Do you know what systems your financial advisors use to service their book of business? […..] We didn’t expect you to.
Amidst the recent regulatory changes, many financial services institutions are trying to obtain a more holistic view of their business. One way of achieving this is by migrating financial advisors onto a single, centralized platform. However, this is not an easy feat when you don’t know what systems are used by your advisor network.
Challenges That Called for A Unique Approach
When we were asked to consolidate a nationwide team of financial advisors onto the Salesforce platform, we knew we needed to approach it differently.
The challenge ahead was massive - this project would bring thousands of advisors at dozens of locations across the country into Salesforce. They were using a plethora of CRM systems, Outlook address books, and even Excel spreadsheets. It was impossible to predict how these migrations were going to break down. How many advisors were using Excel spreadsheets? Did some advisors buy a niche CRM as a team? Were 20% of the advisors about to retire and doing just fine with filing cabinets and Rolodexes?
Similar to private equity firms, holding companies, or large companies - it’s difficult for financial services institutions to know exactly how many financial advisors they have, who financial advisors have hired as staff, or what tools their advisors are using to manage their operations.
Designing an App To Revolutionize Salesforce Migrations
Recognizing that many in the financial services industry share the same challenges as faced by our client, we were determined to find a more streamlined and efficient way to migrate financial services institutions onto the Salesforce platform. What better way than to build a Salesforce app to help with that?
When we built the app, our objective was to identify:
How many advisory practices there were
Who worked at each practice, including advisors and private staff
What contact information was available for each advisor and staff person
Which system(s) each franchise was using for their CRM
Since Salesforce is relational and customizable, we built the app so it could mirror a network of practices, advisors, staff, and regional offices across the country. The app, called the Migration Tracker, also linked Salesforce User records of advisors and staff to custom Advisor and Staff objects. This served as a starting point for corporate staff at each regional office to validate and populate information regarding the CRMs each practice used.
Knowing how many advisors use each system made it easier to estimate the effort and the impact of migrating from each system. For example, a CRM with a simpler migration process may be low effort, but less worthwhile than a more complex CRM with four times as many active users.
A Better Way to Start Your Salesforce Project
With the Migration Tracker in place to plan a migration process, financial services institutions now have a directory of their advisor network, their advisors’ private staff, and contact information. Plus, it provides an easy tool to not only identify what systems advisors are using - it also tracks and reports on the progress of the overall migration effort.
At CRM Science, we recognize and understand the challenges that financial services institutions face today. If your institution is considering a migration to Salesforce, we’d be delighted to discuss how the Migration Tracker can assist your project, saving you time and money as you get started.
