Apex Leaders Custom Digital Portal

A Closer Look at Apex Leaders

Apex Leaders is a human capital firm based in Boise, ID, that connects private equity firms with skilled and knowledgeable advisors from across the country. The firm takes a customized approach to match investors with precise-fit industry experts so they can quickly and confidently navigate investment opportunities. Since 2009, they have been enabling their clients to assemble a credible advisory team from a vast network of reliable sources.

The Challenge: Delivering a High-Touch Digital Experience for Clientele

As a company that appeals primarily to high-end private equity firms, Apex Leaders has an innate understanding of the value that comes from providing responsive high-touch service tailored to the needs of their clients. While the company gained a positive reputation for its personalized approach and attention to detail, clientele expected some sort of automated technological process. At the time, clients would call or email the firm to launch new projects, review information, and schedule meetings. This led to a lot of back-and-forth between clients, advisors, and the team, most of which could be automated to save time, improve communication, and reduce mistakes.

When the company began to explore building a web portal to expand their service offerings and address internal inefficiencies, the team was acutely aware that they needed a system that provided an exemplary user experience that reinforced their brand identity and demonstrated their differentiation in the industry. It was also crucial that the product they ended up with would be adaptable and scalable to seamlessly accommodate anticipated future growth.

Although the Apex Leaders had strong idea of what they would needed, the organization lacked the technical background to translate the request to a successful deliverable. Over the course of two years, the firm attempted to build this portal with two different web development agencies unsuccessfully.

Learning from the experience, the Apex Leaders team sought a development partner that could deliver a working product on time, on budget, and with a high degree of quality. Enter LaunchPad Lab.

The Approach: Building a Scalable, Client-Centric Advisor Portal

Expectations were set upfront with the goal to design a new product tailored to Apex Leaders workflow and delivering the high-touch experience that the firm’s clientele had come to expect. To foster trust for a strong partnership, the project began with small phases of development, building incrementally over time. As such, the development team was able to iterate thoughtfully and develop the key technology in close collaboration with firm. Building on the strong foundation quickly transitioned into a more results-driven approach that made ongoing development quicker and more agile.

Mapping out a Strong, Flexible Technical Architecture

Apex Leaders was using the Salesforce CRM platform since 2009. An earlier development partner had attempted to build upon Salesforce Communities templates. However, the software could not provide the appropriate level of customization required. What’s more, the architecture necessitated building on something flexible, scalable, and unique to their premium brand.

Recognizing the demand, Heroku Connect became an integral component of the architecture. Not only could it sync directly with Salesforce, it provided ample room for customization and growth.

To stay adaptable and truly own the product, open-source software would allow custom code to be written as opposed to just offering declarative edits. Ruby On Rails was an excellent pairing as the tooling integrated seamlessly with Heroku.

Heroku Connect would sync a considerable amount of data in Salesforce to a PostgreSQL database built on Heroku, allowing the development team to expose any objects in Salesforce that mapped to the portal.

One of the key functions of this new software would be a scheduling feature that allowed clients to set up appointments with advisors entirely through the portal, cutting down on inefficiencies and saving time. The experience needed to be slick and responsive. This was accomplished by writing the front end in the React JavaScript library.

Apex Leaders - Responsive UI Screenshots

The Solution: Launching an Advisor Portal that Elevates the Client Experience

Apex Leaders new portal empowers clients to own their experience on the platform without losing the personal touch that they’ve come to expect. Key features include:

Setting Appointments

Clients are now able to connect with potential advisors and set up meetings directly through the platform in a matter of seconds. Once a meeting has been scheduled by the client, a series of emails will be automatically triggered informing all necessary parties, including the Apex Leaders team.

Creating a Network

Clients now have immediate access to a conveniently organized list of all the advisors they’ve made contact with. They can even assign personalized ratings and write notes about the advisors to help them keep track of past conversations. Most importantly, this new portal provides every client with a comprehensive (and easily searchable) view of the network of advisors they’ve accrued, making it significantly easier for them to reference as they refine their advisory team.

Empowering Advisory Services

The distinctly different, but equally as powerful, advisor side of the platform provides the same depth of experience and functionality, including allowing advisors to set their availability and accept appointments in a matter of seconds.

“I think everybody here has been really impressed and really happy with where the app is going. We trust that any crazy idea we cook up, you guys can really digest and say how it can be feasible, which is great.”
—Patrick West, Vice President

The Results: Exceeding Expectations on ROI with an Enhanced Client Experience

Since launching, the new product has exceeded Apex Leaders’ expectations. The results speak for themselves.

Within 6 months, over 85% of all new client engagements were being booked through the portal.
95% of all client/advisor calls were run through the platform.
90% time was saved coordinating and scheduling appointments. (The process used to take 20-25 minutes per person scheduled via phone calls or traditional email vs. 2-3 minutes per person scheduled.)

The reduction in hands-on client service has allowed the firm’s Project Leads to handle a higher volume of clients and focus more on high-value work, improving overall efficiency and giving the company room to grow in terms of client acquisition, while also reinforcing their brand identity as a premium service provider.

Maintaining High-Quality for Clients

Building a custom backend admin panel empowers Apex Leaders team members to access the portal and initiate corrections within their workflow independently. Apex Leaders uses this flexible approach to maintenance and management to their advantage by integrating client feedback into their service offering. They regularly capture user feedback in Salesforce and are constantly evaluating it to update the running backlog of updates to the platform, so that clients can see their suggestions absorbed and executed quickly, usually within just 3-4 weeks. Again, this level of commitment underscores Apex Leaders’ promise of quality client service.

Building on a Strong Partnership

LaunchPad Lab continues to iterate and enhance the platform. In addition, the two are continuing to partner on more forward-looking projects, including an algorithm that will suggest advisor recommendations to clients based on their previous experiences and preferences.

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