Strategies to Implement Financial Institution Systems

Defining strategies to implement financial institution systems is key to successful growth. While selecting a new system for your financial institution can be one of the most significant decisions your team will make, successfully implementing it can be challenging.

However, with a carefully considered plan, dedicated resources, an experienced project manager, and your trusted advisors, system implementation can be relatively smooth.

Once you’ve signed the final contracts for your new system, implementation can begin for your financial institution. Plan for the system implementation to take at least 6 to 12 months from start to finish.

1. Begin with a plan

Achieving a successful system implementation for financial institutions relies on having a detailed plan providing clear direction to your team from the beginning. The plan should provide specific details regarding activities, resources, responsibilities, and target implementation dates — including internal and external factors.

Create a committee

Form a committee representing all areas of your institution, including management. Make sure all committee members have the knowledge, skills, and time available to carry out the implementation tasks.

Assign a project manager

Designate an employee to serve as the implementation project manager. This individual will work with the vendor’s assigned project manager and your trusted advisors to keep things moving forward.

Hold a kickoff meeting

Provide an overview of the implementation approach, including strategy and anticipated timelines. Review critical areas and verify adequate resources are available.

Gather your data

Review the system’s final contract and supporting documents along with the vendor’s implementation plan to verify understanding of key contract provisions and other critical success factors.

2. Evaluate and communicate

Completing an evaluation of data to be migrated from the current system to the new system is an essential implementation strategy. Insights gained through the evaluation process can help identify potential threats to implementation.

Complete an evaluation

Verify data is ready for implementation to the new system — including reviewing data conversion procedures and data mapping — along with a process for validating converted data.

Establish weekly meetings

Create project teams and establish weekly team meetings to help prioritize implementation and keep the committee informed. Any issues needing management resolution should be addressed and communicated.

Communicate repeatedly

Communicate internally with those directly involved in the implementation — and externally with those directly impacted by the implementation — to help eliminate surprises. Develop implementation communications to your financial institution’s key stakeholders providing essential information.

Internally, communications should orient staff to the project plan. Externally, communications should provide details about the implementation’s impactful changes. Notify current vendors whose systems are being replaced about termination of their service(s).

3. Drive engagement

A successful implementation strategy for financial institutions relies on your staff staying engaged throughout the process. You can help by celebrating milestones showing measurable progress. Recognize staff who are working diligently, thereby increasing visibility of the project. Take advantage of training opportunities throughout the implementation to help the transition go smoothly.

Establish staffing requirements

Implement a plan for addressing staff vacation and time-off requests, along with hiring new individuals who may not be immediately needed. Recognize these scenarios may arise during implementation — and being understaffed may make the process more challenging.

Incorporate training

A well-prepared staff on your go-live date can facilitate a seamless implementation. Confirm understanding of training and implementation requirements for resources, timing, and expectations with your vendor. Staff training is critical leading up to the go-live date — provide all team members with a specific training plan, including the time needed to complete each task.

Establish subject-matter experts

Identify key stakeholders to serve as trainers. These professionals can help prepare training materials and conduct training sessions for other staff.

4. Test thoroughly

Another critical strategy in system implementation for financial institutions is testing and data validation. Clean up data in your current system so the new system will be as accurate as possible. Compare tests and reports from both systems to confirm the new system can generate reports needed for analysis. Review the specified criteria to verify adequate safeguards are in place for protecting sensitive information and mitigating risks. Each team should determine responsibility for performing testing, acceptable test results, and steps needed to remediate a problem.

Create a change document

Develop a change management document for vendors and key internal procedures. Clearly tracking individual changes can help you anticipate how the entire process may unfold. A well-structured strategy can assist in reducing issues.

Monitor the vendor

Participate in vendor calls to confirm essential activities are being completed and monitor preparation tasks to verify timelines adhere to your implementation plan.

Perform a pre-implementation assessment

Conduct a pre-implementation assessment to verify critical activities have been completed and necessary system controls established. This assessment helps facilitate a smoother transition and identify key issues to resolve prior to implementation.

5. Implement and assess

Often the most critical and challenging strategy within a system implementation for financial institutions is the new system’s actual implementation.

Implementing a new system should be a combined effort involving institution staff, vendor personnel, and your trusted advisors to support the implementation plan.

Implement the new system

Before and after implementation, track the implementation plan’s progress. Hold daily meetings starting on the go-live date and prepare an executive summary to note unresolved issues. Attend meetings to report on the status until all documented issues are resolved to your satisfaction.

Dedicate resources

Expect increased call volume when the new system goes live. Plan to have more staff ready to handle inquiries. If possible, explore short-term call center support from the vendor or a third party.

Perform a post-implementation assessment

Conduct a post-implementation assessment once the system is up and running. This assessment should verify the new system meets your requirements and is operating effectively. Highlight strengths and weaknesses and create an action plan to resolve any issues.

Incorporate ongoing vendor management

Dedicate sufficient staff with the necessary experience, authority, and responsibility to oversee and monitor the vendor in accordance with the relationship’s risk and complexity. Regularly review performance and monitor service level agreements to assess if the current contract meets your requirements.