In 2005, I was working as an independent consultant when a client of mine asked me to perform an integration between HubSpot and Salesforce. I wasn’t really familiar with Salesforce prior to that point, but after that project, I was hooked.
One of the things I love about my role at Fortimize is the ability to create and operate in a space to help the industry as a whole find a way forward. I particularly believe in what we do each day in helping banks and credit unions implement Salesforce into their operations.
It isn’t just a single point solution or even an all-encompassing solution. It makes the back “engine” run more efficiently so that employees can focus their time more effectively on precisely engaging the customers they interact with every day. Yet it also offers flexibility and scalability, the chance to grow through change by extending services and adapting processes without overhauling operations over and over again.
The Power of Making Data Visible
Financial Services Cloud is a high-touch client relationship management platform designed to provide, as we like to say, a “360° customer view.” Over time multiple data points get created and stored relative to a single customer. With traditional green screen systems, there is no real-time data integration. A retail banker, for example, may only have access to the core to view a customer’s personal contact information, or perhaps the status of one or two accounts. A customer might make certain comments in casual conversation while making a deposit that triggers a referral to a mortgage originator in the branch. The retail banker fires up their email client and dashes off an email but has no way of following up on that referral.
A few days later the customer is back in the branch making another transaction and mentions to the same teller that they never heard back from the mortgage originator. So, they ended up going online and in 10 minutes got pre-approved with Rocket mortgage.
What if all the data relative to a customer and their interactions within the bank’s ecosystem were accessible in real-time? What if certain tasks could be automated, and others left in control of professionals exercising their intuitive judgment, creating process workflows that are streamlined and intelligent? What if payment systems were actually built around the ways customers want to move their money?
With Salesforce, it’s not only possible, it’s actionable! But getting there with Financial Services Cloud means finding a consultant that doesn’t just exist in the world of technology, but really understands the business.
Choosing the Right Partner
In 2016, when a regional bank based near me was looking to implement Salesforce into their core banking practice and asked me to come on board to guide the integration, I jumped in. I was responsible for pretty much every aspect of the project, from budgeting to executive alignment, data integration, and development to documentation, training, and adoption.
From that experience, I learned that as much as each bank likes to believe they are as unique as one snowflake is from the next, there is a lot of common experience between them—many of the same challenges and growing pains, but there isn’t much of a space to talk through it.
That’s where a partner like Fortimize comes in. We’ve been there. We know how to guide executives through their decision-making, and what the rank-and-file needs for successful adoption. How to leverage experience working with different institutions, without losing sight of the operational nuances and individual goals of the client in front of us.
We can help navigate the constraints and get you to a solution that engages both your internal employees and your customers to put them at the center of your strategy for growth and success.
Ready to take the lead and transform your operations? Let’s connect and talk through how Salesforce Financial Services Cloud can take your operations into the future.