How an Award-Winning Financial Planning Firm Cut Server Costs by 50% by Moving from Virtual Cabinet to Workiro

After Testing 3 Different Solutions – They Decided To Move From Virtual Cabinet To Workiro

For over 30 years, Informed Choice - an award-winning firm of independent Chartered Financial Planners - has been supporting its clients with solid and reliable financial advice.

When the time came for the business to reassess its IT solutions, the team chose to move to Workiro, a cloud-based variant of the Virtual Cabinet product, which offered additional e-signature functionality.

Julia Docker, Practice Manager at Informed Choice, explains why:

“When we implemented Virtual Cabinet, our main objective was to reduce the reliance on printing, paper and post. It served us well over the years. However, it was the last of our server-based IT solutions. Everything else we use was cloud-based - keeping Virtual Cabinet had become a significant cost to the business in terms of server space and IT maintenance costs.”

With the decision made to move to a cloud-based solution, the team agreed on a list of functionality that they needed - including document management, search capability, e-signatures and email capture.

They test-drove a number of solutions with mixed results:

“We tried at least 3 different systems. One crashed Outlook, another didn’t quite have the functionality we needed in terms of e-signatures."

Finally they landed on a decision:

"Of the 3 systems we tested, Workiro offered the best fit for the business, and the move to the cloud cut our server costs in half too.”

eSignature Functionality Built For Professionals In Mind – Was A Big Success

Importantly the inbuilt eSignature function needed to meet multiple needs:

“ We work with a range of providers, including Transact, Fidelity, M&G, and Aviva, all of whom have specific criteria for e-signatures."

As Workiro is built specifically for professional firms in highly regulated industries – and was able to customise the exact process Informed needed:

"We worked with Mike at Workiro to tweak the process and ensure that the format of our e-signatures met the needs of each of the providers."

This was a huge win for Informed.

This level of customisation and understanding of professional firms is a key reason  firms use Workiro.

Not to mention the other (more basic) benefits Informed now enjoyed:

"We used to have to print and post documentation, so it’s been a huge cost and time-saving from that perspective."

Client Satisfaction Was Critical

With over 30 years in business, it's no surprise that client satisfaction is central to the way the Informed Choice team works.

“It goes back to that early vision of offering financial advice that removes stress, brings people closer to their goals and offers financial security."

Client experience was a non-negotiable and Workiro delivered on this:

"Clients like the fact that they don’t need to remember login details, which simplifies the process for them, too.”

Serving clients from on the go was an unexpected plus:

"We can access information easily, any time and anywhere, whether we’re in the office, or working from home."

Easy Migration In Just 21 Days – With Dedicated Support They Can Still Reach Out To

Workiro is a re-imagining of Virtual Cabinet in the cloud.

This simplifies the migration process.

Qualified engineers offered a full consultation, installation and document migration service – as well as onboarding and training from start to finish.‍

Businesses are usually up and running within 21 days, ensuring downtime is kept to a minimum.

“Our migration manager, Mike, was great. We can still get in touch with the team for ongoing support. Mike is there, on hand, whenever we need him.”

This is unusual in the tech space – with other vendors often 'disappearing' after implementation.

Results

Informed Choice is very happy with their new system:

“Everyone in the team uses the system daily, and it is saving us both time and money.”