Expert: Alex Twiss, Connor Broadley Facilitator: Anita Juneja, SEI
Headline Finding 1: What is your differentiator?
As a business, you need to ask yourself: ‘where is your differentiation’ and ‘what things are you doing in the day that are not adding value’? Advisors should be spending their time focusing on servicing their clients or winning new business. The best outcome of a transformation, profitability wise, but also for clients, is to ensure that people are spending time adding value, and everything else, where possible, should be automated.
Headline Finding 2: What makes the difference in a technology transformation?
Four pillars that have made a difference in technology transformation:
1) Ensure that the voices of the people in your business that understand the IP generation and the operations are key in the decision-making process.
2) Think of the future – do not choose a well-established brand that might have legacy technology
3) Choose a partner that will give you flexibility in your business model going forward.
4) Owning, managing and storing your data can keep your business flexible in the long-term.
Headline Finding 3: Dream or Reality?
There is a demand for a true end-to-end solution providing the full suite, but every advisor firm looks different, with different processes and solutions already heavily embedded within the business. A more deliverable dream is to take as many areas as possible with one provider, and find the provider that does the most within their sphere of excellence that most suits your business. You’ll never get it perfect, and they’ll always be a workaround. Technology transformation is not a one-time process. You will be constantly looking at your business, and enhancing and changing.
Headline Finding 4: Integration is the Key
How well any potential provider can integrate is crucial. Data is a key challenge, but it is also the key to a great client experience. This is challenge is only heightened if you are stuck with changing systems and systems need to be able to work together. Expanding and scaling your business through acquisition can only increase this problem, as it can complicate the business model, and increase the number of systems.
Key takeaways:
- This is an ongoing challenge for businesses.
- There is an absence of one system that can provide a true end-to-end suite for advisor businesses.
- The unique nature of firms and their processes make it challenging to have one system that meets all requirements, and, as a result, integration remains crucial.
