Every Broker is Different.

Kingland has integrated hundreds of brokerage data feeds into solutions for our clients. We are the most experienced firm in the world related to broker on-boarding, and we have seen a lot. While there are a lot of lessons, we wanted to share with you one immutable fact as you consider brokerage import as an aspect of improving compliance rates: Every broker is different.

Brokers approach on-boarding differently based on the priority they place on their client relationships, the state of their technology, and where they have invested their staff. As an example, we have brokers on-boarded that have different file formats and people engaged based on which of our clients are asking for the broker to be on-boarded – driving to the equivalent of setting up the same broker multiple times. In other cases, we can leverage the work that we have performed in a previous broker on-boarding for our next client.

As you can see, some brokerages have a reputation for enabling a fast onboarding process. Others have organizational and procedural hurdles that make progress difficult. At a high level, these are the traits that we have picked up on indicating a broker either has a streamlined working model or the broker interaction is difficult.

Difficult Brokers

The following are characteristics of brokers that are difficult during the on-boarding process.

• Lack of Ownership. Some brokers have many lines of business and are not motivated to assist our clients in finding the correct individuals to drive to success. Finding the right person with the right authority to help deliver the desired data is a challenge.
  
  
• Insufficient Security. Some brokers espouse security requirements that conflict with industry best practices. For example, sharing two or more clients' data in the same data feed may create operational security issues that our clients will not accept. A second example is that brokers may request to use the same encryption key across multiple feeds. We are flexible on many aspects of the integration, but we cannot compromise on data security.
  
  
• Tactical Focus. Some brokers fail to see the benefit of setting up a data integration with our clients. If we first have to convince a broker to take the time to work with us and our client, the onboarding process will drag on as the project is viewed with the improper focus.

Efficient Brokers

The following are characteristics of brokers that are streamlined during the on-boarding process.

• Prepared. The best brokers are prepared with documentation that answers the typical connectivity and formatting questions required for efficient onboarding.
  
  
• Flexible. The best brokers follow Kingland's standard integration configuration. In these cases, less time is needed across each phase of the implementation.
  
  
• Engaged. The best brokers communicate clearly and quickly with Kingland team members. The ability to resolve issues quickly removes rework and missed expectations.
  
  
• Strategic. The best brokers know we may collaborate more in the future. Brokers that understand the value of their data feed working for our clients will have a level of ownership in their work that makes onboarding efficient.

Understanding these traits enable Kingland project teams to provide guidance to our clients on how to best approach a series of broker onboardings. The difficult brokers are identified and started on early because they will take time. Meanwhile, efficient brokers can be feathered into each release for consistent wins along way.

Reach out to Kingland today to see how your firm could benefit from these onboarding insights.