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Mastering Salesforce Financial Services Cloud: A Step-by-Step Implementation Guide

By |2024-10-03T13:26:14+00:00October 3rd, 2024|

In today’s fast-evolving financial landscape, institutions need more than just traditional CRM solutions. They need cutting-edge tools that can unify data, personalize customer engagement, and streamline processes. This is where Salesforce Financial Services Cloud becomes essential. Designed with the financial industry in mind, Salesforce Financial Services Cloud provides an AI-powered CRM platform that drives personalized engagement, accelerates customer onboarding, and unlocks powerful data insights. 

 For organizations seeking to implement Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, the process requires careful planning and the right expertise. Partnering with an experienced Salesforce Financial Services Cloud implementation partner like Mirketa can ensure a seamless transition and faster realization of business goals. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk through the key steps, features, and best practices for Salesforce Financial Services Cloud implementation. 

What is Salesforce Financial Services Cloud? 

Salesforce Financial Services Cloud (FSC) is a tailored solution built for banks, wealth management firms, and insurance companies. Its primary goal is to unify data from core banking, financial planning, and insurance platforms, providing a 360-degree view of the customer. This allows organizations to activate data for personalized engagement, making use of automation and AI specifically designed for financial services. 

 With the Financial Services Cloud, institutions can enhance customer relationships, accelerate onboarding, and scale service operations—all while ensuring compliance with industry regulations. It integrates data seamlessly, driving business agility, and enabling financial institutions to deliver intelligent insights that foster customer loyalty and financial success. 

Why Choose Salesforce Financial Services Cloud? 

Grow Revenue with Trusted Relationships
Financial Services Cloud allows organizations to build deeper relationships with clients by providing a clear view of customer interactions and financial status. With tools like the Actionable Relationship Center, businesses can model complex relationships and identify new opportunities for growth. Additionally, FSC makes it easy to track real-time account data and progress toward financial goals, using tools like the Client Financial Profile. 

Simplify Customer Onboarding
The onboarding process can be a challenge for financial institutions due to compliance and the need for extensive data collection. Salesforce FSC simplifies this with its Onboarding Console Application, enabling organizations to speed up the process using a pre-configured template. It also offers the Discovery Framework, which streamlines financial discovery processes across channels. 

Scale Service with AI-Powered Automation
With built-in AI and automation tools, Salesforce FSC enhances service productivity and customer satisfaction. Features like the Self-Service Portal allow customers to manage their financial needs independently, while service reps can leverage a connected Service Console to handle cases more efficiently. 

Unlock Data for Personalized Engagement
One of FSC’s standout features is its ability to unify customer data from various financial systems. Through the Financial Data Platform, organizations can create a comprehensive financial profile, delivering personalized experiences. With insights such as household income and net worth, FSC enables tailored financial advice and recommendations. 

Key Features of Salesforce Financial Services Cloud 

Actionable Relationship Center
The Actionable Relationship Center provides a consolidated view of customers’ relationships, helping financial advisors identify key influences and relationships within a household or corporate structure. It’s a vital tool for understanding the complexities of family wealth management and corporate banking relationships. 

Financial Plans and Goals
With FSC, advisors can track and manage their clients’ financial goals, offering proactive recommendations to ensure these objectives are met. The platform provides real-time insights, allowing for dynamic adjustments to financial plans. 

Discovery Framework
The Discovery Framework is essential for gathering key customer information during the onboarding process. With pre-configured question banks, institutions can ensure they are collecting the right data for compliance and service personalization. 

Self-Service Portal
The Self-Service Portal allows customers to access their financial information and perform tasks like checking account balances, setting goals, and interacting with financial advisors—creating a seamless, customer-centric experience. 

Integration Definitions and Pre-built Connectors
One of the key pillars of Financial Services Cloud is its ability to integrate smoothly with core banking, wealth management, and insurance systems. The Integration Definitions feature and pre-built connectors simplify the integration of legacy systems, enabling the smooth flow of data across platforms. 

Service Process Studio
The Service Process Studio allows financial institutions to create comprehensive service workflows using minimal to no coding tools. This allows for easier customization of service workflows, making it possible to tailor the customer service experience to everyone’s needs. 

Steps for Salesforce Financial Services Cloud Implementation 

Implementing Salesforce Financial Services Cloud (FSC) requires a strategic approach to ensure a smooth transition and optimal utilization of the platform’s features. Here are the comprehensive steps for effectively implementing Salesforce Financial Services Cloud:

Preparation and Discovery Phase

Before starting the technical implementation, you need to plan the project thoroughly. 

  • Define Business Objectives
    Define the key objectives you intend to accomplish with FSC. This could range from improving customer engagement, enhancing customer onboarding, boosting service efficiency, or ensuring better compliance with financial regulations.
  • Stakeholder Identification and Requirements Gathering
    Collaborate with key stakeholders—senior management, financial advisors, customer service reps, and IT teams—to gather their requirements. Understanding their pain points will help in configuring the system to meet their needs.
    Conduct interviews and workshops to capture detailed business processes.
    Map out your workflows and areas that need automation.
  • Create a Data Strategy
    Create a comprehensive data management plan that covers data sources, quality assurance, and data migration. Identify the key data points from existing core banking, insurance, and wealth management systems that need to be integrated into FSC. Document data integration points, such as customer accounts, financial plans, and client interactions.
    Implement processes for data cleansing and validation to maintain the accuracy of the imported data. 

Set Up the Salesforce Financial Services Cloud Environment 

Create Salesforce Orgs

Set up the sandbox environment in Salesforce where you will build and test FSC functionalities. Ideally, use a Developer Sandbox for initial setup and customization, followed by testing in a Partial or Full Sandbox for end-user validation.

 

Install Financial Services Cloud

Install the Salesforce Financial Services Cloud package in your Salesforce system through the AppExchange platform. This package includes all the industry-specific tools needed for wealth management, banking, or insurance.
Check that the FSC features are activated correctly, such as Action Plans, Client Financial Profiles, and Household Data Models.

 

Configure the Data Model

Financial Services Cloud uses a specialized data model to handle relationships between individuals, households, and entities. You will need to: 

  • If your business handles individual client accounts, configure Person Accounts accordingly. 
  • Define household and relationship structures using the Actionable Relationship Centre to model complex relationships like families or corporate structures.

 

Customize Financial Goals and Plans

Salesforce Financial Services Cloud provides capabilities to monitor and manage customer financial plans and objectives. Set up custom financial plan templates or goals to match your business model. You can configure: 

  • Financial Plan Objects that track individual financial objectives, such as retirement plans, investments, or insurance needs. 
  • Client Financial Profiles that provide insights into a customer’s financial situation, including assets, liabilities, and risk tolerance. 

Integrate Existing Systems with FSC 

  1. Map Data from Core SystemsIf your financial data resides in third-party systems, you will need to create integrations. Salesforce FSC offers pre-built connectors for common financial systems, or you can use Salesforce APIs to integrate custom systems.
    Use MuleSoft or other integration tools to link core banking or wealth management systems with FSC.Integrate transactional data to create a unified Financial Data Platform, allowing financial advisors to access real-time account balances and transaction histories.
  2. Configure Customer Onboarding FlowsImplement the Onboarding Console Application to optimize the customer onboarding workflow. This includes integrating external systems like identity verification services or KYC (Know Your Customer) systems. Configure the Discovery Framework to guide advisors through the financial discovery process with structured question banks.
    Use Flow Orchestration to automate decision-making workflows during onboarding, reducing manual effort and errors. 

Customizing and Configuring Key Features 

  1. Actionable Relationship Centre
    Set up the Actionable Relationship Centre to manage complex customer relationships, such as family structures or business hierarchies. Tailor the system to suit the unique needs of your financial institution.
    Define the roles and interactions within households and corporate entities.
  2. Action Plans and Task Automation
    Use Action Plans to automate common tasks in wealth management or financial services. Action Plans can be set up to assign tasks for customer follow-ups, document collection, or compliance activities.
    Develop templates for repetitive tasks, such as quarterly reviews, regulatory reporting, or customer milestone tracking.
  3. Configure Service Process Studio
    The Service Process Studio allows you to build custom workflows for client servicing. You can create automated service flows for account inquiries, claims processing, or financial product recommendations.
    Develop low-code service workflows that can be reused across multiple service channels. 

Testing and Quality Assurance 

  1. Unit Testing
    As each feature or integration is configured, conduct thorough unit tests in a sandbox environment to ensure it works as expected. Test each workflow, automation, and data integration point. 
  2. User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
    Once the system is configured, perform User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with end-users to validate the implementation. This should include: 
  • Testing customer onboarding processes. 
  • Validating that financial plans, action plans, and other key features work in real-world scenarios.
    Testing data accuracy and integration flows. 

Performance Testing
Ensure that the system can handle the expected data load and user activity. Test performance under heavy usage conditions, especially for features like the Self-Service Portal and large-scale data integrations. 

Training and Deployment 

Train End-Users
Create a detailed training program for financial advisors, service reps, and other end-users. Focus on: 

  • Navigating the Financial Services Cloud dashboard. 
  • Creating and managing financial plans and goals. 
  • Using the Actionable Relationship Centre and Client Financial Profile. 
  • Managing onboarding and customer service tasks. 

Go Live 

After successful testing, you are ready to deploy the system. Begin by rolling out the solution to a small group of users or specific departments, then progressively implement it across the entire organization. 

Post-Launch Support 

Provide post-launch assistance to resolve any emerging issues. Continuously track system performance and gather user feedback to implement ongoing enhancements. 

Continuous Optimization 

Salesforce Financial Services Cloud is highly flexible, and there’s always room for improvement. After deployment: 

  • Continuously review system performance and make enhancements to workflows, automation, and data integrations. 
  • Keep an eye on Salesforce updates and enhancements to ensure that your organization is taking advantage of the latest features and functionalities. 

By following these detailed steps, financial institutions can implement Salesforce Financial Services Cloud effectively, ensuring a smooth transition and unlocking the platform’s full potential for customer engagement, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance.  

Partnering with a trusted Salesforce Financial Services Cloud implementation partner like Mirketa will help tailor the implementation to your specific needs, guaranteeing a successful outcome.

Why Choose Mirketa as Your Salesforce Financial Services Cloud Implementation Partner? 

Implementing Salesforce Financial Services Cloud (FSC) is a complex task that requires a deep understanding of both the platform and the specific needs of the financial industry.  

This is where Mirketa comes in as an experienced and trusted Salesforce implementation partner. With a proven track record of success, Mirketa ensures a smooth implementation process, tailored solutions, and ongoing support. Here are some key reasons why Mirketa is an excellent choice as your Salesforce Financial Services Cloud implementation partner: 

Deep Expertise in Financial Services

Mirketa has extensive experience working with financial institutions like banks, wealth managers, and insurance companies. Our team understands the nuances of financial services and the challenges associated with customer onboarding, regulatory compliance, data management, and financial planning. This industry-specific knowledge allows us to tailor Salesforce FSC solutions that perfectly align with your business processes and objectives. 

  • Expertise in banking, wealth management, and insurance-specific workflows. 
  • Understanding of compliance needs such as KYC, GDPR, and other regulatory frameworks. 

Proven Track Record of Successful Implementations 

Mirketa has a proven track record of delivering successful Salesforce Financial Services Cloud implementations for various clients. Our team of certified Salesforce consultants has delivered solutions that transform how financial institutions manage client relationships, streamline operations, and leverage data. 

  • Client Success Stories: We have helped numerous financial institutions improve efficiency, boost client engagement, and increase revenue using Salesforce FSC. 
  • Industry-Specific Solutions: From household modelling and financial goal setting to automated service workflows, Mirketa delivers solutions that align with financial best practices. 

Tailored and Scalable Solutions 

At Mirketa, we understand that no two financial institutions are alike. That’s why we take a customized approach to each implementation, ensuring that the Salesforce Financial Services Cloud solution meets your unique business requirements. Whether you need custom workflows, specialized financial data models, or integrations with legacy systems, Mirketa provides tailored solutions that can grow with your business. 

  • Customization: We build custom features like Action Plans, Client Financial Profiles, and Financial Goals tailored to your business processes. 
  • Scalability: Mirketa ensures that your Salesforce implementation is scalable, supporting future growth, and technological advancements. 

Seamless Data Integration 

One of the most critical aspects of Salesforce FSC implementation is integrating data from existing banking, insurance, and wealth management systems. Mirketa excels in data integration, ensuring that your core systems work seamlessly with Salesforce FSC. 

  • Pre-built Connectors and APIs: Mirketa leverages Salesforce’s pre-built connectors and APIs to integrate core banking, insurance, and wealth management systems with the FSC platform. 
  • Data Unification: We unify disparate data sources, ensuring a complete 360-degree customer view, which helps in personalized engagement and informed decision-making. 

Focus on Regulatory Compliance

In the financial sector, regulatory compliance is paramount. Mirketa ensures that your Salesforce Financial Services Cloud implementation adheres to relevant industry regulations and standards, including GDPR, KYC, and other data privacy requirements. We help you configure Salesforce to automatically collect necessary consents and disclosures, reducing the risk of compliance issues. 

  • Compliance Automation: We configure Disclosure and Consent Management to streamline the onboarding process and ensure regulatory adherence. 
  • Security Best Practices: Mirketa implements robust role-based access controls and field-level security to protect sensitive financial data. 

Comprehensive End-User Training

A successful Salesforce FSC implementation goes beyond technical setup. It’s critical that your team understands how to use the platform effectively. Mirketa provides comprehensive training to your advisors, service representatives, and administrators, ensuring smooth adoption across your organization. 

  • Tailored Training Programs: We offer customized training based on user roles, ensuring that your team fully understands features such as financial goal tracking, client profiles, and service automation. 
  • Ongoing Support: After go-live, Mirketa offers continuous support and assistance to ensure your team maximizes the platform’s potential. 

Agile Implementation Approach

Mirketa follows an agile implementation methodology, ensuring that projects are delivered on time and within budget. By breaking the project into iterative phases, we ensure that critical functionalities are deployed early, and there’s flexibility to adjust the system based on real-time feedback. 

  • Rapid Time-to-Market: We prioritize business-critical functionalities such as customer onboarding and data integration, ensuring early go-lives and immediate ROI. 
  • Continuous Feedback Loop: Our agile approach involves regular check-ins with your stakeholders, allowing us to fine-tune the implementation as needed. 

Post-Implementation Support and Optimization 

Mirketa’s involvement doesn’t end at go-live. We offer post-implementation support to help optimize your Salesforce FSC instance. Our team continuously monitors system performance and user feedback to make necessary adjustments, ensuring your Salesforce instance evolves with your business needs. 

  • Ongoing Maintenance and Enhancements: We provide ongoing maintenance, fine-tuning workflows, automating new processes, and integrating additional systems as your business grows. 
  • Proactive Optimization: Mirketa ensures that your Salesforce instance is optimized for performance, security, and compliance through periodic audits and updates. 

 

Conclusion 

Mirketa, a salesforce crest partner stands out as a top choice for Salesforce Financial Services Cloud implementation due to our deep industry expertise, commitment to compliance, customized approach, and proven track record of success. Whether you’re looking to streamline onboarding, enhance customer engagement, or unify data from legacy systems, Mirketa provides the expertise and guidance you need to make the most of Salesforce Financial Services Cloud. 

With our agile approach, tailored solutions, and post-implementation support, Mirketa ensures that your organization not only implements Salesforce FSC successfully but also unlocks its full potential to drive business growth, enhance operational efficiency, and foster customer loyalty. 

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