The following article comes from PlainSail, a trusts and corporate services administration platform, based in Jersey.

The following article comes from PlainSail, a business that brings solutions for the trusts and corporate services provider sector. PlainSail is based in Jersey, the IFC and its comments have wide application. 

With all such content, the views expressed don't necessarily reflect views of the editors. We are grateful for the opportunity to share these views. If you wish to respond or add such material of your own, email tom.burroughes@wealthbriefing.com (Contact details for PlainSail can be located below.)

Introduction
How long would it take you to mentally switch off if a product or application was difficult to use? 

PlainSail was meticulously designed with a focus on user experience, featuring intuitive and familiar interfaces similar to the applications people use in their daily lives. This approach, combined with integration with specialist software applications, aims to enhance efficiencies for both users and their businesses.

Bringing a fresh approach to the TCSP sector, we believe positive experiences shouldn’t be limited to outside the office. From a design perspective, we take inspiration from companies like Apple who create exceptional user experiences. PlainSail also draws inspiration from companies that grow while maintaining an agile team, such as 37signals, the makers of Basecamp and other highly successful products, who serve millions of users without having a large team.
Sam Bryan (CEO) and Rob Kent (CTO) officially launched PlainSail in 2018, after four years of dedicated development. 

Our philosophy
“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology – not the other way round”, Steve Jobs’ personal philosophy which has proven to be quite successful and aligns with our own. 

Accessible management information, controls, and reporting should not come at the expense of user experience - an idea that is now widely appreciated and implemented across the tech world. 

PlainSail commits to developing features that are simple and efficient to use but that optimises client processes and procedures. Along with full entity management, PlainSail have a built-in document management system, timesheet and billing capabilities, multi-currency bookkeeping and accounting, bank reconciliation, workflows and reports including a large suite of finance and compliance reporting and a FATCA/CRS reporting function too. 

All users benefit from new updates and features as part of their frequent upgrade cycle and these are included in the competitive annual licence fee. The platform is designed to be highly scalable, ensuring all clients operate on the same version, providing a seamless experience for everyone.

PlainSail collaborates with experienced consultants without financial partnerships to maintain a neutral stance. This neutrality extends to integrations, where we work with a number of competing specialist providers, allowing customers to choose the best-suited options for their needs. Integrations are carefully selected based on reputation, offerings, and automation potential to enhance efficiencies and reduce errors.

Key integrations
-- Daily screening: supports our customers in mitigating risks in real time,  ensuring regulatory compliance through continuous monitoring, enhancing operational efficiency, data accuracy and integrity.
-- Electronic Identity and Verification: Integrations offer risk mitigation measures for TCSPs, from document verification to data entry. This provides Compliance and Directors risk assurances at onboarding and on an ongoing basis, while also saving time for administrators in data inputting.
-- Bank Reconciliation and Payments: Although most Channel Island banks don’t currently have an open API, our integration with EWG allows live bank reconciliations and payments. The entire payment process can be maintained within PlainSail, from administrators starting a payment workflow to processing the payment. We’re looking forward to supporting the evolution of this sector. 
-- Investment Portfolio Automation: Our recent integration with Landytech allows PlainSail’s customers to automate the bookkeeping of their clients' investment portfolios from over 400 custodians and 3500 open banking feeds. 

All current integrations are seamlessly integrated into PlainSail's core for easy client deployment.

Agility and innovation 
Contrary to the common misconception that successful software solutions require a large company, technological efficiencies within a business can drive scalability. WhatsApp, with only 55 employees, had 450 million active users before its acquisition by Facebook. Similarly, PlainSail believes in delivering quality service without the need for a large organization, focusing on the right people and technologies.

PlainSail has an agile team with all employees sharing it’s philosophy and we are continually seeking talented individuals whose own values align with this. 

Our future
We’re not slowing down with our enhancements, features or integrations. Whilst we learn from the mistakes made by our competitors, they are not our focus, and we will continue to focus on the evolution of PlainSail for the years to come. 

PlainSail has customers in the Channel Islands, Monaco, the Middle East, Switzerland and the US. They range in size and include regulated trust and corporate service providers through to family offices. 

If you are considering changing your entity management platform, we’d love to hear from you. enquiries@plainsail.je