Lasse Leskinen transferred to OP from enterprise resource planning and IT planning for online stores because he craved the chance to learn and try something new. Through his acquaintances, he knew that Finland's largest provider of financial services was not only a good employer but also a pioneering tech firm. When a large development project was about to get its start, the experienced CRM specialist decided to seize the opportunity and step into the shoes of a Solution Analyst.

Together with his team, Lasse is responsible for integrating the Microsoft Dynamics CRM into the different business functions at OP Financial Group. The most fundamental goal of the project is to make the customer relationship management system a part of the daily work of employees and experts to ensure customer work that is as smooth as possible.

Functional CRM that readily listens to the business functions

Before summer 2023, Lasse and his team have had time to work on the Dynamics project for a few years. So far, the development has reached several business functions, such as large corporate banking customers and Pohjola Insurance corporate customers. The long-term goal of the project is to drop the old, separate CRMs and take up the new tool across the entire Group.

The Dynamics userbase at OP consists of account managers, employees working in customer service and other experts. As Solution Analyst, Lasse carefully familiarises himself with the business function and task specific processes of these individuals to gain a comprehensive view of the wishes they have regarding the tool's use.

“User needs can vary widely between business functions. My most important job is to understand these needs, put them into words and pass them on to the developers so that the developers can implement functionalities that serve each purpose in the best possible manner,” says Lasse.

The aim is creating uniform solutions that serve many different parties

For a Solution Analyst to work as a link between business functions and product development, they must understand systems development and have good communication and interaction skills. Project management skills and a healthy ability to make judgements are also important ingredients for succeeding in the job: you must be able to examine the current processes and functionalities critically in order to avoid repeating old mistakes in the new system.

“In an ideal situation, the solutions we end up choosing should be applicable across all business functions. Though different units have different user needs, they also have similarities. We need to be able to fit these needs into one mould and solve the connected issues in a uniform manner. “Of course, there can be slight differences in nuance regarding how the solution is implemented in each business function, but the important thing is not creating overlapping solutions for the same need,“ says Lasse.   

The outcome is the best possible customer experience

Lasse thinks that the most inspiring thing about the current project is that with his own actions, he can affect the work of many stakeholders and therefore be part of the transformation encompassing the entire OP Financial Group.

“As this project expands, I am getting increasingly familiar with different work tasks and through them, gain understanding of the Group's different areas of operation,” says Lasse.

Though the project's outcome is mostly visible in in-house processes, it also affects OP's customers in the big picture: when customer-facing employees have tools that work correctly, the life cycle of a customer relationship gets easier to manage and it can be better supported at all its stages.

“When our employees have better visibility of the customer relationship as a whole, we can offer customers better and increasingly targeted solutions, and through them, the best possible customer experience,” Lasse finishes.