Stream Financial, an innovative financial advice practice based in Buderim, sought our services in 2019 to streamline and optimise their technology stack, improve their client engagement processes, and enhance their overall business efficiency.
With a deep commitment to their Buderim community, Stream Financial wanted to ensure that its advice process remained accessible to as many people as possible. As a result, efficient operation of the entire advice process was essential.
Having worked together with a shared commitment to continuous improvement for some years now, we consider ourselves part of the extended Stream Financial team.
Our process
Simply Kaizen’s initial approach to working with Stream Financial included discovery and benchmarking, collaboration, and implementation. This tailored, step-by-step process allowed us to fully understand Stream Financial’s unique needs, goals, and pain points before implementing targeted solutions.
Over time, as an essential compliment to Stream FInancial’s existing operational support, our work moved to a continuous improvement (aka Kaizen) focus.
Working together
Throughout our engagement with Stream Financial, we focused on the following main areas:
Process optimisation, tech stack review, and digital engagement
Over time we have combined our efforts in process clarification and optimisation, technology stack streamlining, and using the website as an engagement tool. This holistic approach allowed us to:
- Remap core business processes by conducting workshops with the full team, leading to consistent process rollout. This has included multiple phases, adjusting promptly to new feedback, insights, and changing business requirements.
- Implementation of Asana for project management and internal non-client items.
- Building SharePoint pages to support processes in detail.
- Transition Stream Financial to Xplan over a two-phased process, including technical data repair and reclassification of client categories.
- Implementation of Calendly using our Calendly Setup Service and leveraging best practices for meeting scheduling, supporting multiple advisers and non-advisers, round-robin and prioritisation scheduling, plus much more. Ultimately this replaced all previous manual meeting reminders.
- Use of our Xplan Data Validation Report to facilitate back-office checks and ensure all client data is current and follows best practices.
- Optimisation of meeting recording, building on their previously leading use of EchoPens, upgrading to a tablet in meeting rooms connected to Otter.ai and full integration for Zoom client meetings.
- Leveraging our deep experience in SoA design and building efficiencies at the advice stage, we leveraged their increasingly strong licensee support to make the most of the tools at their disposal.
- Replacing previously in-house marketing functions, including a project to streamline functions and support time-saving automation through Publer.
- Utilise their website for booking discovery meetings, quick chats, review meetings, and risk review self-assessments, turning it into a valuable resource for both prospective and existing clients. (You can learn more about our web-based work with Stream Financial here).
One key win was working through the client experience at the review stage. The existing process was manual, and presented as a mash up of various platform reports and outputs.
Through our Xplan Review Report Package we identified the best of what worked, what didn’t work, and what could work with the right support through the review meeting itself. Leveraging our in-house design expertise, significant profession experience to source effective supporting resources, and Xplan coding capabilities, we created an automatically generated report that supports the ideal review meeting.
Strategic guidance and industry insights
Our strong relationship with Stream Financial as a key adviser on business challenges and a source of external knowledge for best practices has been crucial to their success.
We bring insights on what works and doesn’t work elsewhere, whilst introducing the best of new tools. The impact of these insights leads to better business decisions, fewer false starts, and acceleration of growth initiatives.
Presently, we’re working on a multi-faceted 5-part project including:
- Project management and implementation of myprosperity.
- Full build of enhanced reporting to support new and improved team management and pipeline analytics.
- Support through a restructuring of the onboarding process.
- Enhanced digital client communications.
- A repricing strategy led in part due to enhanced inflows following our launch of the revised website.
Extension of Operations capability
We work together with Stream Financial’s broader team, leveraging our expertise in Xplan coding, data management and repair capabilities, report building, research, technology implementation, marketing automation, and much more.
Our broad skillset empowers Stream Financial to run projects more efficiently, push through complex and unfamiliar roadblocks quickly, and ultimately leverage our experience instead of recreating the wheel manually.
The results
As a result of our work, the team at Stream Financial uses fewer individual technologies, gets more value from their existing tools, and has more automated reporting than ever before.
Stream Financial has managed to grow its revenue with fewer advisers who are more focused on what they do best, and its revamped website has taken over the role of the business development manager.
However, Stream Financial speaks to the work we’ve done better than we ever could.
We have worked with Pat and his team since 2019. We were seeking someone to outsource our tech development to; it is outside our core skill set, and I felt it best to have someone external take responsibility so it didn’t stay on our ‘get around to it’ list. Over that time, we have covered so much ground in improving our technology and systems that it’s hard to consider how long it would’ve taken on our own.
Pat ‘gets it’. I suppose this comes from extensive engagement across all levels of our industry, and possessing one of those brains that soaks it all up. However, what sets him apart is that the knowledge that resurfaces isn’t a deluge of useless facts (as fun as they may be), but valuable insights and practical actions.
His team at Simply Kaizen comprises exceptionally talented individuals. One of the things I’m most impressed by is how seamlessly they execute. We agree on a task, and before we know it, it’s completed. We have full confidence in their abilities, allowing us to focus on what we do best.
In addition to getting things done, Pat serves as an excellent sounding board for new ideas. His counsel and guidance have helped us make complex decisions with confidence. His expertise has been instrumental in shaping our strategies and making informed decisions.
Pat and his team are more than a great consultancy. They have become a trusted, integral extension of our business.
Tim van Doore, Principal
Future outlook
Working with Stream Financial as a part of their team has been a rewarding experience. They are great people with a noble mission to keep advice affordable and accessible.
We look forward to supporting Stream Financial through their next phase of growth, as they continue to grow into one of the leading advice firms on the Sunshine Coast.
Interested to learn how we could help improve your processes?
The team at Simply Kaizen is here to help advisers like you and your team to do more. Find out what could be possible for your firm today!
If you’d like to express interest in any of the above, please let us know by completing the form below or booking a virtual coffee.