XPS: One customer view for trusted pension advisors

XPS’s goal was simple to describe, but tough to deliver: A single customer view for both clients and prospects. 

They needed to quickly see clear information on their customers like who they are, what’s happening with them, what engagement looks like, and what the next action should be, without trawling through disconnected systems. 

“We were looking for that single customer view where I can see everything that is relevant for that customer and to manage that customer. And the same for a prospect.”
— Patrick McCoy, Head of Advisory Services, XPS 

The “single view” quickly became bigger than sales. As XPS built it out, more teams saw the value and joined in: 

• Marketing wanted better segmentation, targeting and follow-up. 

• Legal and finance wanted process consistency and automation. 

• The Risk Team needed reliable contact processes (for example, being able to reach customers quickly if there’s a cyber incident). 

That’s the reality of building a truly useful CRM: once it starts working, everyone wants in. 

XPS’s CRM story didn’t start with a clean-sheet buying process. Following a merger in 2018, the business had both Microsoft Dynamics and Workbooks across the legacy firms, and Workbooks became the chosen platform. 

But the first iteration didn’t land the way XPS needed. 

“We needed to define what we wanted to do with it, and someone from the XPS needed to translate our business needs into how we were going to use Workbooks. It also became apparent that our initial strategy of trying to outsource this was not working, so we needed to go out and hire someone.” 

At one point, the business did explore Salesforce — but the cost and delivery model were major concerns. 

“What we found with Salesforce was that they were monumentally expensive… they wanted to do the whole implementation as one big project. It was going to cost millions and millions of pounds.”
— Patrick McCoy 

The breakthrough for XPS wasn’t switching systems — it was changing how they built. 

The Workbooks team worked closely with XPS to translate real-world requirements into a build that people would actually use. 

They also hired Nick Jackson to help build a central CRM function that could move quickly and make Workbooks work for XPS. 

“Having an internal team and expertise that can translate from business requirement into actually building really quickly — that was the game changer for us.”
— Patrick McCoy 

“The platform is highly configurable and it’s all very doable as an administrator.”
— Nick Jackson, CRM Manager, XPS 

Today, the central CRM team supports the full lifecycle: data, configuration, reporting, automation, integrations, training and support. 

A real single customer view – that keeps getting better

XPS now has a much stronger, faster view of clients and prospects — and the ability to extend it as new needs appear. 

“We now have a single view of data, and you can get far more insight much quicker… and it creates real value.”
— Patrick McCoy 

It’s not just about having data — it’s about having the right data in the right place; in a way teams will actually use. 

Turning webinars into measurable follow-up

One of the first high-impact workflows XPS implemented was a webinar follow-up process. 

Previously, webinar engagement data existed… but no consistent action followed. Now: 

• Every registrant is allocated to a consultant 

• Workbooks automatically creates a follow-up task 

• The follow-up task includes attendance details, survey answers, poll responses and questions asked 

• Consultants use email templates to quickly send tailored, personalized responses 

• The process pushes towards calls and booked meetings, not just emails 

“You’re not just running a webinar and hoping for the best — you’re actually driving it through to completion.”
— Nick Jackson 

 Supporting a culture shift: “You get what you measure” 

In a trusted-advisor firm, sales behaviour often depends on confidence and habits, not just targets. XPS wanted to encourage teams to leverage existing relationships more deliberately — and to make that measurable. 

“Sales is a process and you need to be able to monitor and measure everything that goes on. If you don’t have a system that monitors the process, you won’t get anything. You get what you measure.”
— Patrick McCoy 

Workbooks helps XPS track activity and outcomes, so leaders can coach, recognize and improve the behaviours that drive growth. 

Automating onboarding and cutting admin drag

XPS built onboarding into Workbooks so that once a “win” and service details are recorded, the system triggers a structured set of tasks across teams — including compliance checks, financial set up and legal documentation. 

They also use document templating to generate contracts directly from CRM data. 

“You record the win, you record the service, and it triggers automated tasks, pulling all the information out of Workbooks into Word.”
— Nick Jackson 

 Integrations that make CRM the hub not “another system”

To make the single customer view real, XPS integrated Workbooks with key tools across marketing, productivity and finance, including: 

• Webinar platform integration (for engagement and follow-up) 

• Email marketing and web insights (for engagement scoring) 

• Outlook/Exchange synchronization (emails and meetings) 

• Word integration (document generation) 

• SharePoint integration (file storage, with potential to expand) 

• NetSuite integration (surfacing revenue and financial data) 

With strong momentum, XPS is now focused on two big next steps: 

1. Increasing adoption across the advisory business
   XPS has around 350 users today, but the advisory division is much larger — and the goal is to get more of the “doers” into Workbooks, not just the sales leads. 
2. Making CRM the front door for delivery work
   A major challenge is that delivery teams often live in document management and time recording tools — meaning CRM gets bypassed. XPS wants to drive traffic through Workbooks first, either by deeper integration or by simplifying how teams access delivery assets. 

XPS didn’t just implement a CRM. They built a platform for business process improvement — one that supports sales, marketing, onboarding, risk controls and customer insight, and that gets more valuable over time. 

“Workbooks is a fantastic system with tremendous flexibility to build what you need. We’re constantly looking at extending Workbooks. Its value increases over time, hence we keep buying more licences for more people.”
— Patrick McCoy