Scheme administration portal

Everything you need to know about the changes we’re making

We’re switching on your new scheme administration portal

The pensions landscape is constantly changing and it’s vital that we continuously invest in and improve our technology to meet your needs now, and in the future.

We’ve partnered with global IT provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to evolve our technology ecosystem and build a new scheme administration portal to ensure that your pension scheme runs smoothly and efficiently.

Using the latest technology and feedback from employers like you, our new portal is simple and secure. It introduces features and functionality that will make it easier for you to manage your scheme and stay on top of regular administration tasks.

Get ready for your switch on date

We'll be in touch with you when it's time to switch your scheme to our new portal.

We expect this to be in the first half of 2025.

Here's what you need to know to get ready:

The new portal will need information in your payroll file to check that employees are getting the right contributions. You may already be providing this. For some Group Pension Zone users, your file may not have everything that’s needed. To help you get your files ready for the switch, take a look at our guide.
You’ll be able to access the new portal in the same way as before – the web address and login details remain the same.
When you log in for the first time, you may need to:
- Confirm the scheme payroll date and start of pay period. This ensures the personalised dashboard is set up correctly.
- Confirm the pensionable pay definition. This is required to validate contribution amounts. Visit our auto-enrolment contributions page for more information.
Some of our digital applications including [Dash, Standard Life mobile app], will be unavailable over the weekend of the portal switch on to help make sure it’s done safely, securely, and smoothly.

If you have any questions about the new portal, take a look at our FAQs.

What are the benefits of the new portal?

We’ve built our new portal based on employer insights, introducing features and functionality that will make it easier for you to manage your scheme.

Easy-to-use

Real-time validation, fully automated processing, and downloadable records ensure that members’ details are always accurate and up to date.
Secure

Multi-factor authentication, tailored access, and encryption keep your members' data safe and secure. Plus, you can view real-time audit trails for total visibility.
Flexible

Our portal gives you the flexibility to tailor access, control payments, and adapts to different scheme requirements such as single or multiple payrolls.

Discover more about our partnership and portal

Andy Curran's update on our partnership

Hear from Andy Curran, CEO Standard Life, about our partnership with TCS.

Andy Curran's update on our partnership

At Standard Life our purpose is to help people secure a life of possibilities and our ambition is to be your first-choice pension provider.

The pension landscape is constantly changing, and we want to be at the forefront, leading the way and delivering for our members, and you - our Clients.

We are committed to providing you, with the best possible solutions through continuing to invest in, and improve our business, ensuring we meet your needs now and into the future.

I would like to talk to you about the next phase of our journey, and what we will be delivering for you.

We have been working in partnership with the global IT provider Tata Consultancy Services, also known as TCS, to ensure our technology eco-system is flexible and future-proof.

To date, our partnership has successfully delivered the transition of our annuities customers to the TCS BaNCS system.

We have also developed our award-winning Client Analytics solution.

And launched our state-of-the-art Innovation Lab, a space that truly allows us to work collaboratively with Clients and Advisers to design and deliver cutting-edge solutions.

No matter the size or the industry that you are in, we are acutely aware that Employers are busy with the day-to-day running of their business, and our mission is to ensure that your pension scheme runs smoothly and efficiently, underpinned by exceptional service.

One of the ways that we can help you is to ensure that essential regular tasks such as assessing the workforce, joining members, paying contributions can be carried out quickly and easily.

We are excited to share that in partnership with TCS, we have built a new secure Employer administration portal, which is designed based on insight from our existing clients and utilises the latest technology to offer an excellent user experience.

Our absolute priority is ensuring that these changes are delivered safely and smoothly.

We have already transitioned the majority of our member digital services onto TCS technology, which means the member won’t experience any changes as we move across to the new portal.

We are really excited about this development which will enable us to innovate more effectively and be more responsive to Client needs bringing new propositions to the market faster.
What’s in the new portal?

Watch our video to discover more about our new portal features.

What’s in the new portal?

When it comes to managing your pension scheme, we understand you need a secure, flexible and efficient way to complete regular tasks.

Our digital scheme administration portal utilises the latest technology and brings together everything you need in one place.

Built on employer insight, the portal gives you: an easy to use site that helps you stay on top of regular scheme administration tasks.

Multi-factor authentication plus tailored restricted access and encryption to keep your data secure and the flexibility to adapt to the unique features of your scheme.

So let's take a closer look...

The personalised dashboard gives easy oversight, showing your pay period, payroll date and number of members.

Using the task timeline, you can quickly access regular actions like Assess, Join and Pay.

Our message banner draws attention to important topics such as the latest regulations or upcoming enhancements.

And to make sure you always know what to do, and when - the notification centre acts like a built in personal assistant, alerting you to upcoming tasks such as payments due or outstanding actions for your scheme.

And if you want to dive deeper into our latest news and expert insights, you'll find links to all kinds of useful information right here in the dashboard.

When you need to join new members, the administration portal makes it fast and flexible.

You can choose to add members in bulkby uploading a file or if you prefer, one by one.

It also automatically reads and imports member data.

In-journey validation means that if there are any errors, gaps, or duplicates, it simply prompts you to make changes there and then; saving you time so you can set up new members without having to leave the portal.

Once your data has been validated, you'll get a confirmation summary - and you can even download a submission record for your files.

The administration portal also takes the hassle out of making contribution payments.

You can choose to update your existing payment file online or upload a new one.

Just like joining new members, the portal automatically reads and imports the payment file - no matter how the data is laid out and will raise any queries so that they can be resolved in real-time.

Throughout the portal, there's information to guide you, plus, handy tooltips and a help centre.

If you need to contact us, send our expert team a secure message from within the portal.

You're in control of when the contributions will be paid, and the summary page shows you how much will be collected and when, along with the option to download a copy of your submission.

We know how important it is to keep a record of joiners, leavers and contributions, plus an audit trail of who carried out which task.

The administration portal enables you to view this information and download historical submissions whenever you need them.

Through insight gathered from employers like you.

We've invested in the development of our administration portal, which is flexible, secure and means that managing your pension scheme is easier than ever.

Scheme administration portal FAQs

As part of our work to evolve our technology ecosystem, we’re replacing the existing scheme portals, where routine tasks such as assess, join, and pay are carried out, with a new digital portal that’s powered by TCS.

Designed using employer insights, the new portal utilises the latest technology to offer an intuitive and streamlined user experience.

It brings everything that you need to run your scheme together into one place, including a new dashboard that makes essential, routine tasks easier and faster to manage than ever before.

Designed using employer insights, the new portal utilises the latest technology to offer an intuitive and streamlined user experience.

It brings everything that you need to run your scheme together into one place, including a new dashboard that makes essential, routine tasks easier and faster to manage than ever before.

In a nutshell, our new portal includes:

A personalised dashboard showing pay period, payroll date and number of members, plus a real-time summary of upcoming actions such as payments due.
The ability to assess your workforce and add eligible employees as members.
The flexibility to add new members in bulk or one by one.
Full control of payments, collection dates, and amounts.
Data validation, with the ability to resolve any issues within the portal.
Fully automated processing that ensures member records are always up to date.
An audit trail of who carried out which task and when. Historical submissions can be viewed and downloaded whenever you need them.
Step-by-step help guides, tooltips, and the ability to send secure messages to our customer operations team.

In a nutshell, our new portal includes:

A personalised dashboard showing pay period, payroll date and number of members, plus a real-time summary of upcoming actions such as payments due.
The ability to assess your workforce and add eligible employees as members.
The flexibility to add new members in bulk or one by one.
Full control of payments, collection dates, and amounts.
Data validation, with the ability to resolve any issues within the portal.
Fully automated processing that ensures member records are always up to date.
An audit trail of who carried out which task and when. Historical submissions can be viewed and downloaded whenever you need them.
Step-by-step help guides, tooltips, and the ability to send secure messages to our customer operations team.

Our technology provider is ISO27001 certified. Plus, we use multi-factor authentication, tailored access, and encryption to keep scheme data safe and secure.

You can access the new portal in the same way as before – the web address and login details remain the same.

When you log in for the first time, you may need to:

Confirm the scheme payroll date and start of pay period. This ensures the personalised dashboard is set up correctly.
Confirm the pensionable pay definition. This is required to validate contribution amounts. Visit our auto-enrolment contributions page for more information.

You can access the new portal in the same way as before – the web address and login details remain the same.

When you log in for the first time, you may need to:

Confirm the scheme payroll date and start of pay period. This ensures the personalised dashboard is set up correctly.
Confirm the pensionable pay definition. This is required to validate contribution amounts. Visit our auto-enrolment contributions page for more information.

Our new portal has built-in user guides, tooltips, and a help centre to guide you through each step of the journey. Plus, you can access our secure messaging to get in touch with our team.

For most employers the data is the same, but for some, the improved validation may raise some additional queries the first time you process payments. To reduce the impact of this, ensure you’re submitting the correct Pensionable Pay Definition in your current files. Our Pensionable Pay Definition (PPD) guide can help you through the process. This should only happen the first time you log in, and our team are on hand to provide support too.

The Portal will check if the contributions you’re making meet the Auto Enrolment minimums. Where they don’t, we’ll highlight them to you, and you’ll need to select a reason.

For Group Pension Zone (GPZ) clients only, please ensure your mandatory fields for your scheme type are correct. Our mandatory fields guide for GPZ clients can help with this.

Another important change is that our portal will no longer accept payments for new members that haven’t been joined to the scheme. New members can be joined during the pay process or via the ‘Join Members’ process before the payment schedule is submitted.

The Portal will check if the contributions you’re making meet the Auto Enrolment minimums. Where they don’t, we’ll highlight them to you, and you’ll need to select a reason.

For Group Pension Zone (GPZ) clients only, please ensure your mandatory fields for your scheme type are correct. Our mandatory fields guide for GPZ clients can help with this.

Yes, the regulatory timescales for contribution payments remain the same. Payment files must be submitted and payments made by the 22nd of the month following payroll deductions, e.g. contributions deducted from July payroll must be paid by 22nd August.

Yes, existing scheme terms and conditions apply.

: Our purpose at Standard Life is to help people secure a life of possibilities. Combining data and insights with state-of-the-art technology, we’re focussed on continuing to deliver even better experiences across all our key touchpoints, while maintaining value for money.

Key to this success is having the right technology and administration solution in place. To help us deliver on our ambitions and improve member outcomes, we’ve chosen to partner more closely with TCS.

Whilst our existing infrastructure is fit for purpose, it’s vital that we future proof. Using TCS technology and expertise, we’ll enhance our development efficiency across all of our propositions and services. We want to be at the forefront of the latest technology and the greatest innovation, so we can continue to provide solutions that meet the evolving needs and expectations of our members, clients, and advisers.
: TCS is one of the world's largest IT, Consulting, and Business Process Services companies. They employ 600,000 people worldwide in 55 countries – including c4,000 in Scotland. They operate across multiple sectors including insurance, wealth management, and banking.

Their specialisms include digital transformation, business process services, and analytics. Globally, TCS works with over 1000+ clients. And in the UK, they provide services for 200 leading UK organisations – including around half of the FTSE 100 Companies.
: We’ve already successfully moved over 80% of our digital journeys onto new TCS technology, and seamlessly transitioned over 400,000 annuity customers to the BaNCS system . We also worked with TCS to deliver our award-winning Client Analytics platform, market-leading Innovation Lab, and Adviser Dash platform – and we’ll continue to work with them on new and innovative solutions.
: Our programme of work involves updating the existing technology that currently supports employers and scheme members. This removes the limitations of maintaining multiple legacy systems, making it easier to integrate with new and innovative products and partners. Enhancing our technology ecosystem enables us to be more responsive to the evolving needs of employers and scheme members.
: Yes, all plan and scheme numbers will remain the same.
: At Standard Life we’re committed to protecting the personal information of members and the systems that data is held on. In order to meet this obligation, we have robust Information Security and Data Protection policies in place. These policies set the appropriate safeguards and are embedded and tested through our assurance and due diligence model. Furthermore, external audit and specialist third-party consultants conduct regular, independent assurance and benchmarking exercises across our business to ascertain the effectiveness of our security control environment and our security strategy.

Our security controls also apply to our third-party suppliers and are aligned to industry standards and good practice. This provides a controlled environment that effectively manages risks to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. We have a robust and thorough due diligence process prior to appointing any third-party providers, along with ongoing oversight and monitoring.

All member data is stored in the UK. We use some third parties that may process data outside the EEA and the material ones are listed on the sub processor website (https://www.standardlifeworkplace.co.uk/employer/third-party-providers.page). Where we appoint a sub processor that processes data outside the EEA, we ensure that processing is compliant with Data Protection Legislation and that all of the relevant standard contractual clauses are in place.

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Scheme administration portal

We’re switching on your new scheme administration portal

Get ready for your switch on date

What are the benefits of the new portal?

Easy-to-use

Secure

Flexible

Discover more about our partnership and portal

Andy Curran's update on our partnership

What’s in the new portal?

Scheme administration portal FAQs

TCS partnership FAQs