Meet the True Potential Investor Team: Russell Mabin

Russell Mabin is the lead developer for tpinvestor.com, guiding the team in the re-development of the website and app. He has been with the company for over ten years, here he tells us about his role in the project, and his hopes for the future development of the site.

Tell us about your role in the re-development of tpinvestor.com?

Developments main priority with the latest version was stability and performance. We have utilised Microsoft Azure to help create our data-driven intelligent app.  My role was to build the foundations of the new application and then manage the development team to ensure the product was delivered in line with the specification in a timely and efficient manner.

What makes True Potential Investor innovative?

Offering Fully-Managed Investment Portfolios.

We also provide seamless face to face support with our support agents.  A client can initiate a support call with a click of a button, when a support agent connects the user immediately sees a friendly(ish) face.  If the client has a microphone and speakers then they can talk directly.  We also offer screen sharing.  If the client requires additional support an agent can view and take control of the client’s webpage.

What are you most proud of with the new project?

The speed at which it was developed along with the new technologies used.

What are the most important things to consider for first time investors?

Education.  A first-time investor needs to feel comfortable with their investment choice and who they are investing with.  The new site aims to educate the user on who True Potential Investor is, as well as the difference between a regular savings account/Cash ISA and investing in stocks and shares.

We have built several comparison tools to allow an investor to see the impact of inflation and how they could be currently losing money if they leave money in a Cash ISA or standard bank account.  We also look to educate the client on our portfolio offering and what makes our fully managed portfolios a worthwhile investment option.

What are you most excited about for the future of True Potential Investor?

To further build on the intelligence aspect of True Potential Investor.  Currently we are working on an interactive question and answers to help users when live support is not available.  During our planning phase we built a prototype tool that guided and assisted users in making an investment choice.  Using a Language Understanding Intelligent Service (LUIS) we can interpret questions from a user and reply in a contextual manner.  Via this process we were able to build a dynamic investment planning tool catered to a user’s needs and educational level.

Last year we released a Personal Finance Manager to allow a user to view bank transactions.  We have since built on that technology to allow a client to take advantage of transaction round-ups, which allows them to round up the pennies from bank account transactions to be saved daily into a chosen investment account daily.