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A director of a large brokerage has highlighted the significant benefits of a customisable, cloud-based CRM system in helping to create a scalable and efficient broking business.
Managing Partner Omniwealth Mortgage and Finance James Grima has emphasised the significant benefits of moving to a cloud-based CRM system by integrating applications such as platform as a service (PaaS) software solution Progress Rollbase.
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Speaking to The Adviser, Mr Grima explained that customising his CRM system with Progress Rollbase has allowed his brokerage to consolidate information as it increased in size.
“It all started with having too many databases and excel spreadsheets,” Mr Grima explained. “Trying to access information wasn’t consistent; there were too many places and as I was growing the business it just got too difficult to manage.”
“Even just recording pipeline transactions, managing commissions, tasks for where clients were up to, and managing things that happen two or three years down the track with loans — there were too many different places I had to go to,” Mr Grima elaborated.
Mr Grima said that for any small business, having information in a centralised, cloud-based site can increase efficiency and scalability, whilst also providing a task management system.
“Every task is managed through the application and that includes from the time a client makes contact with us through to all the steps in originating the loan until settlement,” he explained.
“After that there are a number of post-settlement tasks, and that might be someone who locks away their home loan for five years; we want in four years and nine months for the application to say ‘Your fixed rate is expiring, what do you want to do?’”
“The whole idea of the application is so that people don’t have to think too much about what they’ve got to do; we just get a daily report with all the daily tasks on there, we action it, and the next day there will be a set of new tasks coming up.”
Mr Grima also highlighted that having a centralised, cloud-based system can minimise a brokerage’s costs.
“With the cloud, we’ve got totally paperless processing, and having no paper is a big improvement but also allows our offshore team and any staff working from home or in the office to access the same data,” he commented.
“It’s critically important in my view that we continue to improve on that paperless environment.”
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