Consulting

The Beacon Strategies Approach

Our approach is based upon your requirements. Many factors come into play, including cost, timing, budget considerations, internal initiatives already underway and the degree of clarity you have regarding the objectives.

Historically, broker–dealers tend to solve today’s problems one by one, rather than building a platform on which to base tomorrow’s solutions.

We define the present as executing transactions, maintaining regulatory oversight in light of expanding SEC and FINRA demands, and recruiting new producers. The linear thinking of today can originate tomorrow’s pain in the areas of lost resources, integration, adoption, and archaic platforms that put broker-dealers at risk in operation and recruiting.

Our holistic approach takes a firm’s needs and delivers a plan to evolve as well as the services to take the project across the finish line. In any Consulting engagement we require a Focus Session and an Operational Assessment.. Additional services we can provide include: Project Implementation, Operational Readiness, and Sustainment.

Focus Session

The purpose of the focus session is to clarify your objectives. Together with key members of your organization, we define the desired end-state both quantitatively and qualitatively. The Focus Session is an invaluable process to ensure that we fully understand what you want and need prior to creating the Operations Assessment Proposal and moving forward.

Operations Assessment – (The Plan)

The primary purpose of the Operations Assessment is to create a road map from a client's current condition to the desired end-state. Integral to the analysis is identifying the key areas of opportunity, quantifying the level of financial and operational improvement, and then determining the time and cost required to achieve it.

• The final result includes a presentation and formal report consisting of the following sections:
  
• Findings: Outlining the opportunities and issues by area, type and potential impact
  
• Exhibits: Consisting of quantified financial, operating and market data illustrated in clear, concise charts supporting the findings
  
• Project Strategy and Approach: A documented project strategy and project approach outlining the path forward
  
• Project Schedule: A detailed project implementation schedule in Gantt Chart form that clearly illustrates each project element along with the respective areas, timelines and responsibilities

Project Implementation

Beacon Strategies often uses a team approach. We provide all of the consulting resources required to accomplish the project, but are quite comfortable in adding your personnel to the team to reduce project effort and cost. All projects are a joint endeavor requiring commitment, focus and the willingness to support the project plan with the appropriate levels of effort, resources and resolve by both parties.

Consulting Reports

Beacon Strategies Consulting Group delivers two types of reports, each specific to the broker-dealer:

The Lighthouse Report examines a broker-dealer’s business from the keel to the crow’s nest and is the core format used for our broker-dealer consulting reports. Our work includes: conducting on-site visits, interviewing field personnel, surveying home and field staff, delineating existing work-flow processes built around existing technology, examining current budgets, building workflow recommendations, introducing “chemistry” partners, building future budgets, determining potential return on investment possibilities, and examining where impact will be seen in the areas of profitability, productivity, oversight and recruiting.

The NorthStar Reports are individual studies commissioned by broker-dealers to determine particular information sets. Examples have included: front-office portals, specific competitor(s) analysis and intelligence, comparative compliance, data aggregation review, and the creation of business logic based products.