-party administration, transaction processes have often taken weeks to complete.

“At the same time though, member expectations are high due to the ubiquity of digital capability in other industries which are fast, simple and easy – and that has made the gap between everyday life and interacting with your super extremely confronting for millions of Australians.”

Recognising this, Aware Super launched a major, end-to-end transformation program. The program, called Catalyst, aimed to enable the fund to become digital first, and simplify its technology ecosystem, while putting its members first and making superannuation easy and accessible for them.

The program would involve making simple, easy, and fast service available to members anytime, anywhere, and cutting its technology infrastructure by a third to reduce cost and risk, while building for scale and future proofing the fund. Vitally, the technology change was completely integrated with other forms of member servicing, from telephone-based call centre operations to physical office locations across the country.

Complex patchwork of technology, operating models

“Industry funds like Aware Super are run on a ‘profit to member’ basis, so our strategy and motivation has always been to deliver the best possible outcomes for members. After a series of large-scale mergers and integrations we had a complex patchwork of technology and operating models,” says Exton.

Aware Super embarked on the Catalyst program in 2021 to transform all aspects of the organisation – advice, operations, digital, finance, service centre, data and reporting, and technology. 

“This transformation is an ambitious program that is already delivering key elements of Aware Super’s business strategy,” says Exton.

“The program establishes Aware Super as the first ‘digital’ superannuation fund of real scale, delivering automated, end-to-end straight through processing (STP) solutions and modern digital features to give control to over one million members, while also delivering significant savings and markedly reducing operational risk.” 

Aware Super’s offering employs a range of technologies to create a modern core superannuation solution that is a digital-first, automated administration system providing access to real-time data.

Using STP enables online transactions to be processed in minutes, compared to historical transaction times using paper forms that could take literally weeks, while artificial intelligence is used to identify unstructured member information in documents and verify that relevant information is correctly captured in its systems.

API technology creates an open, extensible system that can evolve and grow as Aware Super completes future mergers and as new business models and opportunities emerge.

Digital-first approach

The technology scope of Catalyst has been extensive, innovative and core to the success of the program, says Exton. 

“Over the past two years, the program has delivered a technologically advanced ecosystem operating exclusively in the cloud with a digital-first approach, and a complete re-platform of the entire business through modernising the front, middle, and back-office systems.”

The company’s core superannuation registry system has been upgraded to enhance its performance and functionality, while advanced data analytics and intelligence are used to provide personalised experiences for members.

Operations have been streamlined through automation and real-time processing and the move to paperless processes for online forms and correspondence, while API-enablement has achieved seamless integration across system.

Plus, the organisation has been able to retire all legacy on-premise systems and data centres.

The business outcomes delivered by the technology change have been significant, says Exton.

This includes a significant reduction in the cost to serve members, an 87 per cent reduction in member calls to reset passwords, a 34 per cent reduction in member identity enquiries and a 28 per cent reduction for assistance with forms, freeing up capacity to provide more personalised help to members through a call centre that can now take a case-management approach to servicing inbound calls.

Meanwhile, 19 new systems and 22 uplifted systems were delivered, with 38 systems decommissioned, reducing ongoing costs, complexity and operational risk.

The data consolidation, together with modern reporting tools will generate greater member insights and trends to allow the fund to create more personalised communications and interactions with its members, says Exton.

Core administration operations in-sourced

“This innovation has enabled the fund to fully in-source its core administration operations giving us control over members’ data, operations and the members’ end-to-end experience,” says Exton.

“The new ecosystem has been designed to support the fund’s member-centric ‘value stream’ operating model. This model is contemporary and distinctive in the industry, prioritising the member experience over traditional functional models while providing appropriate tools and controls required for each member cohort.”

The technology team is now managing the solution in conjunction with its technology partners in a business-as-usual fashion. In fact, while the overall program is delivering massive cost savings for the fund, and by extension to members directly, it’s also seen a significant uplift in recruitment of specialist technology staff – a precursor to a trend Exton says is only likely to continue in the industry as more large funds follow Aware Super’s digital leadership.

Introducing the new ecosystem has resulted in an uplift and evolution in the mix of skills and experiences in the technology team, while providing ongoing learning and development opportunities, and reducing risk associated with maintaining multiple legacy systems.

Louis van Wyk