IT advances the order of the day

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).

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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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