WS&T Byline: Deploying Technology to Conquer Your Compliance Demons
In the July issue of Wall Street & Technology, our CEO, Ted Tsung has a featured article (click here) on how to approach technology as a solution to your compliance woes. The article includes helpful formulas to calculate your cost/benefit analysis of automating administrative tasks:
% of admin tasks that can be automated x # of support staff x average staff cost/year = staff reduction savings
Determining your potential growth through additional producers:
% of admin tasks that can be automated x # of producers = # of additional producers that can be supported by existing staff
And your potential increase in gross revenue:
# of additional producers x firm’s annual earnings per producer = projected increase in gross revenues
Ted concludes by offering the following tips for selecting and implementing an automated technology approach that will address your compliance needs now and into the future:
1. Review your updated Written Supervisory Procedure (WSP), if you can still lift it, and seek a platform that can address everything that’s in there now and support everything that will be added for years to come.
2. Ask questions about flexible and expandable technologies that are “future-proofed,” and be sure to find a platform that can be updated and customized on demand to suit your changing needs and the endless list of new regulations.
3. Get commitments up front. Perhaps most important, make sure you work with someone who is able to perform a review of your WSP and ascertain the minimum percentage of your current compliance tasks that can be automated. As indicated in the models above, this is the single greatest factor in calculating your cost/benefit analysis.
4. Seek CRM integration. Make sure the new platform addresses CRM or can integrate seamlessly with your existing programs. Ideally, you want a soup-to-nuts automated solution for integrating your back-office data, compliance tasks and client records through a single platform.
5. Demand an implementation plan to ensure rep adoption. All too often this gets ignored. Your new system is only successful if your reps use it. Put the onus on the organization that develops your platform to help you market it internally. Ensure there are communication processes to explain the benefits and procedures to internal staff, broker-dealers and reps. Focus on those processes that engage the producers and make them want to use the solution. A good example is building order processing into the solution, linking producers’ earnings with system use. Make sure all your people are trained on the platform, what it can do, and how to monitor and fine-tune it over time. Finally, be sure to include a feedback loop so the product can be effectively and continuously improved.
