Selecting the Right Back Office System for Your Business, Part One

This week we’ve decided to take a very important topic and break it down into three bite-size pieces – because there’s just so much to say! We’re aware a lot of firms are still in the selection process. For the next couple of weeks, we’ll be talking about your back office system (hence the title!). How well is yours working for your financial advisory firm? Are you thinking about getting a new back office system? Is yours so out-dated that you know you need to update it but you just don’t know where to start? If you’re an Adviser Office user or Plum user you may have no choice. If you’re rubbing your chin thinking that sounds about right then this one is for you.

Software to Control all of your Firm’s Operations

Choosing the right back office system is a big project to undertake! You need to ensure that your software is suitable for controlling all of your operations; that it works efficiently for your firm (your clients too) and does everything that it should do.

Got No Time?

If you just don’t have the time to take on this type of project, the team at Adviser Outsourcing would like to help. There is a lot we can do to help you get the right system in place or provide you with a set of tools to select your preferred system. We’re going to outline how we like work to get that all-singing, all-dancing back office system.

Why Do You Want a New System?

First, let’s have a conversation– to understand why you need a new back office system or why you want to review your current system and what your firm needs to deliver to your clients. As some examples: we’re sure that one of the criteria will be that you want to deliver the most seamless client journey possible. It might be to do with having a system that guarantees secure messaging (client confidentiality is king!). Or it could be because you need to simply start afresh. There are lots of reasons and all of the above play a huge role in determining the type of software you need to choose.

What MI Do You Need?

It’s not just about what the software does for your clients, we also need to know what you want your software to do for your business, internally.? So, we’ll ask you what type of management information (MI) you need to run to support your business, the type of information that you want at your fingertips, immediately available – you’ll want your software to do this for you.

Gathering Ideas

Next, we like to conduct a review of the type of software available and its capabilities, what does and doesn’t fit in with your requirements, the size of your business and the diversity of financial products that you deliver.? Call it idea gathering!

The Planning Stage

Next, it’s the planning stage. We operate a high level process which involves mapping out your client journey and identifying what key functionalities are required to deliver that journey so it is seamless and perfectly executed (as mentioned above).? While the client’s journey is always important, you’ll also want return on your investment. It’s therefore important to consider whether the software will enhance the client journey or simply maintain it but make it more cost-effective to deliver.

Who Will Implement Your New Software?

The other important aspect that must be considered is to look at the technology in your business and the roles in your company as a whole. So what do you currently use in your firm?? Do you want to replace it or integrate a new system into it?? What will the monetary outlay be and the ongoing costs of replacement or integration?? You also need to take into account the people involved in using the software. Do you have the resource internally to implement a brand new system or will you need to employ a specialist external team to do it for you?? This is additional cost that needs to be factored in.

Brainstorming Your Software Requirements

Before you sign on the dotted line, we always suggest an internal workshop, rather like a brainstorming session that’s held with the personnel in the key areas of your business.? Everyone should have a chance to discuss their own specific software requirements for their department.

Speaking to Software Providers

All of the above research gives the ingredients needed to go to the market place and speak to software providers.? At this stage, we are all well-versed on what type of software your business needs, what you want to achieve and what you want the software to do for your firm.

At each software provider meeting, we like to measure how well the software business can deliver on the above – we like to use a spreadsheet and score each area.? This makes it much easier when making the final decision.

Test Phase

Before making that final decision, we shortlist the favourites – the software providers that score highly, usually two or three is sufficient.? Then, we like to implement a “Test Phase” when we ask the software provider favourites to conduct one or two workshops for your business to delve even deeper and see real examples of output and functionality.

References

Another best practice when choosing new software for your financial advisory firm is to look for genuine references from businesses similar to yours using the software on that shortlist.? Before asking for recommendations, we like to draw up a set of questions to ask so we know we have covered all of your bases.

Remember, getting the right back office system in place will take some time; you’re probably looking at anything from 4 to 8 weeks to implement.? This time is so important – to make sure your new software ticks all of your boxes because no firm wants to make a costly mistake.? That’s why we’re here – to help you get everything right, to select the best possible technology for your needs.? So, rather than going through the process yourself, let us take the strain away and do it for you; researching, planning and implementing a new software system that works hard to deliver everything you want.

And finally DON’T PANIC!!

Although for some firms there are time pressures being placed on them, whilst you may need to move you don’t have to use all of the functionality of your new system immediately. Prioritising the training, configuration and key to replicate what you currently have is the key and then plan further phase rollouts to use additional functionality and streamlining.

Tune into our next bite size article on Selecting the Right Back Office System when we’ll discuss data migrations