One of the frequently asked questions of the FundCount sales team is “How much time is this implementation going to take me?”  We love this question!  It is the key to any successful implementation.

Our expert implementation colleagues can suggest an answer to this once we are engaged with a client, but the underlying substance of this question is ‘does the client have the right resources and sufficient of them to do the job?’

Be Wary of Consultants

Sensible clients will conclude that procuring additional resources to assist in the implementation, particularly if they have a small, or even a one man, team is the answer.

But be wary of hiring a consultant to do the implementation.  Only the client themselves truly knows their structure, their assets and their data.  An outside consultant will take time to learn this.

If You Want Something Done Right… 

So, if you want things to go smoothly, bring in an interim to do part or all of your day job.  Do it in the month(s) before you start the implementation so you can train them.  This will free up your time to do the implementation, learn the FundCount software, collect, collate and cleanse your data.  In this way you will see your implementation delivered faster or at least on time and also give you a better chance of coming in on budget.

Clients who take this approach see much better outcomes than those that do not.

Advice for Bigger Operations

For larger clients, with more complex structures, multiple asset classes and many data sources, assigning a project manager to oversee and command internal resources is also key.   Where investment analysts and accountants have competing demands and operate under different constraints, this is essential.

The reality of any implementation, even the best planned, is to expect the unexpected, and be cooperative and flexible in finding solutions.  This is a particular necessity where there are third parties, such as custodians, brokers, banks and alt managers, directly or indirectly involved.  They do not march to the client’s or FundCount’s orders and a well managed, well planned team will be able to handle the constraints this imposes.

FundCount has learned many implementation lessons over the years, and the greatest of these is that it is human resources that make the difference, not the software!

-Ashley Whittaker, President, Global Sales