Oh FNZ, Aviva! System back up, still trudging through queries backlog

2-day email turnarounds as users wail over payment lags

Aviva's shiny new online pension system has had a very senior moment that caused difficulties with processing payments, running quotations, accessing valuations or accepting new applications.

Customers contacted El Reg to talk about the web-based wobbles, and had more success reaching our editorial department than they've had trying to get hold of Aviva since the January 23 migration of the Advisor Platform from specialist software provider Bravura Solutions to FNZ.

A spokeswoman at the UK-headquartered insurance giant confirmed "technical issues" with FNZ even though it uses the same technology "underlying" the Customer Platform, but she did not detail the root cause.

As part of the system switch, "we invited our advised customers to use a new online service to complement their advisors' access. There was a technical issue with this access for some customers which resulted in a backlog for customers' requests".

She said Aviva had decided to "focus all of our available people, in one of our call centres, on processing the backlog to clear it as soon as possible. Customers could still contact us by email."

Normal service was "restored" at the start of this week, Monday 5 February, we were assured.

However, such is the backlog that Aviva "shut down all the phone support" and forced customers to email in requests, for example, pension transactions, a customer told us.

The response from Aviva was that it would take 48 hours to reply from receipt of the mail, though the deadlines appear to be loose, our source said. And they still have not replied, he added.

"I currently have an urgent pension withdrawal pending to pay for dev work for my online design agency," our source said, "so this is holding up [the] entire business."

Following the migration in late January, the online system was down and out for five days, according to a report by Money Marketing.

Facts and Figures Financial Planning MD Simon Webster told the mag: “These problems have gone beyond the minor teething problems that are part and parcel of a big IT project. Large areas of the system are simply not functional.

“I wasn’t expecting this process to run smoothly, but this has been far worse than I anticipated.” ®