IT and Technology for Financial Advisory Firms

What changes

• Microsoft 365 runs the office, not just the email.
• The office works from one shared system, not personal spreadsheets and email threads.
• Your compliance team can see who has access to which files.

How it works

1. Tracking that lives in personal spreadsheets moves into a SharePoint List, a shared list the whole office sees. Each open item has an owner, a status and a due date. SDT has connected lists to the CRM.
2. Requests that live in email threads move into Teams, where everyone can see who has the next step.
3. Outlook workflows turn a client request or custodian notice into a tracked task. Power Automate, a Microsoft 365 tool, is one way to move work from one step to the next. SDT has used its flows to connect SharePoint, Outlook, Teams, Excel and Salesforce.
4. Working files sit in OneDrive, each person's own file space. Shared files sit in SharePoint. Access follows the firm's policy, not the individual.
5. Every solution goes through your firm's compliance review before it goes live. SDT prepares what the reviewer needs. The finished system is documented.

What changes

• A change in one place reaches the others. Staff update a client record once.
• A meeting booked through the scheduling tool lands on the client record.
• When your firm adds a platform or changes a vendor, the connections change with it.

How it works

1. Before anything is connected, SDT works out where each piece of data starts and which system the others should follow. Client details start in the CRM. A booking starts in the scheduling tool.
2. SDT has connected the CRM to Calendly and GReminders, which book meetings and send reminders, and to MyRepChat, which sends texts. Planning and account data from eMoney and Albridge feed your reports.
3. Where no ready-made link exists, SDT writes a data feed, a small program that carries data from one system to another. One built example delivers live account data into eMoney.
4. Every solution goes through your firm's compliance review before it goes live. SDT prepares what the reviewer needs: what data moves, where it goes and who can see it.
5. The person who designs a connection is the person who builds it, and the one you reach afterward.

What changes

• The network, the Wi-Fi and the phones are installed by one team.
• One team to call, not a vendor you then have to manage.

How it works

1. Networking and Wi-Fi are installed on site.
2. Structured cabling, the network cabling in the walls, is run for the office.
3. Power over Ethernet sends power through the network cable, so a device on it needs no separate outlet.
4. Software work is done remotely for firms anywhere. On-site IT covers North New Jersey.

What changes

• The tool the office needs, built for it.
• The process no longer depends on one person's spreadsheet.

How it works

1. Internal tools built around one process, including asset trackers.
2. Custom data feeds where no connector exists. One built example delivers live account data into eMoney.
3. One built example for a business outside advisory: a full contract management system for a catering business.
4. For advisory firms, it goes through the firm's compliance review before it goes live.

What changes

• A website your firm's compliance can review before it goes live.
• A chatbot that runs only on a platform your firm accepts.

How it works

1. SDT builds the website. One advisor website built by SDT was approved by that advisor's compliance team.
2. Any AI tool SDT builds runs only on a platform your firm accepts.
3. Before either goes live, SDT prepares what your compliance reviewer needs.

What changes

• We take on other businesses too, on prepaid block time.
• The same people and the same standards as the advisory work.

How it works

1. Block time means a set of hours bought in advance.
2. SDT runs IT and technology end to end for commercial clients as well as advisory firms.
3. One example: a full contract management system built for a catering business.