Digital transformation at Saunderson House - lessons learnt

Nick Rosser, head of IT at wealth management firm Saunderson House, explains how his firm approached its digital transformation journey, and what lessons he has for other firms on the same path

Digital transformation is one of the hottest buzzwords in tech, but there is genuine substance behind the hype, with most UK-based firms at SME size or above using the term to describe current programmes.

Speaking at a recent Computing IT Leaders Forum event, Nick Rosser, head of IT at wealth management firm Saunderson House, explained how his organisation approached its own digital transformation.

He advised the audience to begin with the low-hanging fruit.

"Communicate quick wins early, that will reduce possibility of cultural resistance. Tell stakeholders across the business about what's going on, give them an idea of their role and keep them informed, so you have that buy-in from day one."

He added that the technology rolled out as part of the programme needs to be simple and easy to use, otherwise there'll be no organisational or client engagement.

"And it has to be fast and needs to run in an efficient manner, whether that's the tech, the deployment of the tech, or the business process itself."

Another key objective for Saunderson House was proving RoI at all stages.

"It was important to communicate the return to key internal sponsors throughout the journey. They have to see that the RoI is there for every change," said Rosser.

As with many organisations, digital was not an immediate nor a natural fit at Saunderson House. Trading on the open market was traditionally done over the phone, by fax or more manual, paper-based processes. The digital transformation moved those processes online.

"So we began engaging with our suppliers in a digital fashion, and that brought about massive cost savings for the business, and ultimately our clients, as being able to trade in real-time was a big commercial advantage," he explained.

Rosser explained that legacy problems are not just for large enterprises. "We're an SME, but we still have problems around legacy," he said.

One of the hardest areas to transform, he added, was the HR and finance department. There was a legacy HR system which was embedded within payroll processes. There was a significant fear within the organisation that tampering with such a key system was dangerous, and could lead to staff not being paid.

"HR as a team was quite apprehensive in terms of transitioning. But the technology was outdated, and the vendor was about to cease all support on it. So we had to go through a cultural change process with a technology averse team to make journey. We focused on the business benefits, and how the changes would help them."

Rosser also oversaw a complete overhaul of the desktop environment, as the firm moved to a VDI solution from VMWare.

"We fully virtualised all desktops, now everyone uses thin clients to access the VMWare View environment. From an IT perspective that allows us to streamline our processes, and it allows the business to use technology in whatever form they want, without needing extra security or anything else from my team," said Rosser.

Whilst many of these initiatives are fairly forward-thinking for a financial services firm, Rosser freely admits to being late to the party in some areas. Though he argues that sometimes being slow is an advantage.

"Many of our competitors launched a client portal proposition well before us. Were we concerned? No, we took those lessons others learnt and applied them to our digital journey, and as the awards we received demonstrate, we ended up with a much better product at the end of the day. Sometimes not being first to market can be a good thing, but that obviously applies on a case by case basis," he added.