How Acre helped a protection-only firm move from paper trails to modern technology
We spoke to Gioi Tran, Intrinsic House's founder, to hear his thoughts on Acre.
After spending many years specialising in all aspects of insurance and financial services, Gioi went on to create his own protection advice company. He founded Intrinsic House in 2009 and is now proud to have more than 50 protection advisors in his firm.
Growth is one of Gioi’s primary goals, but to do that successfully, he faced a challenge.
Defeating paperwork
Intrinsic House’s advisors conducted their business on paper without the aid of any mortgage software to help with the workload. Their first system was “paper-based".
This meant that advisors manually prepare documents before sending them for a compliance review. The paper process repeated for every single case.
“Before, everything got downloaded, printed of for the client, signed, scanned and zipped up into a client file and emailed across to the compliance email box where we would check the documents and the paperwork to make sure everything was sold correctly and the advice suited each client specifically.”
Why did you choose Acre?
Intrinsic House were introduced to Acre through their network, PMS.
One key feature for Gioi was Acre’s blockchain, smart contract technology that help automates and assist advisors at each step of the advice journey. Every step an advisor takes is recorded on the ledger and cannot be changed.
“I like the process because it’s on blockchain, it’s immutable so you can’t delete anything off it later and this makes it extremely compliant.”
Gioi shared how Acre's technology allows him to help his brokers be more successful. Being able to see exactly what stage every brokers’ cases are at, that has changed and makes it easier for us to help them if required.
”I like the fact that we can view the advice process in real-time. We can watch an advisor submit an application and go through the online submission with them and whether they need help or assistance.”
How has Acre helped you?
1. Ease of use
Acre’s modern, simple-to-use software allowed Intrinsic House's advisors to replace their trail of paper-based processes.
“Acre is a very smooth system. It’s clean and it looks fresh. It’s very simple to use and it won’t allow you to process anything until you have the necessary information and documents in place.”
Training new advisors onto the system is easier as a result - important to a business growing as quickly as Intrinsic House.
“The process is very ‘step-by-step’, which makes it a simpler workflow for new people that are coming to our firm and have come from the old school system of paperwork everywhere."
2. Efficiency and time saving
Gioi explains how Acre streamlines his work and saves his advisors' effort, leaving more time for quality advice. It provides everything a protection advisor needs at the tip of their fingers with a smooth user-friendly design.
"I like Acre’s process because we’re not using any paper process now and we’re saving money. For example, the automatic suitability reports are fantastic. Sometimes you might forget to download a file and it’s making the advisors’ lives easier in addition to shortening the client file process. This obviously saves time."
3. Automated workflow
Many of Intrinsic House’s advisors were used to an older system involving lots of paperwork. By choosing Acre, Gioi’s firm took a big step in the direction of the “modern world of digitalisation”.
“Reminders are a massive help with the workflow of advisors because it keeps them on top of their game. Visualising is great, they pop up with a call to action - ‘give this client a call’ or ‘give that client a call’ and you can choose the time.”
Gioi sees great value in Acre's blockchain technology which records every piece of information in a way that prevents tampering and can prove where information came from.
"I like Acre because it’s on the blockchain, it’s
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What’s your favourite feature?
Gioi shared his favourite Acre feature is that everything happens in real-time.
“My favourite thing about the product is that it’s in real-time. We have so many advisors across the UK now. I can be watching an advisor from Scotland, or down in Cornwall, or the Midlands submitting their application.”
Gioi went further to share he likes how well the Acre team responds to feedback from advisers and implements their suggestions.
”I like the fact that you are constantly trying to improve this product. It’s constantly evolving as we get feedback from our advisers and clients to make it work and look better for everyone.”
Are you happy with your choice?
”Using Acre, the advice process is somewhat quicker for us, everything is in one place, from fact finds, ID checks, Income and expenditure, to sourcing and suitability reports. The system has streamlined the advisors' work process.”
Intrinsic House are Acre’s first protection-only customer. Intrinsic Houses’ advisors can participate in the development of the system by sharing their needs. There is an ongoing conversation about system improvements between the two parties.
“We like the system. We’re Acre’s first protection-only firm. We’re helping you develop which is helping us develop. There is quite an equilibrium between Acre and Intrinsic House.”
Gioi is also happy with how responsive and helpful Acre’s Customer Success team is.
“They [the Customer Success team] have been very supportive of our process and the journey of using Acre. Your customer service has been great.”
See how Acre can help your business scale without paper
If you want to transform your advice process like Gioi did, save time on your cases and scale faster, then book your demo today!
Our Business Development team would love to show you how Acre can support and transform your business.