Customized software solutions to improve business management
OPPORTUNITY
As a leading Kansas City-based wealth management firm experienced unprecedented growth, the range of disconnected industry-standard software packages that had supported the business struggled to keep up with increased volumes. Client setup required a significant amount of manual data entry. Changes to investment strategy, accounts, and custodians added to a constant flow of manual paperwork. Core processes depended on licensed software which inadequately supported the firm’s unique business model while offering many superfluous features.
The firm began to see high error rates in its data due to repetitive manual data entry. Client data consisted of sensitive information such as addresses, dates of birth and Social Security Numbers. Wait times increased with the volume of manual work. The firm knew they needed a customized solution to support their business in order to maintain their reputation of exceptional client service.
SOLUTION
After investigating available industry solutions and licensable software products— and failing to find the right fit — an internal source at the firm suggested building a custom solution with 27Global. The individual had previously worked with 27Global at a prior company with great results.
“I knew of 27Global’s reputation for developing custom solutions, so they were the only people I thought of,” a spokesperson for the client said. “We knew we had a mission-critical project that needed to get done on time and on budget.”
27Global started by building a client-facing system that not only supports the core business but includes many features the firm had been unable to get from the provider of the licensed industry-standard software package. The resulting solution not only impressed clients with a modernized interface but automated several steps that wealth managers previously had to do manually.
The 27Global team continued with a series of projects to streamline and automate processes and reduce duplicate data entry. The new system’s ability to auto-populate forms, according to one user, saves hours’ worth of manual work.
“What we’ve seen by leveraging 27Global — and the continued benefit of working with them for other projects — is that they can start to tie these processes together,” the client spokesperson said. “They can pull from several platforms and seamlessly integrate across all of our systems because they’ve built these applications to talk to each other. It’s doing a lot to improve our efficiency overall, even beyond what we’re gaining in the tools themselves.”
RESULTS
Since implementing the new system, the firm has reported an eight-fold average improvement in terms of speed, efficiency and accuracy. The client added that they’ve received tremendous feedback both internally and from clients.
“We’re seeing a lot of benefit in that it’s translating our currently manual processes into something that’s scalable, repeatable and sustainable as our firm continues to grow dramatically.”
As the firm continues to scale, they intend to work closely with the 27Global team for technology solutions to improve their back-office processes as well as other project work.
“We went from having no solution to probably the best in class in the marketplace.”
-Chief Operating Officer
