On Board – Close Brothers Asset Management

Going live just before Christmas 2022, Close Brothers Asset Management's (CBAM) new bethebrand system delivers a timely step change in digital asset management at a time of change for the company's marketing.

CBAM is an established provider of financial advice and investment management services and works with professionals, business owners, individuals, families and their advisers, who are looking to preserve and grow their long-term savings and investments. CBAM is part of the Close Brothers Group plc, a FTSE 250 leading UK merchant banking group, providing lending, deposit taking, wealth management services, and stocks and shares trading.

Named MABLE (Marketing And Brand Literature Ecosystem), CBAM's bethebrand system was brought online from 'green light' to 'go live' all within Q4 2022.

Prior to the introduction of the new system, CBAM had been aware for some time that they needed a new approach to digital asset management. The previous digital asset management system was created on proprietary software, with a separate internal system for certain parts of the process. This resulted in two separate job numbers for the same job. What was needed was a complete remapping of all the workflows to lay the groudwork for a single integrated system spanning the needs of the company.

With a rebrand already underway and important industry developments in process, such as the FCA's new Consumer Duty legislation, CBAM needed to complete the workflow mapping rapidly to configure the new system and bring it online quickly.

The bethebrand team was able to step in and take on the workflow mapping project for CBAM. This greatly accelerated the deployment timescale, allowing the CBAM project team to expertly project manage the system deployment and identify specific system configurations, whilst simultaneously managing, and dovetailing in, its immediate major marketing projects.

Stage 1 of the bethebrand system is now complete. The business now has one end-to-end system, with one set of job numbers and all of its digital assets supported and managed in one place.

In addition to the formal user training, bethebrand also ran regular drop-in sessions for the team during January 2023 to help everyone acclimatise quickly. This hands-on style training was greatly appreciated, as it meant that the team could come in with real questions as they got to grips with using the new system in a live situation.

Stage 2 of MABLE is in planning. This will make the business's brand guidelines and brand assets, such as logos and photos, available to the wider team as a tool kit.