- People
Ultimately, it is the people behind a project that determine its success. This includes the skillset, knowledge, experience as well as how well teams work together across different firms. Tony Hannay adds:
“The objectives and vision need to be clear from the outset. Importantly, they also need to inspire and align with all parties’ values. People need to be able to visualise the road to success”.
Tony continues, “This also includes personal development; an opportunity to learn and be part of the success story. All of this ties into the early establishment of success metrics throughout the transformation journey from onboarding to adoption.”
“We do not steer away from ambitious goals. We are here to help organisations achieve their high aspirations and energize them through transformational change.”
Successful transformation projects start at the top. It is important that our clients have support from board room to C-Suite and down the line.
- Experience
As part of the evaluation process, it is critical to attain references of past projects and capability to deliver large, complex, and time-critical transformation projects. “Our long track record of transitioning clients successfully, and our ability to scale quickly when needed set us apart. This was put to the test over the past two years during the Pandemic as we had several demanding transitions and projects running in parallel while working remotely. There were also other external factors thrown into the mix such as the IRD launching a mandatory update of their APIs and other regulatory changes. When multiple things happen at once, it is reassuring to have an experienced team who are not rattled by challenges,” Tony adds.
“We are able to rely on our proven methodologies, processes, and a great teamwork effort to get the jobs done in time and within budgets.”
A continuous improvement of the transformation process is closely aligned with past experiences. We are able to leverage built-up local knowledge and industry expertise combined with global best practices to fast-track enhancements.
- Engagement
An important success factor is continuous engagement across the various teams. With remote working, it is even more vital to have clear, open and honest communication with daily checkpoints. Effective execution needs careful management of milestones and ownership but also a high ceiling where people can express concerns freely and complex problems can be solved jointly by leveraging multiple skillsets.
Technology plays a huge part in our successful delivery as we are set up to collaborate remotely. This includes quality assurance testing of the APIs, any customisation, and data transfers between environments. “Knowledge sharing and a collaborative approach to problem solving is key and this needs to span across all teams – the client, any external consulting firms involved by the client, and our own teams,” Tony elaborates.
“We also like our engagement to be fun and enthusiastic where we have each other’s backs and take ownership together.”
- Execution
Transparency on tracking progress and ruthless prioritization are critical to focus the efforts on the “quick wins” that deliver most value fast. Our TMO (transformation management office) provides an overarching view that coordinates the different teams, ensuring that the project remains aligned with its objectives and timelines, and makes timely adjustments where required. The TMO also considers trade-offs between meeting deadlines and assuring quality while meeting objectives.
- Quality Assurance
We have locally based teams dedicated to quality assurance, spanning across functionality, integration, and documentation. Any bespoke functionality developed, customised set-ups as well as all interfaces and communication lines to the clients’ own environments and external sources undergo thorough end to end testing. Our technology includes plug-and-play connectivity to major financial services, data vendors and custodians used by the investment market.
- Adoption
Going live is a great milestone but the journey does not stop here. This marks the beginning of the adoption program to make sure all users are familiar with new processes, technology, documentation and tasks. As part of our services, we have dedicated teams who interact with and train the users. Prior to transferring a client from our Transformation Management Office to our Operations and Client Success Management teams, we run a parallel hand-over process. In this hyper-care environment, we do regular stand-ups to tackle any issues upfront. We also look for continuous improvements where we can optimise processes and deliver efficiencies that can be passed on to provide better business and investment outcomes.
Conclusion
In the search for a more agile operating model to respond quickly to change it is important not to overlook the transformation piece that ensures a successful outcome. Transitioning to transform needs to harness people and technology; mixing soft management skills with project expertise, technology tools, market knowledge and experience in making the right calls when pressure mounts and deadlines are near.
Investment management firms aspiring to lead need to embrace change and be set up to meet investors’ expectations today and in the future. The time to evolve is now. Laggards risk being left behind hamstrung by their legacy technology stacks, spreadsheets, slow and manual processes that are not fit to meet the needs of investors and members in a digital fast-paced world, and are costly, prone to errors, and cannot scale.
By partnering with Apex Group, fund and wealth management firms gain access to sophisticated operational services along with the latest technology and innovation. We set our clients free from the administrative and complex burdens of managing investments which empowers our clients to accelerate their own success. Our dedicated TMO capability ensures a smooth and collaborative path to maximise the value of change and deliver success within set time frames and budgets. We are here to help.
