COO and CIO unpack the standout benefits on offer to the first round of brokers in May
Following two years of research and development, AFG’s new CRM will be available to the first round of brokers in May – a development that COO John Sanger and CIO Matthew Faries are excited about.
In an exclusive interview with MPA, the two offered a glimpse into what the CRM would look like as well as the benefits it would bring to brokers. One such feature is its use of Kanban, “a visual board of cards that enables the broker to visually manage their applications for their customers,” said Sanger.
“One of the things that we’ve seen is, broker groups are using a lot of different tools, and for each tool that they use, they’re copying data between them and it’s creating inefficiencies,” he said. “What we set out to do here is try to reduce the number of products they are having to use to avoid that double handling of data.”
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An integrated sales pipeline and workflow tool is just one of many features on offer, the CRM also having BID and compliance built into its flow as well as third-party integration with services such as Docusign.
“It’s a full featured digital workspace for brokers,” said Faries, explain that it enables brokers to “lodge and manage applications with improvements around efficiency data.” It also makes it easier to pass documents through to lenders, manage customers, invest in pipelines with an integrated pipeline product and “run a business more effectively with improved collaboration capabilities.”
“We’ve also built some capabilities in the CRM which will help brokers with some of those more complicated deals – multiple splits, multiple households and also an improved product solution process, so we think those things are going to be quite beneficial,” said Sanger.
The aptly named “CRM” will replace existing platform FLEX and form the centrepiece of AFG’s revamped digital offering “AFG Suite360.” This already includes the award-winning “Learn,” an education platform, as well as an analytics service, a lender portal and a marketing platform.
AFG’s recently launched fact find Customer360 – something that has been well-received by brokers so far - will really come into its own once integrated with CRM, said Sanger.
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The roll out of CRM won’t be the final development in AFG’s revamp, Faries confirming, “We have a roadmap of things that we are going to continue to work on.”
“Following the onboarding of our first brokers we will be working with the rest of our groups with a learning and development roadmap and transition plan to ensure that our brokers have a great experience with the new platform,” added Sanger.
