The first issue, he said, relates to policies.

“As one client said, ‘my room is a mess and at some point, my parents will walk in,’,” Mr Ryan said.

“Compliance and audits are increasing but you know your policies need work – maybe they are too old, there is too many of them (or not enough?)… but you really don’t have time and where do you even start?

“We have built a clever tool that instantly figures out what policies you need and what should be in them. Some of our clients are finding it is a load off their mind to use this tool in simplifying their set of policies. Peace of mind that you have the right policies and they are up to date.”

The second area comes back to teams spending too much time “spinning their wheels on low-value” work, according to Mr Ryan.

“We constantly hear ‘we just don’t have time to look at all these low value contracts.’ We know. You shouldn’t look at them, they should be moved to self-help, but you need to make sure they are being handled safely,” he said.

“Our most popular work continues to be an easy look-up table that we call the ‘Universe’ (because it sets out everything you need to know). We apply a ‘two-minute test’, the time it should take for a person to figure out how anything is bought (the contract type, the template, the advisors, and the approvers)… and most importantly it says what can be done by self-help.

VIEW ALL

“A lot of teams – big and small – are doing this right now. It makes sense to spell it all out in one spot rather than expect the punters to read policies and apply them.”