Bringing 18 markets onto one platform: how IMA Financial Group is building the broker of the future

Discover how IMA Financial Group brought its employee benefits teams across 18 markets onto Salesforce Financial Services Cloud for Insurance Brokerages, creating a single source of truth for clients and reaching its 90% adoption goal within two days of go-live.

About IMA Financial Group

IMA Financial Group is a majority employee-owned integrated financial services firm with nearly 3,000 associates across the United States. They serve clients across property and casualty, employee benefits, and wealth management.

IMA's employee benefits business operates across 18 markets, each with deep local expertise and long-standing client relationships. As the business grew, IMA’s benefits team set a goal to implement a modern, purpose-built platform that strengthens collaboration and the client experience, and positions IMA to lead as the broker of the future.

Bringing 18 markets together around one way of working

IMA chose to treat this as a business transformation, not a system swap. First, the team defined how it wanted employee benefits to operate, then selected technology built for that purpose. The focus areas included:

One home for client work: Benefits teams worked across more than eight platforms, some of which were originally designed to support other parts of the business. IMA wanted a platform built specifically for employee benefits that could work seamlessly alongside other solutions.

Smoother handoffs from sales to service: Handing a new client from sales to service relied on email and manual re-entry. IMA wanted every win to flow straight into service with its full history.

Every associate in the system: Many associates relied on outsourced partners to keep records current. IMA wanted its own teams working directly in the platform every day.

Shared visibility across markets: IMA wanted associates and leaders to see client activity across teams and markets, not only their own book.

A true partnership from day one

IMA and Zennify implemented Salesforce Financial Services Cloud (FSC) for Insurance Brokerages, then a newly released product, as the single platform for IMA's employee benefits business. The teams worked as one, with IMA testing every feature during each sprint, regular demos to refine the build, and change management planned from day one.

That joint approach carried through user acceptance testing. Thirty-six IMA testers completed more than 3,800 test cases, and the platform went live with zero high or critical defects.

"This was a true partnership from the start. Our business team was engaged every day, made decisions quickly, and with strong project management keeping us on track. Alongside that, we kept every market informed throughout, so by go-live our people knew what was changing and why."

— Katie Robertson, Salesforce Business Lead, IMA Financial Group

The Zennify Solution

Clouds implemented

Salesforce FSC for Insurance Brokerages

Systems integrated

Applied Epic (two-way integration for client, policy, and financial data), Employee Navigator, Microsoft Outlook, SharePoint, DocuSign, and Conga

Key capabilities built

- Automated sales-to-service handoff
- Document generation linked to SharePoint and DocuSign
- Workflows for onboarding, renewals, and open enrollment
- Referrals and case management for specialty teams
- Book of business reports and leadership dashboards

Results that speak for themselves

90%

adoption goal reached in two days, against a target of 30 days after go-live

75%

fewer system-specific workflows, reduced from 24 to 6 within Salesforce

100%

of client records now managed in Salesforce, with fields used consistently across every market

A stronger foundation for every team

IMA went live in Atlanta in May 2026, followed by two more releases in June and July. Associates now work from a single source of truth for every client, with visibility into their own market and the rest of the business.

Teams are already building new habits around it. One group now reviews Salesforce task reports in its weekly meeting to keep everyone aligned. Book of business reports that once lived in a separate tool now run directly in Salesforce.

90% adoption goal reached in two days, against a target of 30 days after go-live

80% of employees said the platform would make their work more efficient, and 80% found it intuitive, in a survey two weeks after launch

75% fewer system-specific workflows, reduced from 24 to 6 within Salesforce

100% of client records now managed in Salesforce, with fields used consistently across every market

100% of specialty and shared services referrals now flow through Salesforce

With Zennify, we partnered with our employee benefits teams to deliver a modern platform built for growth and flexibility. It sets IMA apart for our clients, our people, and the firms we bring into the IMA family.

Matt Watkins

Chief Information Officer, IMA Financial Group