Avocado helped a leading wealth management company roll out a new practice management and CRM platform to its business users and more than 700 financial planning practices, integrated with its core business systems.
About our client
Our client is a leading wealth management company with more than $120 billion in assets under management. It engaged Avocado for a $42 million, two-year implementation and rollout of third-party software to its business users and more than 700 financial planning practices.
The challenge
The client wanted a single practice management and CRM tool that could be customised and integrated with its core business systems. The aim was to help financial planners reduce the cost of providing advice and run their businesses more efficiently. The rollout was recognised as high risk and complex.
- Business-critical, regulated work. Financial planners relied on the existing system for their day-to-day work in a highly regulated environment, so the cutover couldn't put advice or compliance at risk.
- Performance at peak load. Quality and performance had to hold up with the full user base on the system at once.
- Integration. The new tool had to be customised and integrated with the client's core business systems.
- Planner engagement. Financial planners are understandably reluctant to give up client time to take part in IT projects, yet their input was essential.
Our approach
- Understanding the business first. At the outset, Avocado invested time in understanding the client's business and the end-to-end working life of a financial planner.
- A representative planner group. To solve the engagement problem, we partnered with a hand-picked group of financial planners who represented the wider network, getting their input without taking hundreds of planners away from clients.
- Wealth management specialists. We brought in consultants with deep subject matter expertise in wealth management, insurance and superannuation, and trained our team in the software package being implemented.
- Compliance confirmed early. We involved the planner representatives early so that legislative compliance was confirmed well before the acceptance phase.
- Governance and quality gates. We set up a strong vendor management governance model and quality assurance gates that gave the client an objective view of whether the project was ready to proceed to rollout.
- End-to-end delivery. Avocado managed releases, business requirements, development, test management and execution, user acceptance, user training, IT and business implementation, operational handover and warranty support.
The Result
- The new practice management and CRM platform was rolled out to business users and more than 700 financial planning practices.
- Legislative compliance was confirmed well ahead of acceptance, reducing late-stage risk.
- Quality gates gave the client an objective basis for its go-live decision.
- Our understanding of the planner life cycle meant issues were identified early.
- Strong governance and transparent reporting let the client track progress and stay confident of on-time delivery.
Related