5 Ways to Improve Software Adoption for PE Firms and Investment Banks

In recent years, we’ve witnessed a “going digital” trend that allows businesses to become more competitive and offer customers improved services. The financial industry is no different. While everyone is eager to adopt digital tools to grow their market share, many of these software tools fail to meet the expectations of the financial customer.

According to Forbes, the digital transformation market was estimated at $594.5 billion in 2022. Unfortunately, they also found that 70% of digital transformation initiatives missed their goals. 

Implementing new software is never as simple as buying a product and flipping on the switch. And if software companies fail to consider a client’s unique needs and limitations, software implementation can lead to a frustrating, unsatisfied mess. 

Why Software Adoption Fails

Even with the greatest product on the market, SaaS (software as a service) companies can fail to meet customer expectations. 

So, where do SaaS companies go wrong? 

Software adoption fails due to:

• Poor implementation. If a client’s onboarding and implementation experience is sub-par, it can damage the relationship and affect retention and expansion goals well into the future. 
• The wrong people are involved. You need buy-in from upper-level management and individuals working at the ground level to get all the perspective you need on the project.
• Poor communication. Slow responses from the client or unclear interactions with the SaaS company delay projects and damper excitement for the product. 

To avoid wasting your client’s time and your time, money and resources, let’s look at some ways to improve software adoption with financial clients.

5 Ways to Improve Software Adoption for Banks

While you may have no problem selling your product to clients, getting them on board and effectively using the software is a whole other ball game. There are best practices, however, to help you meet your customers’ expectations and provide the improved digital experience they are seeking. 

#1: Understand the Desired Goal and Outcomes

Identifying the client’s goals and objectives for the software is crucial to having a successful onboarding and implementation process. Not only do you need to understand what they want from the new software, but you also need to understand what information they want to migrate from their old system. 

Having a clear understanding of the goals and what information they need to be successful will help you set a realistic timeline and plan. 

#2: Work With the Right People

To make the adoption go smoothly, you need to have the right people involved. From the client side, you need individuals who will advocate for the product while also having the technical skills to implement it. 

At Core10, we like to have one person who is a senior-level employee (managing partner) and one individual who has boots on the ground. The senior-level employee understands the organization’s high-level goals, can tell you what metrics matter to the organization, and can help sway buy-in and set the tone for adoption of the new software. 

The individual with boots on the ground understands the day-to-day operations of the team, gives feedback on the SaaS product functionality, and knows how the organization will use it to enhance their processes. 

By having high- and low-level employees involved, you will have a better understanding of the business’ end-to-end processes.

#3: Align Solutions to Meet Clients Where They Are

There is nothing more frustrating to a client than a vendor who cannot understand their immediate challenges and align solutions and goals with the current skill levels. New software is intimidating to many individuals, so creating a process that is simple and familiar to them will help your client through the transition. When people are comfortable with the software, they tend to use it more frequently. 

For example: If a client is accustomed to working in Excel, try to build a familiar process within your product process. 

It is also important to recognize that not all clients are alike. Implementation should best fit each client’s unique use cases and needs. 

#4: Clearly Outline and Communicate Plans

Prior to implementing the software, you need to have a clear plan that both the internal (SaaS team) and external (the client) teams can understand and commit to. It is critical to outline the steps, what happens at each step, and the expectations from the team. 

Implementation can go awry if you get to a certain step and the client is not prepared to move forward, creating delays and frustration. A set plan with detailed information ensures all parties are on the same page. 

#5: Hire a Trusted Implementation Partner

If your sales team has exceptional success securing new clients, you’re probably experiencing a backlog of new clients who need to onboard and implement your product. The longer they wait, the more their excitement begins to dwindle, and they begin to find workarounds to help them meet their needs. 

If that’s the case, you need to find yourself a trusted implementation partner who can quickly and effectively get your clients utilizing your software. 

But you can’t hire just anyone. You need a partner you can trust, who focuses on implementation, relationship management, and understands the financial industry as well as you do. 

We have a checklist to help you understand what skill set you need to look for in a dependable partner. 

Core10 Can Create a Change-Management Plan for Software Adoption for Banks

Core10 provides outsourced software implementation to our clients, including DealCloud and Pendo. We collaborate directly with our clients to provide the resources they need to help their customers implement the software and onboard their teams. 

Why Work With Core10?

1. We know the software inside and out. With our expertise, we can implement the software quickly and seamlessly. And for your peace of mind, we’ll let you know that we even implement our own products, so you can trust our experience. No hiring out the project—we do it ourselves. 
2. We are a U.S.-based company. Our implementation specialists speak your customers’ language and work within their time zones. Your clients are busy people who don’t have time to work around time differences and language barriers. 
3. We operate as an extension of your SaaS company’s team. We can ramp up quickly to meet your business’ needs and client demand. 

Our Implementation Process

Like we said, we believe wholeheartedly in the need for a clear outline of steps for both internal and external parties. Here is a generic look at the Core10 implementation plan:

Planning – Review the scope of the project, including what the client wants done, what they have paid for, and who they are; then create a timeline for the project.

Analysis – Receive client’s old data and old processes to review and understand what they liked and disliked. We determine where they are, where they want to be, and present ideas for how to get them to the next step.

Design – We begin building the site and get feedback throughout the process to make sure we are meeting their needs. 

User testing – A small group begins using a testing site, providing feedback to fine tune processes. 

Roll out – We provide training for the client and an overview of support moving forward. 

Core10 has a proven outsourced implementation model for SaaS companies in the financial services space. Core10 can ease the burden and make software adoption quick and seamless while scaling as you grow. If your backlog is growing and you need help getting your clients up and running, talk to us today about how we can partner with you.