Wealth Management Solution

The client wanted to implement a ‘one stop’ practice management/CRM tool that could be customised and integrated with its existing in-house business enterprise systems. It hoped that, once installed, it would allow financial planners to reduce their costs in providing advice and to improve the efficiency of their business processes.

The IT rollout was acknowledged as being high risk and complex. Financial planners relied on the existing system for their day-to-day operations in a highly regulated environment. That meant the main challenge for Avocado was to integrate and rollout the new tool to the user base while guaranteeing quality and performance under saturation usage. User engagement was an issue too, given financial planners’ traditional reluctance to forego valuable sales time to take part in such projects.

At the outset Avocado invested time and resources in understanding the client’s business. To help tackle the engagement problem we adopted a strong partnership approach with hand picked financial planners who were representative of the larger group. We also partnered with specialist Consultants who had strong subject matter expertise in wealth management, insurance and superannuation.

Avocado engaged the financial planner representatives early in the project to ensure legislative compliance was acquired well before the acceptance phase. We established a strong vendor management governance model and quality assurance gates that gave objective assessment of the project’s readiness to proceed to rollout. Finally, we invested heavily in training Consultants in the COIN software package used in the solution.

Thanks to Avocado’s strong knowledge of wealth management, superannuation and insurance products, the client could easily access the information it required for its diverse needs throughout the life of the project. Our focus on understanding the client’s business and our investment in training meant representatives of the company had ready access to the expertise of a dynamic, multi-skilled team with whom they could work collaboratively towards a common goal. We gained a thorough understanding of the ‘end-to- end life cycle’ for financial planners and could identify issues early, which provided added benefits.

Our commitment to delivery, strong governance, leadership and transparency helped reduce risks, allowed the client to track progress and gave it confidence that it’s project would be delivered successfully on time. Avocado delivered on all of it’s promises.