WriteImage CSB CRM Software Helps Asset Management Firm ...



“Advisors now spend much less time worrying about compliance and more time converting prospects and delivering excellent service to existing customers.”

Fredrik Ask Stensrud, Head of Investment Clients, Warren Wicklund

Like many financial institutions during the global economic crisis, Warren Wicklund—a leading asset management firm in Norway—is under pressure to meet new market regulations. To comply with MiFID regulations, the organisation deployed a solution from Columbus IT based on Microsoft Dynamics® CRM. This technology ensures that financial advisors comply with complex guidelines while freeing them up to focus on customer service and new business.

Business Needs

Warren Wicklund is a leading, independent organisation in the Norwegian financial services market. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is essential to the company, which was founded in 2002 and focuses on hedge funds and wider asset management. It offers a comprehensive product range to private customers, investment houses, and other financial institutions.

In recent years, Warren Wicklund, like most other financial institutions, has been forced to review workflows and processes to comply with new regulations governing financial markets. These include the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), a European Union law that provides a harmonised regulatory regime for investment services across the 30 member states of the European Economic Area. The main objectives of the MiFID are to increase transparency, competition and consumer protection in investment services. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and United States, have similar systems in place.

MiFID presents firms such as Warren Wicklund with several challenges. The regulation is highly complex and in many cases requires firms to overhaul existing work practices and deploy the latest technology to support revised processes.

Fredrik Ask Stensrud, Head of Investment Clients at Warren Wicklund, says: “Our financial advisors must exercise additional diligence when registering customers and managing their finances. The objective of this process is to achieve complete transparency between all parties so that customers are only offered investments that correspond to their risk profile and collateral provided.”

Financial advisors must spend a significant amount of time following this process―failure to do so presents enormous risks to the business. “The financial regulators in Norway have already suspended trading licences in several organisations that failed to comply,” says Stensrud. “We needed to act quickly to preserve our business and our reputation.”

In particular, Stensrud and his team wanted a technology that could monitor and handle the entire client recruitment process, but which was also familiar and easy-to-use for advisors and customers alike. “Above all, we wanted to reduce risk and cost while increasing our overall competitiveness,” he says.

Solution

During Stensrud’s research of the market, he met with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Columbus IT. And, at a demonstration of the partner’s MiFID Efficient Compliance solution, it became clear that the technology met Stensrud’s criteria.

The system—based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM—is fully integrated with Microsoft Office Professional and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server. It supports a workflow around the MiFID process and prompts advisors to take actions that comply with the regulation while automating other activities. Says Stensrud: “You don’t have to worry about the regulation, which means you are free to focus on the customer. The solution has the potential to turn good advisors into excellent advisors.”

The application has 16 key steps, which include:

■ Create lead. The advisor creates a potential customer lead in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. New prospects are automatically sent a welcome e-mail.

■ Customer logon. Customers log on to the Warren Wicklund portal using a secure user name and password. They enter their details according to MiFID requirements and complete an investments self-evaluation.

■ Customer evaluation. When a customer has entered his or her information, the advisor is automatically notified by a prompt in Microsoft Office Outlook or Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

■ Customer response. The customer receives an e-mail with details of the evaluation. He or she can log on to the portal and approve the profile, which also confirms which products are suitable. A contract is then sent automatically, allowing the customer to start making investment decisions.

Stensrud says: “The Columbus team was outstanding. The sales professionals understood our strategic objectives, but they also had the technical skills to configure the solution to our exact needs.”

Benefits

The solution from Columbus IT ensures that Warren Wicklund complies with MiFID regulations. Stensrud says: “The deployment of the technology means that we have safeguarded our business where other companies have seen their trading licences suspended.” During the global economic crisis, it also positions Warren Wicklund as a thought leader, with a focus on financial probity and transparency. Stensrud says: “Advisors now spend much less time worrying about compliance and more time converting prospects and delivering excellent service to existing customers.”

■ Advisors can do their jobs more effectively. The Columbus IT application ensures that advisors always follow the correct steps when dealing with customers and investments. Safe in the knowledge that they are complying with MiFID, advisors can focus on the customer and deliver better service.

■ Warren Wicklund sets new compliance standards. With the technology in place, the company has set high standards for MiFID compliance and financial probity in Norway.

■ Employees require little or no training. Advisors familiar with Microsoft software can get started on the solution in a matter of minutes. Little or no training is required because the look and feel of the technology is intuitive.

■ New customers can register quickly. Customers and advisors can register for business remotely without having to go through a series of time-consuming face-to-face meetings.

■ The company has a solid platform for growth. Warren Wicklund has 800 customers and about 16,000 prospects. Now that advisors spend less time on paperwork and compliance they can focus on converting more prospects to registered customers.

-----------------------

For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: resources/casestudies

Customer: Warren Wicklund

Web Site: warrenwicklund.no

Customer Size: 20

Country or Region: Norway

Industry: Financial services

Partner: [?]›œÝÞ‹ Œ ¤ É [pic][?]›žŸ ¨®¯)

g

»

Ã

Œ?Ž—

Ÿ«,;øColumbus IT

Customer Profile

With 800 clients, Warren Wicklund is an innovative asset management business based in Oslo, Norway. It was founded in 2002 and now specialises in hedge fund management.

Software and Services

Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Microsoft Office Professional

[pic] | | |[pic] | |

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download