Future proofing finance:

How SMB prepared for growth with a unified HubSpot ecosystem

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The Client

SMB

SMB (formerly Save My Bacon) is a 100% Kiwi-owned, Christchurch-based online personal lender. Since launching in 2009, SMB has approved over 220,000 loans, offering a fairer, faster, digital-first alternative to lending over traditional banks.

With a 4.9-star Trustpilot rating from more than 3,000 reviews, SMB has established itself as a trusted choice for responsible personal lending in New Zealand.

The Challenge

Keeping pace

As SMB set its sights on its next phase of growth, it became clear that some long-standing systems and processes were no longer keeping pace with its ambition to compete at scale in the New Zealand banking market. Key challenges included:

    • Outdated infrastructure: An in-house legacy system had become difficult to evolve, limiting the ability to move quickly and innovate with confidence.
    • Scaling friction: The existing platform was working for a short-term credit model, but lacked the flexibility needed to support a broader, multi-product strategy and more ambitious growth plans.
    • Data dispersal: Customer and loan data lived across multiple systems, making it challenging to create a single, reliable view of each borrower and manage the full relationship end to end.
    • Inflexible workflows: Internal teams were constrained by manual processes and needed a platform that could support more efficient, optimised loan management workflows.
    • Visibility deficit: Leadership needed clearer oversight across teams and better visibility into performance metrics throughout the entire loan lifecycle.
    • Need for rapid decision making: To compete more effectively in the mainstream market, the business recognised the need to modernise its technology stack and enable faster, more automated financial decision-making.

The Solution

Single, unified platform

SMB had already selected the Mambu platform as its corebanking engine, and wanted to leverage HubSpot as its CRM.

Working closely together, Concentrate and the client co-designed the future-state business processes and configured HubSpot to support them, alongside seamless integrations with key partner platforms. The result was a sophisticated HubSpot Professional ecosystem that replaced fragmented legacy tools with a single, unified digital command centre. Key outcomes included:

    • Bespoke architecture: A purpose-built data model reflecting the real-world complexity of the lending lifecycle.
    • Operational automation: High-impact business processes were digitised.
    • Strategic integration: Robust, high-complexity integrations were established between HubSpot and critical systems, including the Mambu core banking platform for bi-directional data flow.
    • Unified communications: Previously disconnected tools were consolidated into a connected communications stack.
    • Performance reporting: A tailored reporting dashboard was configured to give leadership real-time visibility into sales performance and team activity, supported by 10 standardised reports across the lifecycle.
Coffee

Impact

Together, and with HubSpot underpinning it, Concentrate and SMB client delivered a modern, scalable CRM ecosystem that now underpins the business’s growth ambitions. By unifying data, automating critical workflows, and integrating core banking and origination systems, the organisation gained a single source of truth, faster decision-making, and clearer visibility across the entire lending lifecycle.

Teams are now empowered with streamlined processes, connected communications, and real-time performance insights enabling them to work more efficiently, respond quickly to borrowers, and confidently support a multi-product future in a competitive New Zealand banking landscape.

 

Ready to modernise your own financial services operations?

Ready to modernise your own financial services operations?

If your systems are holding back growth, Concentrate can help you design and implement a HubSpot ecosystem that fits your business, your processes, and your ambitions. Let’s talk about what’s possible.