iscover
iscover 
The jumping off point for any tech investment is figuring out what it is you’re trying to accomplish with this investment.
It’s easy to get caught up in the ever-changing world of technology, which can be overwhelming.
It’s important to remain focused on the outcomes, said Accendo Financial’s Trent Carter in a recent episode of Broker Daily’s Finance Specialist podcast.
“You can very quickly get caught up in the bells and whistles and the flashy side of the different platforms and different technologies and different things that are available to everyone now. But unless you’ve got a clear plan about what you’re using it for, you could be just spending good money and not really getting a great outcome,” Carter said.
“So, I think before you even get involved with technology at any level, understand your problems and what technology will solve.”
There are a variety of avenues a broker or business owner can go down in order to effectively leverage tech.
Do you need it to drive efficiency? Automate tasks? Interact with clients? Or organise and file systems?
Establishing a use case is the foundation of implementing a system that works for an individual’s unique circumstances.
Next order of business is to recognise and try to mitigate the risk involved in using tech.
A great example of this was the recent example of Regional Australia Bank (RAB).
As recently reported by Broker Daily, the lender unknowingly breached CDR privacy safeguards after outsourcing software.
While the issue stemmed from an error in the Biza software RAB outsourced, the tech company was working on behalf of the lender, meaning it was responsible for any breach that occurred.
“While I found RAB took reasonable steps to comply with both privacy safeguards, Biza did not,” said privacy commissioner Carly Kind.
As a commenter on Broker Daily’s article said: “This case between RAB and Biza is a strong reminder that accountability doesn’t stop at your own company’s walls. When working with third-party providers, especially under frameworks like the Consumer Data Right (CDR), businesses are still on the hook. It's not just about trust – it’s about verifying and taking real steps to ensure compliance. The OAIC’s ruling makes it clear: privacy and data protection are serious responsibilities that can’t be outsourced.”
Carter agreed that liability is on the entity utilising the tech. “The buck stops with you in terms of risk,” he said.
“You’re the business owner; you’re the owner of the client information. The clients trusted you and signed off on your privacy consent form to share information with you. So, you need to make sure you’ve done your due diligence to say, where’s the data going to be stored? How’s it going to be used once you’ve shared that data with a third party?”
When accessing tech and keeping up to date with compliance, Carter said that this is where aggregators can be a great support.
Brokers should lean on the services offered by their aggregator to help stay on top of risk and mitigation of risk.
Aggregators are more than a “commission payment house” and “CRM provider,” Carter said.
“[Aggregators] very much have become software providers to the broker industry. They’re all investing very heavily in their systems and processes and things that brokers get access to enhance the broker’s day to day life,” said Carter.
“So, before you go and necessarily go and look for third parties outside of your aggregator’s world, go and have a chat with your aggregator and say, what systems and processes can I get access to that I haven’t got access to?”
Brokers should remember that broker feedback is important in influencing the decision of aggregators.
If a broker requires a certain product or system that will help boost efficiency, communicate that with the aggregator.
To listen to the full episode of Finance Specialist, click below:
