Transformational IT for Financial Advisors

THE BACKGROUND

Whether you’re moving house or office, a move is always a time to reappraise how you do things. Clients who are happy with their systems look for continuity, others see it as an opportunity to overhaul and review their systems. Everyone is looking for efficiencies and minimal disruption. The key to achieving all this is to start in good time and plan.

As Financial Planners, our clients were natural planners, so we began to talk to them 4 to 5 months ahead of their move date. They were still negotiating the lease on a new office but knew that they wanted their relocation to coincide with a change in working practices.  Specifically, they wanted to update their IT and telephony systems to enable remote working.

THE CHALLENGE

Our client understood that their requirements were complex. Their primary concern was to identify a partner with the necessary technical expertise, whom they could trust to help them through the whole process and support them afterwards.

They had a list of requirements and challenges that included ‘how to’.

• • • • Provide call recording to ensure Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) compliance;
      • Extricate themselves from a punitive contract with their incumbent phone provider;
      • Migrate their existing line of business applications away from Apple to a more stable
      • Windows environment;
      • Automate their manual data backups;
      • Replace their incumbent IT support organisation without upheaval and upset;
      • Implement a remote working solution so that key personnel could work from home;
      • Make sure that the office move was as smooth as possible, without any loss of service or impact on clients or the business.

THE SOLUTION

To meet our client’s challenges, we conducted a comprehensive systems audit and presented a plan for both a phone system and IT platform for their new offices. The plan covered all aspects of the move from the provision of broadband into their new building for the new phone system, to the setting up of their email client, file-sharing and remote working solutions.

The key headlines were:

• • • • Faster broadband;
      • A cloud-based phone system with integral call recording and archiving;
      • PC soft-phones installed for all users;
      • Wireless headsets for all PC users, some with additional mobile connectivity;
      • A phone tariff based on ‘call bundles’ to give predictable monthly bills;
      • File migration from an Apple ecosystem to a Windows SharePoint environment;
      • Automated IT cloud backups;
      • New laptops and Microsoft Surfaces to complete the transition to Microsoft Windows;
      • Adoption of Office 365 licensing with enhanced security to safeguard personal data;
      • User training on the new systems;
      • Telephone ‘help desk’ support so that expert help is always on hand;
      • IT support with remote log-in to speed up fault resolution.

THE BENEFITS

Six months after the move our client explained that as they have become more familiar with the new technology, they have realised they can do so much more than they had ever envisaged.

From an IT perspective the business is more efficient and access to information is easier. We’re ahead of where I thought we would be. We’re still learning what is possible, but everyone has adapted much better than expected. – Company Director

Key benefits that the Company has derived include:

• • • • FCA compliance, phone calls are recorded, archived and can be retrieved when required.
      • All line rentals, phone charges and licensing are invoiced on one bill. Charges are transparent, predictable and easy to budget.
      • Both the phone system and SharePoint data file structure mean that ‘distance’ is no longer an issue. Staff can collaborate and consult with each other irrespective of location. Remote working is the norm for Advisers who need to travel.
      • Incoming phone calls are transferred between staff wherever they are, unbeknown to the caller.
      • Access to company information, including staff diaries is available on mobiles and Surfaces. This has made it possible for Advisers to schedule follow-on client meetings whilst still with a client. In the past, this required greater co-ordination and took time to organise.
      • The company’s communications and IT systems are maintained, monitored, managed, backed up and automatically kept up to date.

It is important to highlight that no change is without its teething problems. Issues often arise as they did in this case, but by working closely ‘with the client’ those issues were resolved fully and in a timely manner.

Company Directors now have the peace of mind that their systems are compliant, secure and could be restored quickly and easily should the need ever arise. An office move always creates uncertainty, upheaval and change but as this Company Director explained,

As we gain familiarity with the new systems, they are providing benefits above and beyond that which we had initially anticipated.