A quick guide to selecting financial planning software
Technology change is an uncomfortable process and, whether or not a financial advisory practice has the luxury of adequate resources and time to dedicate to selection, proper planning and thorough investigation are essential ingredients for success.
Many practices employ rather haphazard methods of selecting solutions, the criteria for which often centers on a list of gripes with other solutions, peer experience and, of course, costs. Business interruption is guaranteed – there is no such thing as a painless transition – so make sustainable choices upfront. And remember that a software demo is an overview and a sales pitch, not a training session. What you see in demos will not sufficiently prepare you for your daily operational life following implementation.
A good idea is to apply similar rigor to the selection of software products as you might apply to the financial planning process.
10 guidelines for your selection process:
1. Run a quick survey throughout your business to establish consensus on what is currently working, what is not working and what the expectations would be of a new piece of software. This will help you to drill down to the real issues as well as identify the areas that are working well in order to maintain those standards.
2. Talk to as many peers as possible, asking for details about their experiences of both software and support, and make notes. Research vendors and their products online wherever possible.
3. Document a list of business requirements, involving key staff. Think about practical things, not just a list of standard CRM fields. Consider topics such as integration with other systems, data security, desktop versus web, workflow, output reporting, management information, investment value data feeds, manipulability of financial planning calculators, user-friendliness, mobile capability and anything else that might be relevant.
4. Create a diagram of all your other internal systems and tools (including spreadsheets and manual processes) and consider whether any of these could be replaced by or integrated with a new system, bearing in mind that the chances are slim that you will find a single product to replace every system or process in your business. Think about everything from your new business register to your leads management, advice process and commission reconciliation to your document storage and task management. Ideally, you would need as many systems as possible to ‘talk to each other’.
5. Prioritise your requirements and decide which are critical, important or just nice to have so that you remain firm and undistracted in the upcoming demos.
6. Use your list of requirements during every demonstration to make sure that you do not forget to ask any questions and also to rate and score each listed requirement for suitability.
7. Have key staff members attend demonstrations and do not leave the decision to one individual – it is important that needs are met across the breadth of the business; each person will view the solution from his or her own specific perspective.
8. Ask vendors about more than just functionality, making sure that you gain an understanding of the implementation and ongoing support processes as well as the stability of each vendor and any upcoming strategic changes they might be planning.
9. Create a case study, using a familiar and complicated client or process, and either get demo access to each system or ask the vendor to spend some time running through the scenario with you. This will enable you to assess each solution quantitatively for its ability to produce a result from the same set of criteria.
10. If you are out of your depth, call in some expert advice. Engage with consultants who are familiar with the industry, have experience with multiple software vendors and products and are practiced in eliciting business requirements and managing a rigorous selection and implementation process.
