Research shows many wealth management firms recognize that digital strategy for customer engagement and operational excellence is a top priority. But the idea of digitally transforming a business can feel intimidating. Where to start? What will the journey look like? What strategies should firms consider?
While organizations face unique challenges related to technology adoption, advisers should understand five common phases of digitally transforming a firm.
DIGITIZING DOCUMENTS
Despite the ubiquity of computers and mobile devices, the reality is the world is still filled with paper. In addition to being a strain on environmental resources, the paper-driven operation is expensive. Many RIAs and broker-dealers spend too much of their revenue on paper storage and retrieval. ?
The first step toward transforming operations is to digitize as much paper as possible. Beyond reclaiming that lost revenue, digitizing paper documents can increase revenue by freeing up space and eliminating time wasted on searching through filing cabinets — enabling employees to spend more time on clients.
Most importantly, digital documents ensure business continuity even in the face of disaster. By now, most advisers have heard (true) stories about companies storing 30 years' worth of business documents in banker boxes, only to have them fall victim to a burst water pipe. They are then forced to pay a fortune to freeze dry the documents, resulting in several months of lost revenue before normal business operations can resume. Digitally securing documents can help avoid similar fiascos.
ORGANIZING CONTENT
Once files are digitized, the next step is to organize content in an intuitive structure. Just like paper can pile up and become disorganized, so can digital files — and they can be easier to ignore because they are out of sight, hidden on a hard drive or in the cloud.
Advanced document processing tools help advisers centralize and classify documents into templates and folders for easy searching. Instead of wasting time on labor-intensive document filing and tracking, systems should do the heavy lifting.
Firms will gain the ability to provide granular security so only authorized personnel have access to private information. Centralized and organized content also enables easier collaboration on documents — ensuring everyone is working with the same, up-to-date version, while facilitating consistent filing practices.
AUTOMATING PROCESSES
A traditional new account opening process could take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. By leveraging electronic forms and automated workflows, firms eliminate manual routing of documents, manual data entry and the headache of multiple software systems, while ensuring all information is documented for auditing purposes.
Automating processes ensures policies and procedures are executed consistently while increasing transparency of operations and data. With the new DOL requirements in effect, it's important to look for areas to auto-track adviser-client communications, and minimize administrative burden.
STREAMLINING PROCESSES
Given that robo-advisers require only a few hours of processing time, firms unable to quickly open and fund accounts face high opportunity costs. Firms with automated processes can optimize workflow by examining performance and analyzing productivity. This helps determine which steps to eliminate.
The same strategy for streamlining new account openings is easily transferrable to other operations, like new rep onboarding processing. The greatest return on investment in workflow technology is applying a strategy in multiple operational areas, saving money and time.
DATA INTELLIGENCE
As firms continue to gather data about their business processes, they will be able to detect healthy or unhealthy patterns, and gain insight into operations that can inform growth strategy.
For instance, data intelligence can help identify and predict which clients or client groups are at the greatest risk of leaving. This information can then drive decisions on client engagement, whether that means changing the investment approach to suit clients' social purposes or increasing interactive consultation. Similar strategies can help retain top talent.
Embracing a digital strategy for customer engagement and operational excellence can create an agile business ecosystem that is both responsive to client needs and adaptive to regulatory requirements.
Linda Ding is director of strategic marketing at Laserfiche.
