5 tips for best-in-class onboarding a new family office software

Maxime Wattel - October 31, 2022

Onboarding a new software is critical for any company, but it is especially important for family offices. A smooth and efficient onboarding process can help your company hit the ground running, while a poor process can result in costly mistakes.

No matter what the software or app is that you choose to use, the onboarding process can often be overlooked when considering which company to partner with. But the best family office software onboarding not only benefits you, but the families you serve, as there should be no break in service from their perspective. 

But before focusing on the best practices around onboarding, let’s examine why this process is crucial to your overall business success.

 

Why is onboarding so important?

No two family offices are the same, requirements, processes and regulations are different almost every time and one of the key objectives in the onboarding process is to understand these specific needs so the family office software can meet these needs. This is important as a detailed review upfront can prevent future roadblocks, which can cause costly delays.

Additionally, most family office teams are already working at full capacity, finding time to adopt new technology and get it running smoothly, is nearly impossible. So to avoid wasted employee time, frustration, money spent on software not being utilized, and usually, cancellation of the product, a great onboarding process can ensure all employees are bought into the new system. Providing a detailed understanding of the basics, as well as the fundamental features to all users, can ensure success and satisfaction when using the software and shorten that learning curve to be able to get to optimal usage as quickly as possible. 

But a successful onboarding doesn't just benefit the family office, it also benefits the software provider too. A truly tailored, engaging and educational onboarding process will generate customer loyalty, even going as far as to generate positive word-of-mouth marketing for that software provider, which we all know is key when building a family office software provider's client list. 

So what is the best way to onboard a new family office software? There are a number of factors to consider, but here are 5 key tips to get you started.

 

Top 5 tips for best-in-class onboarding

The needs of a family office over other financial institutions are very nuanced and particular, choosing a provider that specialises in family office software will ensure you are getting a solution that is completely purpose-built. 

The onboarding process needs to be as thorough as every other step of the process and should include:

 

1. Understanding and documenting your internal processes

This is where hard work at the beginning can really pay off later down the line. Each team within your organisation will have their own processes, which aren't always written down. Capturing every process and documentation requirement will mean that the software can be built to support and deliver each one, even going as far as automating them wherever possible. 

 

2. What makes your existing platform(s) painful?

Pain points refer to problems or concern areas that your teams might be experiencing with the current solution. Your current pain points can help you understand what you need from a new solution. Pain points can include; process, productivity or support areas. Now, these problems can be extremely diverse and identifying all of them may not be easy, but by putting in the work to understand this information, can help you build a detailed brief for the new provider. 

 

3. What functional aspects are missing and what do you need?

No one can plan for the unknown, unknown. A good onboarding process will spend time focusing on what your family office actually needs, leveraging the knowledge of the provider to lay out the functions of the software, which will usually include functions you never knew were possible. Ensuring your software provider runs through all the functions available and the benefits to using them helps you understand what's on offer, thus planning for what you are currently missing and how you might address those gaps.

 

4. Clear, jargon-free discussions

The world of IT is as peppered with jargon as the financial industry. The onboarding process needs to be accessible to every user in the family office, including those with little knowledge of the software solution. Specification discussions, training and support all need to be given with clear, jargon-free language. To ensure everyone is clear on both what they are getting and how to use it, an onboarding process and those people delivering that onboarding must be exceptional at communicating everything in a clear and simple way. 

 

5. Timing and availability

The most successful onboarding experience simply gives new customers time to understand their new product before asking questions. Unfortunately, it's also the most uncommon. Ensuring that a long enough onboarding process is built into the contract is important, as queries and support is usually needed just as much later down the line, than when it is first implemented. Some of the more complicated questions can arise once the teams have really had some time to get to know the software and what it can do. Availability is then also key, not only ensuring the provider has allocated enough time to give support, but that they have also allocated the right people to answer the questions and fix any bugs quickly. 

 

Choosing a family office software takes a lot of thorough investigation, but reviewing the providers onbaording process is sometimes overlooked in that review. However, we really believe the onboarding process is important to ensuring you get what you want and setting the deployment up for success. Elysys take this stage seriously and offers scope analysis, bespoke development, implementation services and ongoing support as part of our offering. It all starts with a demo, so speak to one of our team who can take you through a tailored, quick and jargon free demo.