Procentia chief executive Steve Donkin says its ISP services will increase performance efficiencies and removing barriers to automation
Procentia has launched two integrated service provider (ISP) solutions in a bid to help schemes connect seamlessly to the pensions dashboard.
The administration software provider - which is majority owned by BT Pensions Scheme Management - said its Smart ISP+ offering would help existing IntelliPen clients connect to the dashboard.
It added a second solution, Smart ISP, would be available to large pension schemes, master trusts, insurance companies or third-party administrators that do not currently use IntelliPen software as a core administration platform yet wish to connect to the dashboard using Procentia's service.
Procentia said Smart ISP+ and Smart ISP will be as simple, secure and scalable as services offered by competing providers but said they would be differentiated by the ability to run calculations on the fly via an application programming interface (API) - noting that running such up-to-the-minute calculations enabled more accurate representations of the projected retirement income of a scheme member to be shared.
Procentia chief executive Steve Donkin said: "The framework for Procentia's Smart ISP+ solution truly links seamlessly through a dynamic API directly into our world-class IntelliPen pensions software, thereby increasing performance efficiencies, removing barriers to automation and eliminating the need to continually run batch processes."
Donkin said Procentia is gearing up to participate in the delayed beta testing phase of the pensions dashboard.
Originally timetabled to begin in May, the beta phase is now set to start in September 2022. Once the approved API specifications are published, Procentia said its team will complete development and testing of its Smart ISP solutions.
Donkin explained: "Several of Procentia's clients are set to become early adopters by joining us in the beta phase. Thanks to our diverse client representation in these areas, including master trusts and large defined benefit pension schemes, our ISP solution will be tried and tested, and our partnerships will mean all our clients can onboard with confidence in the future."
Procentia said that - as becoming an ISP was a major commitment for the firm, requiring new software and infrastructure to be developed and maintained - an additional cost is expected for using its ISP solutions.
It explained fees are likely to be based on a per-member basis, although said this cannot be confirmed until final technical details are published by the Pensions Dashboards Programme.
Procentia added that some initial set-up fees may also be required for Procentia's clients to adequately connect to its ISP - noting that, for example, calculations may need to be adjusted to ensure all necessary output data from a client's pension system correctly matches the required estimated retirement income format that the Money and Pensions Service confirms the pensions dashboard will use.
