Technology is a Time Saver for Financial Advisors
Ten years ago, finding a platform designed for this research-intensive, complianceladen field was incredibly difficult. Financial consultants back then relied on out-of-thebox tools that weren’t designed to capture all their activities on behalf of clients. Manual processes left these professionals feeling like there was never enough time to truly meet the needs of their clients. But a new company realized the potential for technology to solve these problems. Mitchell Philpott, Director of Time4Advice, stated, “We realized what matters is the human connections, and technology is just part of the machinery that supports that.”
Solving the time crunch wealth managers felt was the impetus for developing a customized software product, CURO, a platform to support the entire sales and service cycle for financial planning and wealth management businesses. The customized tool was built within the Microsoft Dynamics architecture to support all customer interactions, from the first contact with prospects, sales and onboarding, and the advice shared between the financial planning expert and their clients. CURO helps financial advisers and wealth managers unify their data, processes, and business applications, as well as integrates with their everyday Microsoft 365 apps, including Excel, Word and Outlook.
The tool was wildly successful, and Time4Advice grew its client base and firm over the ensuing decade. CURO is tailored for the UK market’s highly regulated financial planning industry. The platform ensures that financial regulators’ interactions with clients are fully recorded, and the data they collect is secure. This is critical due to the sensitive information the industry collects, as well as the level of personal and business details captured by financial advisors.
CURO Needed to Modernize – And Needed a Partner
Today, financial advisors and wealth managers are turning more frequently to software to help create a holistic, efficient service that adds value to clients.
By 2020, the on-premises solutions offered by CURO needed to catch up with the rapid change in the wealth management industry. The leadership at Time4Advice knew the Microsoft Power Platform and real-time Cloud architectures offered exciting features to improve the CURO product. But they needed to figure out where to start the process of reinventing their platform onto the new Microsoft Power Platform.
They turned to Microsoft, who recommended their Gold Partner, Enavate.
Enavate and Time4Advice modernized CURO’s architectures, building a new software platform on the Microsoft Cloud infrastructure. Enavate’s ability to provide complex solutions based on a modern technology stack with their productive engineering team was the key factor of their successful collaboration.
Guiding and Deploying a Cloud-Ready CURO Product
Enavate provided a complete lifecycle strategy, development and implementation processes for modernizing the CURO code onto the Microsoft Power Platform. The process required a software team competent across Dynamics 365 Sales and the entire Power Platform suite, and who could improve the tools and optimize the migration to the new architecture. Enavate supported and guided the rebuilding and redeployment of the new and improved CURO.
Enavate collaborated with Time4Advice to build a modernized CURO product to deliver new features on the new architecture. This effort included:
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Technical Strategy Support
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Business Analysis
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Data Migration
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Development
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Project Management
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Training
The team knew Time4Advice wanted to continue to leverage Microsoft’s excellent services for the product refresh. Alan Sherriff, Program Manager, says, “Microsoft Dynamics has been a differentiator for us in the market since we launched. None of our direct competitors use the tool. We benefit greatly from the underlying investment Microsoft makes each year to improve the platform.”
At the same time, the firm was intrigued by the unique new features of the Microsoft Power Platform. Alan points out that the beauty of CURO has always been that it allows financial planners to customize the software without “having to employ armies of developers or pay expensive outsourcing companies. There are tools on the Power platform which allow them to extend CURO exactly to fit their business.”
Alan is referring to the intuitive artificial intelligence (AI) automation, and the low code/ no code approach to Microsoft Power Platform that allows end-users to simply drag and drop features for easy customization. It’s an intelligent way to put the power of CURO CRM directly into the hands of financial planners.
Partnership Includes Education – Not Just Technology Support
With Enavate, partnership is not just a delivery of a product. Enavate wants to see their partners succeed and they know that that involves more than just an amazing product. It also includes teaching and training.
Enavate built proof-of-concepts for our developers to learn from to better understand and work with the code. Now that CURO in the Cloud is live, Enavate delivers training to Time4Advice support, implementation and training teams. This training ranges from the basics of what the Power Platform is, and its benefits to very technical training for people who want to work and build within the solution.
In addition to building knowledge within the Time4Advice team, Enavate has also delivered training to Time4Advice clients and potential clients. As with any industry, implementing new technology can make businesses hesitate when it comes to deployment, but as Alan points out, “For us to be able to say, we are partnered with the Microsoft Gold partner who has access to expertise across the business in this very technology. That gives our customers confidence that we have people there who’ve got our backs if we need it.”
“Enavate has done the heavy data lifting under our guidance and has kept allour clients’ sensitive data moved safely, securely and accurately. They’ve builttools that will allow us to import all that data into CURO. We now considerEnavate an extension of our business. They provide the IT extras we need todeliver within our ecosystem.”
Alan Sheriff
Program Manager, Time4Advice.png?width=564&height=724&name=Img12%20(1).png "Partnership Includes Education – Not Just Technology Support")
Future State of the Enavate/ Time4AdvicePartnership
The relationship with Enavate continues as the partnership between the two firms deepens. When Time4Advice runs across a client with a particularly challenging software integration or another extension, they feel completely comfortable outsourcing that project to Enavate. Outsourcing to a trusted partner frees up their internal developers to continue to build out the company’s core products.
The engagement surpassed the two-year mark, and the Time4Advice team couldn’t be more pleased with the work. In 2021, Time4Advice and the CURO product were purchased by Integrafin, a multi-awardwinning investment platform. It’s an exciting time and the future looks bright for Time4Advice, and Alan says, “Enavate allows us to continue to flex our capacity.”
“I’ve worked with a lot of vendors. Enavate delivers what they promise.They’re professional, down-to-earth, and every project with them hasbeen successful.”