Twenty7tec ADVICE: CRM and sourcing for mortgage advisers

Twenty7tec is best known in the UK for mortgage sourcing and lender technology. ADVICE is the CRM and case management side of its adviser ecosystem, positioned publicly as a platform for mortgage, protection and wealth advisers with case management, compliance, client interaction, management information and sourcing integration in one place.

The reason to look at it is rarely the CRM screen in isolation. It is the proposition that product research and the case file should stop being two different exercises.

The cost it is aimed at

Rekeying between research and the case record is the most expensive invisible task in a broker firm. It happens on every case, it looks like normal work, nobody logs it, and it introduces exactly the sort of transcription error that turns into a file-review point later.

A CRM that shares a supplier with the sourcing engine is well placed to attack that. Twenty7tec's sourcing product publicly highlights pre-populated application data and CRM connectivity, which is the same idea from the other direction.

The question for your firm is how much of that saving is real for your case mix. Ask the vendor to demonstrate on a case type you actually handle, then count the fields a human still has to enter.

Breadth across advice lines

The positioning covers mortgage, protection and wealth. That matters if your firm is genuinely multi-line, or intends to be. A CRM that only understands mortgages forces a wealth or protection process into a shape that does not fit, and the record suffers.

If you are a mortgage-only firm, breadth is not a benefit in itself. Do not pay for surface area you will never open, and do not let it complicate the daily screens your advisers use.

Management information and oversight

This is where a system like ADVICE distinguishes itself from a lightweight CRM, and it is worth spending demo time on. Ask specifically what regulatory and management reporting the platform produces, how it is populated, and how much manual maintenance those figures need to stay true.

A useful test: pick a number your principal currently assembles by hand every month and ask whether the system produces it, from what source, and how confident you would be signing your name to it.

What to have demonstrated

• A full journey: client record, fact-find, research, recommendation into the case, compliance evidence, application, follow-up.
• Precisely which data moves from research into the case and which does not.
• How workflows are configured and by whom.
• What an audit trail looks like when a case is reviewed months later.
• Notifications and client engagement — what the client receives and when.
• Commission and pipeline tracking against real revenue rather than expected revenue.
• How the system behaves on a busy day with fifty open cases, not five.

If you already have a CRM you like

Some firms arrive here wanting the research connection without replacing their case management. That is a legitimate position, and it is worth putting to the vendor plainly rather than letting the conversation default to a full platform switch.

Ask what connectivity exists between the research tools and the CRM you already run, what kind of connection it is, and what it costs. Then compare two honest options: one supplier for both, or two suppliers with a join you have to maintain. The first removes a hand-off and concentrates your dependency. The second preserves choice and leaves the integration risk with you. Neither is wrong, but drifting into one without deciding is.

Who it tends to suit

Established firms and larger adviser teams that need configuration, oversight and reporting beyond what a simple CRM offers. Directly authorised businesses that own their own compliance process and need the system to evidence it. Firms already using Twenty7tec research, where the adoption conversation with advisers starts from familiarity rather than resistance.

It suits less well a sole adviser wanting something running this week, or a firm whose entire problem is the client-facing experience rather than the research-to-case pipeline.

What to check before buying

Ask how much configuration is required before go-live and who does it. Ask what a firm of your size typically takes to implement, and ask that of a reference customer rather than only the salesperson. Ask how existing data is migrated, what happens to in-flight cases and how historic files remain accessible.

If you are an appointed representative, confirm your network's requirements first, including whether it will accept the platform's records and reports. Confirm current module contents, integrations and pricing with Twenty7tec directly rather than relying on any third-party description, including this one.

Finally, ask two of your own advisers to spend a day in a trial and report back honestly. Configurable platforms are a pleasure to buy and a discipline to run, and the people who will feel that daily are not the people who sign the contract.

Bottom line

Twenty7tec ADVICE is a serious option for firms that want research and case management to belong to the same workflow, and that need real management information rather than a pipeline list. Its strength should show up as fewer fields typed twice and a file that reflects the research without anyone assembling it. If a demo cannot demonstrate that on your own case types, keep asking until it does.