Delivering efficiency while staying focused on clients
Customer testimonial | Atkins Bland
As a mid-sized family-run independent financial advice firm, Atkins Bland prides itself on the quality of its service and the fact that new business typically comes through referrals from existing clients. When looking for a new practice management solution, an integrated client portal was a key requirement, while supporting the focus on client relationships.
We talked to Catherine Lane, Head of Adviser & Administration Support and Office Manager at Atkins Bland, about why the firm chose to move to intelliflo and the benefits they’ve seen since making the switch.
After deciding to add a client portal to their technology stack, Atkins Bland realised their existing back office provider could not meet their needs. Catherine explains, “We wanted to offer clients secure messaging and document sharing, but after testing the functionality offered by our existing provider, we had real concerns about security.”
The firm did consider using a third party tool, but didn’t want to pay another license fee or to run multiple systems: “We wanted one integrated system, so we started looking for an alternative solution.”
Choosing the right solution
With 2,000 active clients and a strong focus on customer service, making the right choice was essential. Catherine says, “When you’re putting everyone through a system change, you don’t want anything that will cause issues. Plus, we had over 600,000 client documents stored in our old system – everything from valuations, client reviews, client suitability letters, KIDs. That’s a shocking amount of documents and the idea of having to migrate it all was incredibly scary.”
Recognising the complexity of the transition, the firm took time over the decision: “People who actually use the system daily and know what we need to make it better led the process, which has been key for us. We had months and months of conversations, explaining what we wanted, how we work, which workflows were essential. And we felt intelliflo really listened.”
Atkins Bland also had highly tailored data fields that track various aspects of their client relationships, which they wanted to replicate. “We didn’t make it easy, but the team always found an answer. They came back with a solution for everything we threw at them. That’s ultimately why we decided to switch, and we’re glad we did.”
Staying in control
Having made the decision to move, Catherine and her team felt well supported throughout the onboarding process. “Onboarding was done at our pace. We were shown what the system could do and how we could use it in a way that was easy to take on board. We were able to build our own workflows and set things up ourselves but if we hit a stumbling block, the support was there straight away. That meant by the time we went live in January, our workflows were built, we’d tested the system, and our administration staff were ready to go. Everything was there and making their lives easier from day one.”
Continuous support
Although the thought of moving 600,000 client documents was nerve-wracking, the transfer to intelliflo went smoothly. “The data migration support was brilliant. We needed our administrators to be able to find the documents easily, so we mapped our existing folder structure, and it all dropped in as planned. Along with the folders, the categorisation of client records within intelliflo makes it even quicker for the team to put their hands on the right document when they are on the phone.”
The next step is to roll out the portal to clients, which will start after tax year end. “The portal was a big selling point for us, but we want to do it little by little rather than everyone all at once. We’ll ask clients to sign up to the portal about a month before their review is due so we can drip feed them into the system.”
Does Catherine have any advice for other firms considering moving to intelliflo? “I’d say absolutely just do it. I wouldn’t even hesitate now, knowing the structure of the onboarding process and the ongoing support. You have your hand held the whole way and the fact that we keep the same support team throughout has also been a huge plus.”
“It’s still early days, but we’re already utilising the system far more than we ever used our old one, which will save us more and more time in the long run. I can’t imagine ever moving away.”
You can find more about Atkins Bland on their website.