“From the accountant’s or administrator’s perspective, integration between all of the platforms they’re using is a key component to reducing the duplication of data, and that includes things like practice management systems and financial planning platforms as well,” explained Mr Smith.

“Platforms are being designed with more open architecture [so] the ability to integrate with all of these platforms is something I think we’ll be seeing more and more of. It’ll improve efficiency so I think that’ll be a focus over time.”

Mr Smith also believes there will be further opportunities around the use of big data next year, with the data held by SMSF administration platforms very well structured.

“As the data is so well-structured, it’s easier to run analytics type engines over the top and learn things from that data, which can provide interesting insights into the operation of SMSFs,” he said.

“We’re already seeing that Class is doing their benchmark reports, based on that data, and BGL is making some use of big data principles as well by providing views for administrators across the entire sweep of funds that they’re administering.”

The SMSF administration platforms he said will further explore how they can leverage big data principles across a wider number of issues.

“[They’ll look] to use big data to create greater efficiency and provide insights about what’s happening with SMSFs.”