The Unbanked and Underbanked Opportunity

As you know all too well, the financial services business has become more complex due in a large part to new regulations and the current overall economic conditions. Neither is going away soon…

We hope that you will contact us should you feel that we can be of service. Our staff has years of experience assisting community based financial institutions, helping businesses address strategic issues, and moving revenue to the bottom line. If you are interested in talking in more detail on how we might be able to help your financial institution please contact us by phone at (952)-303-5566 or by email at info@fredmaradvisors.com.

Dean Schumann
Managing Partner
dean.schumann@fredmaradvisors.com

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Developing your business plan

Frederick Martin can assist developing your business plan in a variety of different ways. A common process is a facilitated meeting with your board and key members of executive management. Pre-meeting questionnaires are provided to those attending, allowing for each one to come prepared with what they deem key objectives and how best to achieve them.

Other alternative approaches in developing your organization’s business plan can include investing time in conducting culture surveys of your staff, performing market surveys, or overseeing focus groups with key clients. We will work with an approach that you feel is most beneficial to your financial institution. Whatever the approach, our goal is to help you develop a strategy that is focused on key objectives that are achievable in realistic time-frames.

For more information please contact us by calling (952) 303-5566 or sending an email to info@fredmaradvisors.com

Methodology

Our advisors are specifically trained to gather information on your current systems. We will work with you to identify the features worth retaining and will suggest features that are lacking, and that would allow your staff to be more productive. We will compare the information that we gather with what executive management deems the most critical functions for your financial institution. For some, the most important priority may be to provide fast, efficient loan closing. While others may feel that providing the most flexible cash management services is of the highest priority. You will likely have more than one priority.

Whatever your priorities, we will help develop and document a multi-year technology strategy that is in line with your business plan. As with any strategy, it must be flexible to the changing times. Our deliverables include an electronic version of the plan document as well as the training for your staff on how to modify as your business plans change over time.

For more information please contact us by calling (952) 303-5566 or sending an email to info@fredmaradvisors.com

Our advisors know the major vendor’s capabilities and are extremely knowledgeable when it comes to system selection. Our advisors will help determine which vendors to consider, manage the process of narrowing the list down to the finalists and aid you in the selection of the best match based on your requirements.

Using a Proven Methodology

While each engagement in assisting our clients with selecting a new vendor is customized, we follow a time proven five phase approach that will keep the project on schedule and within budget all while minimizing your staff’s time:

• Phase I – As Is and Desired State:

  With the use of our proprietary questionnaires we gain a high level view of the “as is state” of your current technology. Following the questionnaires, on-site executive and department interviews are conducted to obtain a more detailed understanding of your organization. By completing the questionnaires and conducting the interviews we are able to pinpoint your “desired state.” This information is then documented in a request for proposal to go to selected vendors.

• Phase II – Vendor Selection

  We will recommend several vendors (typically 3 to 5) that best fit with your “desired state” based upon our knowledge of their current capabilities. These vendors are asked to respond to the RFP that is used to narrow down to the finalists (typically 2) who will be asked to demonstrate their capabilities at your facility.

  Following the demonstrations we recommend that a select number of your staff visit financial institutions of similar size and structure for further due diligence. Our advisors will then facilitate a meeting with your team to select the vendor of choice based on what you have learned throughout this process.

• Phase III – Negotiations:

  Our staff has experience in negotiating hundreds of contracts including both the terms and fees. For more detailed information see Vendor Contract Negotiations.

• Phase IV – Implementation:

  As an option we can provide project management for the installation of the new system to aid in keeping the selected vendor on task for a smoother conversion.

• Phase V – Confirmation:

  Following the conversion, we can review the contract and compare it to what has been delivered to ensure that everything was completed by the vendor as promised. We will also review invoices to verify the accuracy of their billing.

For more information please contact us by calling (952) 303-5566 or sending an email to info@fredmaradvisors.com

Making It A “Win / Win”

Based on our experience with most of the major vendors serving the financial services community, we know that vendors are typically willing to change contract terms so they are more favorable to you, in both defined service level agreements (SLAs) and pricing. Should something go wrong, it is essential that you have the appropriate service level agreements in place: either to make the vendor correct any issues that arise; or in the most severe cases, to allow you to get out of the contract all together.

We feel it is important that the final agreement is a “Win/Win” for both you and the vendor. It is important that you keep a close eye on your expenses, but it is also necessary for the vendor to be profitable so they can afford the resources to support you over the term of the agreement.

Our Guarantee

We guarantee that you will recover more than the fees we charge for this service. Typically our clients recover our fees multiple times over the life of the contract. If you do not receive the expected value as a result of Frederick Martin performing this service, we will refund all fees paid.

For more information please contact us by calling (952) 303-5566 or sending an email to info@fredmaradvisors.com