Then & Now: Transforming our Internal Wholesaler Environment

Kerry FretzSun Life Financial - Canada

Sun Life Financial distribution channels • Wholesale

– Independent MGA’s, PPGA’s, National accounts, inter-corporate partners (distribute Sun Life Financial branded products)

– Approximately 7000 advisors

• Clarica Sales Force– Exclusive sales force (distribute Clarica and

Sun Life Financial branded products)– Approximately 3500 members

Internal wholesale team

Leadership Team

Account Managers

Inside Sales Support Team

Regional Teams

The past - what we had• ACT – Lotus Notes Database from 1999

• Glorified address book• No support from vendor• No hierarchy capability• No geographical support• No ability to attach notes to a record• No reporting feature

• Excel spreadsheets• Cumbersome• Never current

What we wanted

• A web enabled relationship & contact management tool to:

– manage activity and contact with partner organizations

– hierarchical structure per contact– remote / offline capability– integrates with Lotus Notes and Blackberry– ability to import/export data feeds

What we wanted – cont’d

– security control– maintenance and support– adhoc reports or lists– creation of letter & communication templates for

mailings• Data conversion and clean-up• Canadian French• Training and ‘best practices’

What we did• Reviewed seven vendor packages starting in Jan

2005• Selected SmartOffice® product in March 2005 and

implemented in August 2006– hosted on Sun Life Financial server– no customization– purchased SmartOffice ® Enterprise for Wholesalers

Package and SmartOffice ® Mobile • Spent significant time and effort to clean up existing

data• Converted to Windows XP • Manual completion of contact information

What we learned • Hierarchy of contacts is not as robust as our

business organizational structures• Switching to in-house hosting significantly

delayed timelines– challenge to duplicate environments on servers– higher SQA costs with longer defect resolution

time

What we learned – cont’d

• Hands-on internal training well received yet not timely

– rolled out in the summer and tool not used until the fall

• Needed more hands-on training for “super user” prior to implementation

• Still learning about “what we have”• PDA need – sooner rather than later

Where we are todayStrengths Capitalize on Strengths

100% participation by internal wholesale users (mandatory)

Immediate improvement in reporting capability

Allows for mass communication to all users and contacts

Real time activity tracking Connects the entire team

Exploit learnings, trends and activity from reports

Explore other SmartOffice ® capabilities / modules that could be integrated into the business

Leverage information and reporting Data feeds

Weaknesses Address Weaknesses

Poor French support Delivery timeline for PDA support has been

delayed

Commit to Canadian French services being implemented at the same time as English

Continue to followup for BlackBerry support

Where we are todayOpportunities Maximize Opportunities

Still learning about all the “possibilities” within SmartOffice ®

Lots of information to interpret Consistent process and training across all

regions Web tool allows for multi-users

Allow us to understand how, when and how often we interact with partners

Report on service levels Leveraging what we have across other

channels

Threats Minimize Threats

Convergence in product & technology vendors

Mobility of users

Develop strategic partnerships with mature product & technology vendors

Need BlackBerry early 2007 to maximize full use of purchased modules

In summary• Internal Wholesale team are very pleased with

SmartOffice ®

• Still learning about ourselves and our distribution partners

• More training / Webinar’s between internal wholesale community

• Integration with PDA / mobile tools– users won’t fully embrace SmartOffice ® until

accessible through BlackBerry