Challenge Accepted: Equip a Fast-Growing Asset Management Firm for Continued Growth

The goal of HSO’s skilled technical consultants is to work with our clients to deliver solutions that make it easier to do business while getting better at doing business. These professionals have the right combination of brains, experience, energy, and curiosity to take on business challenges and figure out ways to apply technology like, Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, to tackle those challenges and ultimately transform the client’s business.

In this Challenge Accepted blog post and interview, you’ll hear directly from Igor Kuperman, another HSO senior functional architect, who talks about leveraging Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement for a business challenge accepted and conquered.

I have worked in a variety of industries, and one thing I’ve noticed about the financial services industry is that there are some very, very sharp minds—very bright people who are efficient and don’t have time to spend explaining things from the ground up. So, I think it helps when the HSO team walks in, already able to talk to them in the terminology they use.

For example, we worked with an asset management firm to implement the entire suite of Microsoft Dynamics products, including Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CRM) and Dynamics 365 Finance (ERP).

We started with the customer (client) engagement piece. The firm has an asset management practice, but their private wealth business is also growing very quickly through acquisitions of small, private wealth advisories.

They wanted to bring all these companies under one umbrella but want to replace Salesforce as their CRM solution and have that solution implemented at all companies. In addition, that solution would need to be implemented quickly to accommodate a fast-moving firm.

We were able to come to the first meeting with an understanding of the types of relationships the firm has with clients and the consultants, as well as the strategies they’re trying to sell. In short, we were able to speak their language, which got the engagement off on the right foot.

I believe the reason for the success we experienced in such a short timeframe—in addition to the HSO team having the financial services experience to hit the ground running—was due to collaboration between our team and the client’s team. The client had a great attitude, which was, “Whatever it takes to get it done,” and they backed that up by providing resources, fast (yet responsible) decision making, and access to the data or security we needed to get the job done.

In short, the HSO team became an extension of the client’s team. Not only did we work well together to get the solution designed and implemented, but we continued the relationship through continuous knowledge sharing, transfer of information, and education around Dynamics and the Microsoft platform. This is not a trivial thing, but in my experience, it should be a best practice. With a joint team approach, you eliminate “finger pointing” and achieve success faster.

While the experience was very positive, the business outcome of this engagement is the real story. By implementing a modern CRM solution for client relationship management, the firm is positioned to grow even faster without impacting their ability to provide excellent client service. When a client comes back—as this one did—wanting to re-engage for a “phase 2” (in this case, implementing Dynamics 365 Finance), that’s always a good sign.