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Why we chose APS: Stan Pilkadaris & Associates Pty Ltd, West Perth

This month’s client selection case study comes from Stan Pilkadaris & Associates Pty Ltd based in West Perth and looks at Advance Desktop Super.  We interviewed Stan Pilkadaris, Principal of the firm, who took us through the firm’s experiences with Advance Desktop Super and the APS team that delivers it.

Name of Firm:                                 Stan Pilkadaris & Associates Pty Ltd, West Perth Name:                                               Stan Pilkadaris Title:                                                 Principal Tel:                                                   +64 8 9485 1500 Email Address:                              stan@pilkadaris.com.au

General

When did your firm first become an APS client?
We first took on APS in 2002 and implemented Desktop Super in June of this year.

Prior to Desktop Super, which product were you using – and for how long?
We had been using BGL Simple Fund for approximately eight years.

What was the key reason for making the switch?
We needed to become more efficient in processing super funds. We found the BGL system was hindering our efficiency and we were noticing errors in some of our reports. What were seeing on screen in some cases was not was being printed. We tried to resolve these issues with BGL with no success.

At the time of looking at alternative options the main priorities for us were cost, ease of use and accuracy of the system. Ultimately, APS was the only supplier we looked at, and that was really down to our previous experience in working with the APS team since 2002. And now that we’ve made the switch to Desktop Super it’s been of significant benefit to our business – we’ve found the SQL database to be more stable compared to the BGL database.

Installation / Implementation

Implementing any new software system means that ‘change’ is forced upon team members – how did your team react to the new system and how quickly did they pick up the new system?
Our team actually drove the majority of changes and it was great to see Desktop Super up and running in two days with all the BGL funds converted to the new APS system. As far as data conversion was concerned, there were no problems at all. Due to our previous knowledge of APS software generally and the consistency of their applications, the transition from BGL Simple Fund to Desktop Super was very smooth.

Product

Functionality

What were the most important factors from a functionality perspective that were seen as critical to your business?
Most importantly, the APS system needed to integrate with our Praemium V-Wrap portfolio management program. Praemium is integral to our business (the central hub) and therefore we needed a system that allowed us to extract information from Praemium and import into Desktop Super with ease.

How does Desktop Super compare to your previous product in terms of functionality?
Desktop is more intuitive and user-friendly, and enables us to easily view data and print reports.

Future Development

What functional improvements would you like APS to make to Desktop Super in future releases that will assist you and your team?
We would like to see the Praemium Reports incorporated into the Desktop Super reports. From our perspective, as Praemium V-Wrap is a live system where all our clients’ shares can be viewed, we would need to be sure that this information would be accurately exported into the Desktop Super.

Testimonial

Do you have a few words you would be happy to provide under your name / firm name, that sum up how you feel about our Desktop Super software application?
Desktop Super has improved our efficiency in processing all super funds and enabled our firm to reduce the turnaround time in completing all compliance work for a super fund.