Loan Market to move forward with MyCRM

After completing its acquisition of the three broker aggregation businesses Choice Aggregation Services, FAST and PLAN Australia from National Australia Bank (NAB) earlier this year, the group announced that one of its first priorities would be weighing up the benefits of the existing broker-facing platforms, MyCRM (used by Loan Market brokers) and Podium (used by PLAN/Choice/FAST brokers).

This process has now concluded, with Loan Market Group’s executive chairman, Sam White, telling The Adviser that the group had consulted closely with its brokers and engineers and will be taking the “best of both platforms” to build a “super platform”.

A team of approximately 100 “tech specialists” are now working on the updates.

While the relevant updates are being made to MyCRM, brokers will be able to continue to use Podium and move “when the time is right for them”.

It is expected that all changes will be finalised in the next 15 months.

What the changes will entail

Mr White revealed that a survey of 1,200 brokers had found that the MyCRM system was rated 4.3 out of 5, while Podium was rated 2.9 out of 5.

However, he added that broker feedback, demonstrations and consultations had found that the two systems had individual strong points. 

According to Mr White, MyCRM was particularly well liked for the “user experience, broker-customer relationship, and ease of use”, while Podium was particularly well rated for its “business analytics tools and workflows”.

He noted that MyCRM had also won several awards, including 2019 and 2020 Technology Platform of the Year at the Australian Broking Awards and was voted No. 1 for Software by brokers in Momentum Media’s 2019 and 2020 Aggregator of Choice survey.

Following the feedback and consultation, he said that while MyCRM has been chosen as the tech platform that the group will use, it will be updated to include the best-rated aspects of Podium.

He explained: “What we saw was that we needed to build out some of the functionality that Podium has that is really good and build that into MyCRM...

“So, we’re taking MyCRM as the base and then building on all of the things that Podium users really like, which is the heavy reporting and workflow analytics,” he told The Adviser.

He added: “Today, we recognise there is no integrated platform that offers brokers both the best client and broker user experience with deep business insights. This puts Loan Market Group in a position to deliver brokers the best of both platforms, combining the market-leading paperless, BID-proof broker and client experience from MyCRM with the best of business reporting and workflows from Podium.” 

Loan Market has outlined that a dedicated team of up to 30 tech and migration specialists will work to assist brokers from the former NAB-owned businesses to make the transition to MyCRM in a phased and consultative process over 2021-2022. 

While some brokers have already moved to MyCRM, it is expected that brokers will be able to start transitioning to the updated version “as early as August”.

The executive chairman explained: “I think it’s important right now to satisfy as many people as possible. 

“It all depends on the broker business and the particular functionality of their writing. For some brokers, they will be able to move across straight away. For some brokers who really value the aspects of Podium – such as the analytics and reporting, if that is really important to them – then we would say they don’t need to migrate for now, they can move when we have built it into MyCRM. 

“We’ll be communicating with brokers when we’re ready to go on particular features, for example, heavy workflows, and advising that then they can come across,” he said.

“So, we’re going to keep both platforms running for as long as it takes for us to build those capabilities and migrating groups as and when they choose that MyCRM is right for them.”

According to the executive chairman, while this transition would be “more complicated” for the group, he added that he believed it would be “much better for brokers to have that flexibility to move and when it’s right for them”.

“With all the changes and the stress that brokers are under, we want to make this transition a success, and the way to do that is to match expectations and realities. So, if they’re using something that they like that we haven’t yet built, we’d recommend that they wait until that feature is finished before they move over.”

Mr White thanked brokers for “speaking up and helping to make this decision”. 

He concluded: “Change is never easy for busy brokers. PLAN Australia, Choice and FAST businesses will migrate when they’re ready and are confident the MyCRM platform meets their specific business needs. And most importantly, to keep it easy, brokers don’t need to change aggregators to use MyCRM.

“The decision … will offer certainty and clarity to our business owners and network members, as it does our technology teams, enabling us to start the process of creating the next evolution of MyCRM – a future we are excited to deliver,” Mr White said.

“We make it a priority to deliver value to brokers and are committed to being the number one technology provider in the industry.”

Looking forward, Mr White said that the group will next be looking to identify whether it could “simplify” and “reduce complexity” on other key areas, such as commission systems, aggregation agreements and business models.

[Related: Expanded Loan Market focusing on tech, CRM]