A powerful, comprehensive customer-centric system for The Openwork Partnership

A centralised system to support many local variants

In addition, The Openwork Partnership’s forward-looking network firms were keen to digitise and automate more of their administration processes and offer self-service and account visibility through customer portals. Openwork was keen to embrace the potential of the latest customer-friendly technologies and scale easily for continued growth in its network, whilst maintaining robust security and compliance.

The Solution:

Responsive, agile deployment to accommodate user needs

The Openwork Partnership reviewed the available specialist and off-the-shelf solutions and chose Microsoft Dynamics 365, because it offered a highly flexible and integrated platform for its diverse and expanding network. From a shortlist of recommended service partners, they chose Xpedition to guide and support them in the customisation and deployment of the cloud-based solution.

To validate that Dynamics 365 is the right platform for The Openwork Partnership’s needs, Xpedition developed a proof of concept, including a customer portal and a robust security model which was demonstrated to a selection of The Openwork Partnership’s network of advisory firms. With capability established and positive feedback from the trial, the challenge was on to develop the full solution to meet a diverse set of requirements posed by the network. For example, since more than one firm in the network may deal with the same customer for different purposes, it’s vital to secure and segregate centrally held customer data.

In partnership, both Xpedition and The Openwork Partnership teams identified that this complex and rapidly changing network environment demanded an agile implementation methodology for configuration and deployment. Working in sprints, Xpedition consultants collaborated with Openwork’s IT and Business Analyst teams to deliver the functionality needed, as determined by a large number of user stories.

The project progressed rapidly, through various iterations, flexing to incorporate new network members, agreed key design decisions and opportunities to improve the advice process. The customisation and configuration was adapted to accommodate the different interdependencies, products and service requirements of the network’s adviser groups. And the methodology was also flexed through the phases to optimise the ways of working and coordinating a broad range of skills and activities from analysis and design through configuration to integration, data migration, deployment and training.

Some aspects of the build and migration weren’t compatible with the Agile approach. For example, data migration, integration and portal development had to be managed in a more rigid framework. The Xpedition team combined the Agile and traditional approaches to ensure rapid delivery that was controlled and secure.

“The Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform provides flexible and proven functionality that The Openwork Partnership needs for market-leading customer experiences and robust security and compliance. It includes seamless integration with existing Microsoft office systems, KPI reporting and analysis, and comprehensive data access via its open API which is complemented by Microsoft’s Logic Apps and other Azure services.”

Craig Woodhouse, Technical Consultant, The Openwork Partnership

The Results:

Effective customer management for a fast-evolving and diverse business

The Openwork Partnership has a proven and effective product deployed in an early adopter or pilot tranche of 12 firms. More will be added as the system rolls out over the next 2 years. When complete, there will be 5,000+ users in more than 650 advice firms in the network, supporting over one million clients. Each Openwork Partnership network member has a customised along with core customer management and financial advice functions, plus adaptations to fit their different business models.

Microsoft continually invests in enhancing the Dynamics 365 platform: during the rapid Agile deployment, Openwork has been able to take advantage of new features emerging, as well as embracing new network user needs that surfaced during the sprints. The Dynamics 365 platform means the development team could configure application functionality in a low code environment, with custom code or plugs-ins where D365 native functionality is not appropriate. This responsive approach enabled agile and user-centric customisation within one consistent, controlled technical platform.