01-Feb-08 / Private Banker International, Feb 2008
The wealth management industry is coming to realise that improvements to client reporting systems and client relationship management technologies could represent a more practical way of improving business than hiring or training more employees, reports Dan Jones.
More advanced software allowing for the automation of key processes
is seen by wealth management executives as the best way of scaling up
their business and alleviating risk, ranking ahead of personnel initiatives,
according to new research. Client relationship managers (CRMs) are already
at a premium, particularly within the mushrooming Asian markets, but
wealth management firms believe improved technology will enable them
to steal a march on their rivals in 2008, US IT software developer NorthStar
contends.
Attracting and retaining top managers via platforms solutions, as well
as compensatory measures, is a central strategy for achieving revenue
targets this year, according to a study by NorthStar covering 161 wealth
management executives from private banks and wealth management companies
focusing on high net worth individuals (HNWIs).
(...)
The efficiency drive
In any case, software developer Odyssey Financial Technologies
suggests that wealth management executives who are not yet convinced
of the need to improve their application platform may find their hand
is forced by regulatory requirements, while mergers and acquisitions
could also hurry along the need to upgrade technological capabilities.
These trends were already seen to be at the fore in 2007, according
to Odyssey, when service-oriented architecture (SOA) and human-centric
workflows both began to utilise multiple data sources to provide a single
front-end application. The implementation of the EU's Markets in Financial
Instruments Directive (MiFID) - legislation to harmonise rules governing
the financial services industry - was also a major IT project over the
course of the year.
One additional development established in 2007 complements private banks'
desires to improve efficiency through technological advancement, says
Odyssey's Fabrice Bidard,
product marketing manager in charge of technology. (...)
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