From “Curious” to “Customer” in 6 Months with Geneva Capital Management

Ridgeline sat down with Katie Ellenberg, who is Principal and Head of Operations and Portfolio Administration at Geneva Capital Management in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Geneva holds the record for the fastest Ridgeline implementation, at under 180 days. 

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Q. Geneva went live on Ridgeline in under six months from start to finish after being on your legacy provider for over 30 years. Did you ever imagine that you'd be live on a new system within a year?

No, absolutely not. Honestly, that's really shocking, because if you know me, I am such a planner. But here we are.

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Q. What were your initial thoughts when Ridgeline reached out? 

I really expected the original meeting to be pretty quick with the typical sales pitch. I had never heard of Ridgeline prior to that. I walked away with an interest I didn't expect. 

The meeting was refreshing and exciting for a few reasons. Number one was the Ridgeline staff; it was impressive to me the experience that all of you brought to the table. Also, this idea of native cloud and a single source of data was intriguing, especially from what we were coming from. And, truthfully, your honest approach. You didn't give me the typical sales pitch that everything was going to be easy.

I remember coming back after that meeting and writing in my notes, “This is a company to watch” — and I did.

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Q. How did you weigh the pros and cons of idea migrating to a new system versus maintaining that steady state and doing nothing?

At the at the time when when we were first meeting Ridgeline, we had just completed a major upgrade with our legacy vendor and truthfully we were pretty disappointed. But changing systems was not something that I was thinking we were actually going to do.

As I started listening to what Ridgeline had to offer, I really had to consider not just the future of our firm, but the future of our industry, and how critical technology is to both. So it was then that I really started realizing that there's risk to not thinking outside of the box that I've always known.

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Q. Did you bring the whole team along as part of the evaluation and, ultimately, the decision to move? 

It was very important to me that the team was involved in this decision. I mean every step of it. They are the key users. I was so intrigued and interested in what their reaction would be to the demo — I wanted to see if they picked up on some of the same things I did. 

The Ridgeline team had asked us many questions on what we needed or wanted to see in the product. I wasn't expecting to have a voice that early on. It was such a bonus and one of the major reasons that we moved as early as we did. You were listening to us right away and implementing our needs without us even being a customer yet. 

They saw why I was interested. Every decision to move forward was always by the team.

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Q. What was that decision making process like when it felt like you were going to make the move?

We started really thinking more seriously about this before [Ridgeline’s annual conference] Base Camp. When you invited me to Base Camp to learn more about the product and the company, I took you up on that offer. I'm glad that I went because there was so much offered at that conference that was so valuable.

But more than learning about the product and the company, I went with a much bigger mission: to talk to as many firms as possible. I wanted to find out what brought them there. I wanted to find out what they were thinking. I wanted to know what solutions they were seeking and what their fears were. I wanted to find some comfort around how I was thinking, because I kept asking myself, “Am I crazy for actually thinking about the switching systems?” I could have skated along for a while and been okay.

Going there, I found that comfort, hearing that others were equally excited and considering this risk that it takes to transition.

It was shortly after coming back from Base Camp that I jumped in with two feet.

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Q. How did you prepare your firm for a six-month implementation? 

I knew that staying organized and creating a plan had to be a major factor early on to stay ahead of the schedule and to meet all deadlines. Working with the team was a great experience, and I really have to call out our project manager Sara [Chau], who was a great communicator. She held my hand along the way. She was impeccable with her details, but she really worked hard to outline everything that I needed to know, everything that was coming up, what the timelines and expectations were.

I have to also call out our amazing implementation team including Amanda, Richard, Jason, Matt, Santiago, Tom, and Melissa. They were superior in their knowledge, and that really lined us up to be successful. They lived the project with us every single day through every step. So it was like, I said, a major project scope to complete.

That communication and that daily holding hands through the project is what made it successful.

You've got that time where you're running parallel. It was extra work for everybody, but clearly it was worth it. You have to put the investment into a transition like this, or it won't be successful. But we're a small team, and we did it.

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Q. What aspect of the transition were you most nervous about? 

For me, it always was historical data because I wanted to bring over everything; I didn't want to leave anything behind in our legacy system. Tying together all of that data and figuring out how that would work - I needed to get really comfortable with that piece of it. But we're golden.

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Q. What's been your experience with Ridgeline so far in production?

Everything has been running pretty smoothly. We had a huge trading program in the first few days but it all went really well; we didn't have any problems. Are there things that need to be tweaked and need to be fixed? Yes, absolutely. Has there been a learning curve with the product? Absolutely. There is a lot to a transition like this. But I have to point out what's been amazing. And how refreshing it is that your team has really had our back through all of this, and has been so available and listening to our needs. We've not had any major surprises. It all worked out. 

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Q. What advice would you have for those folks who are in your shoes?

Ask the tough questions right away! Don't keep this high level, go deep into the details and find out what you want to know. Think about your riskiest scenarios, and ask those details. It's because I dove deep early on that made me comfortable making this decision right away. 

The other thing I did was talk to as many firms as you can. Know that you're not alone in considering a big change for the firm. Find out what it is that everybody's looking at. Talk to the people like me or at other firms who are on the system already and find your comfort in that.

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Q. Would you do it all again?

Yes, absolutely. No question about it. I didn't expect to have done it this fast, but as it turns out, it was absolutely the right time for us to make the change.

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Q. What are you looking forward to in Geneva's future?

We're very excited about the future with Ridgeline. I have a lot of seniority on my team (I’ve been here 27 years) and we get ingrained with doing things the same way. But I've really challenged us to keep our eyes on what we could do differently. We didn't make this change to stay with the status quo of what we had been doing. It is all about looking to the future and about what it is that we can find in the Ridgeline system, and there have been so many benefits already. This is all about growing with Ridgeline and seeing the exciting things to come.

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Want to know how Ridgeline can help your firm grow? Reach out by requesting a demo or emailing us at hello@ridgelineapps.com.