The Pensions Administration Standards Association (Pasa) has published guidance to support pension administrators, trustees, managers and sponsors in benchmarking their eAdministration arrangements and planning for investment in new technology opportunities.

The guidance, The Journey to Full eAdministration Guidance: People and Technology Working Together, was developed by Pasa’s eAdmin Working Group and outlines four key stages for pension schemes to go through when considering eAdmin objectives.

This included data quality and storage, with Pasa highlighting good quality, accurate and complete data, which is easily accessible and appropriately stored, as "the foundation upon which the technology infrastructure will be built".

Upgrading and replacing legacy systems was also described as “essential”, as the guidance emphasised the need for processes to be automated and connected to member portals in order to reduce risk and minimise fraud, errors and inefficiencies.

Other key stages included user interface, such as self service considerations, and reporting, with the guidance stressing that once the foundations of data quality are in place, automating calculations and reporting is straightforward and delivers "significant benefits".

Commenting on the launch of the guidance, Pasa chair, Kim Gubler, emphasised that pension schemes needed to start investing and planning "now" in order to meet the mandatory requirement to submit electronic data to the pensions dashboards by 2023.

“Our new guidance aims to effectively partner with every scheme as it moves through its own journey, helping to prioritise and assess where investment is required to improve service delivery and member end-user experience," she stated.

The guidance has also been welcomed by The Pensions Regulator, as executive director of regulatory policy, analysis and advice, David Fairs, stated: "All savers deserve a high-quality modern service, but some parts of the pensions industry are lagging behind in their systems, processes and data.

“Ensuring pensions are fit for the 21st century may seem daunting, but Pasa’s guidance breaks the journey into manageable steps to help those who aren’t sure how to start.”

Pasa eAdministration Working Group chair, Kim Toker, added: “We hope this guidance will be really helpful for administrators and trustees as they look at how they best meet the needs and expectations of their members. Significant performance improvements can be achieved when people and technology work together.

“The beneficiaries of this improved service within the pensions industry will be scheme administrators, trustees and, most importantly, members.”

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