I am writing this free of emotion and only in an attempt to help those that don’t have knowledge of Financial Planning (particularly SOAs) or Artificial Intelligence (AI).
I have seen 4 pages of comments on HC since the 4C release about revenue but all of these are missing the point and ignoring the most important statement in the release –
“Core to the Company’s strategy is recognition that the industry’s future lays in the creation & delivery of next generation Artificial Intelligence (AI) automated, scalable Financial Planning software. Offshore processing meets an immediate market need through lower unit costs, but longer term AI must deliver the bulk of our services”
I totally agree with this statement and the FP industry is going this way. Refer to the AFR article
http://bit.ly/2lnmlvq (if you read this article and still think IAM will get a MOU with AMP – I cannot help you).
So, IAM is telling the market that the offshore services that are their expertise will only meet an immediate market need and the future of the industry is in AI. To me, this makes the revenue and other forecasts meaningless as they are based on something that is not IAM or the FP industry’s future. So let’s focus on IAM’s prospects in AI.
Firstly, please don’t simply accept a comment from IAM that BOOM & LiLLY are AI. I work with AI solutions in the FP industry and I am familiar with BOOM, LiLLY and KLiP. None of these are AI. And putting them together in BOOM2 is not AI. At best it is automation which does not equate to AI. To even claim this as AI shows a lack of misunderstanding of how AI or more accurately Machine Learning, is changing the FP industry and how much DATA it needs to be effective.
Please attend the FPA Conference in November and look at the future of FP. Digital SOAs generated by AI algorithms recommending strategies based on volumes of data is the future. I encourage you to research AI a little and not blindly believe that BOOM2 is AI and that it will turn around IAM’s fortunes. AI is HARD, and it takes very clever people and lots of DATA to achieve success in this field. It required knowledge of IT. So ask yourself what gives you confidence IAM has the skills to be a success in AI?
From the evidence in the 4C, the screen shots supplied for BOOM2 are a major concern. This is not AI, and the UI/UX (user interface/user experience) is so poor that the overall CX (customer experience) will not draw users to the portal. Working in this industry I can tell you those screens are well behind industry best practice.
To keep the moderators happy and hopefully give this post some time before it gets deleted – the above are ALL MY OPINION – But I work in FP and AI.
BTW – You will note that as I am not an Accountant I have not commented on my concerns about the future of a company burning $500k/qtr with only $1.6m in the bank, with options likely to be out of the money after Monday, that clearly needs a CR, that will struggle to find investors.
