Enterprise Iron Financial Industry Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of advisory services to the Retirement industry, and Coherent, a global software as a service (SaaS) company recently named among the 2021 InsurTech100, today announced a new strategic partnership to accelerate speed to market and operational efficiency for retirement plan service providers, recordkeepers, and third-party administrators in the United States. Enterprise Iron will debut the Coherent Spark technology at the (coincidentally named) SPARK Forum, an annual conference where top-level leaders convene to shape the future of the retirement industry.
Data-driven retirement businesses rely heavily on complex logic, rules, and models—which shape everything from plan pricing to participant experience, and ultimately, retirement readiness outcomes. Yet as advanced as these outputs are, they’re often derived from Excel spreadsheets and legacy systems that lack a single source of truth. Efforts to extract the data and convert it into code for various applications can be manual, time-consuming, and error-prone;
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With Coherent Spark, Enterprise Iron is helping clients overcome the twin challenges of technical debt and complicated integrations with an innovative solution that lets them keep the flexibility of Excel-based logic and lose the limitations. Coherent Spark converts logic from Excel to application programming interfaces (APIs) automatically at cloud speed—meaning what used to take weeks or months of business requirements documentation and IT coding now happens in seconds.
According to Bruce Corcoran, Head of Life and Retirement for Coherent, “Our partners at Enterprise Iron are well-known in the industry for helping their clients navigate change and capitalize on strategic opportunities. We’re proud to partner with them through the innovation created by Coherent Spark as a new way to accomplish those goals.”
Tim Scott, SVP of Business Development at Enterprise Iron, explains, “When we first saw Coherent Spark, we knew it would be a game-changer for our clients. Spark provides integration and automation opportunities that will help businesses in the retirement industry achieve better, faster results in areas such as: retirement product development, 401(k) and 403(b) plan pricing, managed account integrations, and more.”
Randi Simmons, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Coherent, summarizes what the partnership means, big-picture:
Coherent is a global software as a service (SaaS) company offering fast, easy-to-use technology designed to meet the needs of today’s businesses—including retirement plan service providers, recordkeepers, and third-party administrators. Coherent’s core technology, Coherent Spark, converts complex business logic from Excel to API services automatically. This allows business teams to put even the most complex models into production directly, driving business outcomes while reducing model risk and eliminating the need for manual coding by IT. Coherent was named among the 2021 InsurTech 100.
Enterprise Iron Financial Industry Solutions, Inc. specializes in advisory services for public and private clients in Financial Services, Retirement Services and the Government sector. Enterprise Iron’s team of industry practitioners average 18+ years of experience in financial services production and technology operations, product management, technology development, implementation and support roles. The firm is flexible and adaptable to clients’ needs and offers several delivery models. Enterprise Iron’s Delivery Partners allow the firm to expand its reach while leveraging additional skills and the latest technologies.
