CASE STUDY: GROWING PAINS AT A TURBO CHARGED FINTECH FIRM
A well-funded FinTech firm experienced explosive growth over 18-24 months. They were at critical mass in terms of client service delivery capabilities, staffing levels and their ability to manage internal operations quickly and effectively.
Background
A well-funded FinTech firm was experiencing explosive growth over the previous 18-24 months. They were at critical mass in terms of client service delivery capabilities, staffing levels, and their ability to manage internal operations quickly and effectively.
Their historical operating model of "act by react” was not sustainable and the manual processes that they were operating by could no longer scale with the rapid growth.
Amplify was brought in to help the firm's leadership assess their current state of operations, identify existing risks and defects, and provide a strategic roadmap to improve the firms overall operating rhythm and posture.
Challenges
The major challenges the company faced were:
Lack of automation/tools
Data processing and analytics activities were managed with
manual processes or complex,
home-grown Excel-based models and tools which were very fragile. Many also lacked documentation for the logic used to create the tools.
Lack of documented process/standard operating procedures
There was very little continuity in the work approach and client deliverables. The client service and data analytics teams seemingly “reinvented the wheel” on every engagement or client sponsored project. There was a lot of “brute force” processing taking place which could be simplified, standardized, and automated.
“We’ve always done it this way”
While having an innovative and technically savvy staff, many seemed reluctant to accept new tools and techniques for performing their daily tasks. Staff morale deteriorated due the extreme hours many worked, but there was also a systemic “build” vs “buy” mentality that resonated across the data and analytics staff at the firm.
Solution
Using a smaller team of tenured technology, data and process experts, Amplify analyzed and documented several key business processes across the organization. We performed a decomposition and business process analysis to identify defects, system risks, and overall improvement opportunities for the client.
After categorizing, prioritizing, and resourcing these opportunities, the team created a rolling 12-month project roadmap which illustrated the benefits, risks and possible staffing/capability gaps to complete the work. We then worked closely with the data and analytics teams, upgrading and upskilling their home-grown models with modern tools, adding several layers of automation to replace their repetitious and manual processes.
Throughout the engagement we paid careful attention to the change management element and ensured the staff felt included, involved, and valued throughout the journey.
Result
After further iterating the roadmap we worked with the executive team to fill the staffing and capability gaps that historically impeded the work. Using a combination of staff augmentation and new talent sourced through Amplify’s talent management division, we placed qualified candidates in the appropriate roles in roughly 50% less time than the clients historical time-to-hire metric.
Once the appropriate resources were in place and the roadmap was finalized, we served in an advisory capacity as they began to execute their transformative changes. We measured an average productivity increase of 40% based on volume of data processing, a 15% increase in their annual Net Promoter Score measuring client satisfaction and a 25% reduction in employee attrition within the data and analytics division within 6 months.
Conclusion
Quick growth can be a double-edged sword for an emerging organization. Start-ups do not always have the tools or capital available to optimize and scale their operations, and they will often go a “build” route to help them meet their needs. The “build” approach rarely scales well for complex business operations and it can become an impediment to advancing the organization’s agenda. When looking at how to scale your organization to match your growth the question is often: Where to start? What will give me the most bang for my buck? Is this change sustainable for me?
Does this
sound like conversations you are having with your investors, boards, and peers?
How can Amplify help you? Let’s talk!
Reach out to us at
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