For this reason, Mr Yuille adds: “A real value of the dashboard network is to act as the bridge between these tools and provide a holistic picture of customers’ retirement income.”
This all looks good, given that pension dashboard services – the means by which individuals will be able to see all their pension pots at a glance – will need to be live in 2019.
Not ready
The answer to whether the industry is ready is also no, however. There are several reasons for this.
For Mr Kirby, the reason he does not think the industry is ready is that not all providers have their policyholder’s data in a “shape compatible with supplying the dashboard”.
The reason for this, says Mr Yuille, is: “Not all the pensions sector has embraced digital technology.
“For these firms, the challenge to incorporate their systems will be greater, but not insurmountable. The prototype dashboard includes services that act as intermediaries between those with older legacy systems and modern web interfaces, converting data in whatever form to a common dashboard language.”
This means many pension schemes, providers and even advisory firms will need to get their technological house in order.
John Kelly, consultant at Mattioli Woods, puts it this way: "The industry is ready for the concept of the dashboard, but I am not convinced the industry is ready to support the technology required to ensure that fully complete and meaningful information is available to clients at launch."
But Mr Kirby believes providers are getting there, and says “yes” some providers are ready now. He adds: “The government has adopted a pragmatic approach, implementing a 2019 launch date, which is appropriate for the complex pension landscape in the UK market.”
Is the dashboard ready for the industry?
The ‘theoretical readiness’ alluded to earlier by Mr Nuttall is just that: theory, because the job in hand of developing the dashboard is enormous and it is not just the systems and the technology of the industry that need to be perfected.
For Mr Nuttall, the biggest reason for a lack of readiness so far is largely because the industry has not got one ready to trial with real data.
He says: “A lot of work has gone into the processes behind the dashboard and running test data. But data protection regulation has so far prevented any dry-runs with real, live data.
“Also, the algorithms behind the dashboard will need to draw together a great deal of complex and far-reaching data, and it is absolutely essential that consumer trust in the accuracy of the system is maintained.
“So the industry is more than ready for the dashboard; it is vital the dashboard is 100 per cent ready for the industry before launch in 2019.”
