Spreadsheets

Financial Services: Don’t rely upon spreadsheets

We all can’t help but to open up an Excel Spreadsheet to record and work with data, particularly where figures are concerned. The software has been the mainstay of office productivity applications for nearly 30 years, but should you be relying upon it for the running of your entire business operation?

It is unfortunately not uncommon for financial services firms to be incredibly reliant on spreadsheets for every data point – from customer contact information, and new business engagement, through to the recording of policies and investment portfolio management.

 

Why should you not rely upon spreadsheets?

 

Despite saving some time by relying upon formulas and macros to automate certain processes in your office administration, spreadsheets are prone to a number of limitations and are considerably holding you back.

  1. Lack of ‘live’ information and access – If you have a team of users that all need to access, edit and report on the same information; working from the same spreadsheet at the same time is ever so cumbersome. If your spreadsheets are hosted locally on your file server, your team won’t physically be able to access the same file at the same time – the file will be locked to the current user that has the file open, whether they are actively making edits or not. If your spreadsheet is on the cloud, perhaps within OneDrive or SharePoint, then multi-user access may well be a possibility, however the room for conflict and human error still looms.

  2. Duplicate data – To work effectively among spreadsheets, you may need to run with several separate spreadsheet files – each potentially containing duplicate information, because a lack of seamless cross-over between each of the individual files. As soon as one of those records becomes outdated, such as a change of a customer’s address, you will need to update that same data in countless other spreadsheets. Should one of those files get missed in an update, you will have conflicting information in play, which should it become public, could be embarrassing or costly to the business.

  3. Lack of automation – Macros and formulas are great, but spreadsheets are fundamentally reliant on manual data entry and the accuracy with which that data is entered. Conditional formatting and data validation rules can be used to help flag exceptions and control how and in what format data is entered, but a spreadsheet does not possess the ability to trigger a series of automated admin steps (if this, then that) logic on the back of a data entry.

  4. File corruption – A spreadsheet is a incredibly vulnerable to file corruption, especially in the never ending world of cyberattacks. Your entire business could be lost with a click of your fingers should an IT failure or cyberbreach result in your spreadsheets becoming lost or corrupt.

  5. Missing features – At their heart, spreadsheets are designed for storing and processing numbers, not running entire business operations. If you are reliant on a spreadsheet, you’ll be missing out on a wealth of features that are fundamental to improving your efficiency and productivity, such as task & project management, automated marketing campaigns and full audit trails & reporting.

 

Why you should implement RADAR CRM?

 

From our years of supporting businesses in the financial services sector, we have learned how best to support clients in overcoming challenges and gaps prevalent in most generic CRM systems.

Our unique approach addresses these unique financial services related CRM requirements by:

  1. Live access – view and edit any of your records at any time from your web browser – wherever you are working.

  2. Single data points – do away with record duplication by bringing together all of your data records into one centralised location. From your customer record, you can attach all of the associated policies, documentation, emails, sales opportunities, tasks and projects – seamless access to everything you need, all in one location.

  3. Fully automated logic – empower and structure your team, cut red-tape and bring your procedures and workflow to life within RADAR. Workflow automation with if this, then that style logic will lock-in your team members to pre-defined processes, making them more productive and minimising human error.

  4. Compliant, secure & backed up – RADAR CRM is a fully managed SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platform, which means we take care of the system compliance, cybersecurity and data backup for you. Benefit from peace of mind that all of your data and business operations are secure and accessible from a reliable web based system, whenever you need them.

  5. Feature rich –  by implementing RADAR CRM you will open up a world of possibilities that will make your team more productive, improve your client service and drive profitability. Bring together all of your key functions across sales, client management, customer service, marketing and project/task management into one centralised system – all for an accessible fee.

 

Find out more about how RADAR CRM can be personalised to your business – BOOK A FREE DEMO  

 

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