Commonwealth Financial. Network Boost Project Efficiency and Transparency with Quick Base. Case Study. The Challenge. The Solution.

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1 Case Study Commonwealth Financial Network Boost Project Efficiency and Transparency with Quick Base At Commonwealth Financial Network, empowering 1,500 financial advisors nationwide with the right technology solutions is a key strategic advantage. To manage the hundreds of technology projects that power its solutions, Commonwealth implemented a project management office (PMO) that tracks over 600 different projects in an Quick Base application. Since adopting Quick Base in 2011, Commonwealth has gained efficiency, transparency, and accessibility in its project processes. The Challenge Spreadsheets and s used to track hundreds of technology projects Lack of transparency into project progress Project activities difficult to track No central repository for all project info Slow reporting on project tasks, resource hours, and other metrics Off-the-shelf project management solutions too inflexible for Commonwealth s unique requirements The Solution Quick Base allowed Commonwealth Financial Network to move our project process from spreadsheets and s to a streamlined, integrated system that saves us time and money, Darren Tedesco, Managing Partner Commonwealth Financial Network Quick Base app for managing project portfolio Activities tracked, documented and visible via central repository Dashboards customized to user roles for fast reporting Automated notifications keep the right people informed at the right time Project Management Office (PMO) tasked with managing portfolio The Results More efficient management of projects Greater transparency into project status 1

2 Profile With over $800 million in revenues and almost $90 billion in total account assets, Commonwealth Financial Network is the largest privately held independent broker/ dealer in the U.S. The company has been recognized 25 times as one of the Best Places to Work by local and national publications, including Computerworld, which named Commonwealth the 3rd best place to work in technology and has ranked it in the top 100 for seven consecutive years. Faster reporting for multiple roles and user types Easy access via any device, any browser, any network Commonwealth Financial Network understands the promise of technology to enable its 1,500 financial advisors to deliver the best, most efficient service to its clients. The Business Systems division at Commonwealth is responsible for delivering a web-based software platform through which advisors can manage all aspects of their business from portfolio management to social media. The integrated platform is a key competitive advantage for Commonwealth helping its advisors scale their businesses while reducing costs. Delivering this competitive edge isn t easy. The Business System team is constantly enhancing, improving, and building out the platform, often running hundreds of projects simultaneously. In 2011, Managing Partner Darren Tedesco saw the need to improve the way his team tracks and manages its project portfolio. After evaluating several options, Tedesco s team selected Quick Base as a platform for developing a project portfolio management app. The result is greater efficiency, transparency, and insight than ever before. Quick Base allowed Commonwealth Financial Network to move our project process from spreadsheets and s to a streamlined, integrated system that saves us time and money, says Tedesco. Breaking free from spreadsheets Like many organizations, Commonwealth had tracked its projects using a combination of spreadsheets and . Before long, the volume of projects was too great to manage effectively in this way. As we were growing, I didn t have transparency into everything we were working on for our internal and external clients. We had to find things in multiple spreadsheets, folders, and s. We just needed a better way to manage our projects, says Tedesco. We looked a lot of traditional project management software applications, but invariably we d find a core requirement they couldn t do, or some usability issue with their software. 2

3 Eventually Tedesco discovered Quick Base, which offered the right flexibility and customizability at a reasonable price. After piloting the solution in a few areas of the project portfolio, Quick Base was rapidly adopted as the goto solution for project management. There are now 170 project managers, business analysts, testers and other key stakeholders using Quick Base to track projects across the company. Tedesco says Quick Base was the right choice for Commonwealth because it offers: Flexibility Like most companies, Commonwealth has a vernacular and processes that are unique to its business. Quick Base gave Commonwealth the ability to customize records, fields, labels and workflows to fit its processes, rather than forcing it to conform to the software. Transparency Now that all projects are managed from a central place, Tedesco and other team members can quickly view project status reports and other key data and know they re looking at the most updated information. I m one click away, in a browser, from having transparency into everything, says Tedesco. Insight Because Quick Base allows unlimited reports and views, it s easy to customize dashboards and reports for everyone in the organization, based on their role or need. Communication Weekly status reports that were once manually drafted in s can now be automated with notifications built into Quick Base. Access Because Quick Base is web-based, Tedesco s team doesn t need to worry about supporting multiple devices or platforms. We have Mac users and PC users, on Chrome, Firefox, Safari having something that works with all of those makes our lives that much easier. 3

4 The Business Systems team at Commonwealth Financial delivers leading-edge technology to help 1,500 financial advisors manage their businesses. Pictured (left to right): E.J. Sutherland, CIO Lenny Vernofsy, Director, PMO Darren Tedesco, Managing Partner Kol Chu Burke, VP, Product Evolution Building a PMO Since adopting Quick Base to manage its project portfolio, Tedesco says the results are a more transparent, more efficient project management process. The Quick Base app is now the central management tool for Commonwealth s project management office (PMO), which now oversees all the organization s projects. In February 2014 the PMO at Commonwealth was tracking 661 total projects at various stages across all areas of the company. Quick Base helped us organize our projects and PMO in in a way that made logical sense, and that helped us move our project management process forward, says Tedesco. It s been incredible for insight, transparency, and communication. 4

5 About Quick Base Quick Base provides a cloud-based platform that empowers problem solvers to quickly turn ideas for better ways to work into apps that make their organizations more efficient. For nearly 20 years, people of all technical backgrounds have been using the Quick Base platform to create solutions that streamline processes, capture real-time data, and improve company operations, all while working in concert with existing IT systems. Based in Cambridge, MA and a former division of Intuit, Quick Base has a 6,000+ customer universe of app-enabled businesses that spans all industries and company sizes, and includes more than half of the Fortune 100. For more information, please visit: