zFor companies within the financial services industry, enterprise agility is a valuable attribute. Those who can adapt quickly to changing and uncertain markets can better respond to their customers’ needs. In turn, such companies are more productive and win more business than those who are unable to do so.
Eliassen Group has helped a variety of clients in the financial services sector navigate the challenges associated with an Agile transformation, providing both the talent and professional services needed for firms to be successful. In this blog post, we’ll highlight two Agile case studies from our work with major financial services clients, including one of the world’s leading investment management firms and the leading provider of workplace savings plans in the U.S.
The first of our Agile case studies involves one of the world’s leading investment management firms, equally dedicated to improving investment technologies as it is to investment practices. The case study focuses on a division that handles securities lending, execution, financing, reporting, clearing, and custody for institutional investment managers, including hedge funds, buy-side institutions, retail, and advisor businesses.
Before its engagement with Eliassen Group, the division had released a proprietary tool that provided institutional clients with more transparency into global securities lending pricing. This tool, which compares and ranks securities lending rates and performance from prime brokers, needed to be improved to remain competitive in the rapidly changing marketplace.
Specifically, the client needed to bring the tool to a cloud platform, enhance its capabilities, and improve overall functionality, all with a major focus on user experience. They looked to Eliassen’s consultants to ensure accuracy of the data, and increase the speed at which it is consumed and displayed to end users.
Through numerous technical resources, Eliassen Group provided Agile training and coaching to hundreds of internal employees, focusing on the technical and functional best practices of Agile frameworks (specifically Scrum). Teams were trained and coached to deliver valuable improvements at greater speeds and at the demand of the marketplace.
"We have seen that the companies who are able to fill in their skill-set gaps and commit to a large-scale Agile transformation and training reap the benefits – which in this case, was greater satisfaction from their institutional client base,” says Bob Fischer, Director of Agile Delivery & Training with Eliassen Group. “Eliassen Group is able to both fill gaps and take a strategic lead in these efforts, which makes a difference to our clients and leads to their ultimate success."
The technical challenge was to improve a proprietary price comparison application to remain competitive in a rapidly changing marketplace.
As one of the largest mutual fund companies, the client is the leading provider of workplace savings plans in the US and a provider of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). They offer retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage services, and many other financial products and services to more than 30 million individuals and institutions, as well as to more than 5,000 financial intermediary firms.
Before their engagement, the client had already worked with Eliassen Group to begin their Agile transformation, transforming from a traditional financial services company into a technology company that offers financial products. Having already committed to the Agile mindset, the company was focused on continuous improvement. The next step toward Agile maturation, naturally, was the scaling of their results, using Scrum, in order to drive business key performance indicators (KPIs).
By implementing the tool Jira Align and others, the company was able to track progress towards KPIs on a day-to-day basis, and they were able to roll these insights into higher-level decision-making.
"The holy grail of tech management is understanding where your investments are going, how much you are spending on what, and controlling your decision making," says David Gijsbers, Director of Business Development at Eliassen Group’s Agile Practice. "That way, you know you are investing in what gives you a high return and stopping investment in projects that give you a low return." The way to do this, David says, is with tools that provide higher-level insights.
With all of the progress being made, the client had already seen some tangible progress toward their goal of Agile maturity. In one survey, a year out from the beginning of their engagement, the company saw an average 10-20% improvement in the adoption of Agile values and principles. There was also a 12% improvement in Squad member eNPS scores.
Discover how one financial services group improved customer satisfaction scores by 10%, with Atlassian tools Jira Align and others.
View This Case StudyThis is just the beginning of how we can help those in financial services. If you are interested in more details about these Agile case studies, contact us, or explore our Talent Solutions and Agile Consulting pages.