Networks

senior vice president, SunGard’s wealth management business

Embracing the power and opportunity of social media

Posted by

Social media creates a unique opportunity for financial advisors to break out of traditional communication models and interact with their clients and prospects on a whole new level.  While the effort to becoming social media savvy may seem daunting, it can bring endless benefits.  Whether you want to be active with outbound social media contributions or use more of an observer approach, there are several positives to consider.

  • It is less expensive than using traditional marketing methods.  You are able to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube for free, so your only investment is time and/or the people resources at your firm to go “social.”
  • Content can go viral quickly as one person shares information with another and so on.  As you publish pre-approved content, the format lends itself to quick forwarding or sharing, which can open the door to new prospects.
  • It provides you with timely information about your clients.  As they make posts or tweet, you will be “in the know” about their new job, addition to the family, etc.  This creates a communication touch-point opportunity that you may have not otherwise known about.
  • It increases awareness and demonstrates expertise.  With the proliferation of information online, having a web site is simply not enough.  Having a social media presence allows you to increase your online presence while at the same time demonstrate your knowledge and expertise through blogs, posts, etc.

Before you embark on your social media journey, one of the challenges of using social media is figuring out how to efficiently manage communication across multiple web sites.  There are tools and resources that can help you maximize your social media activities.  For example, HootSuite and TweetDeck allow you to post one update to multiple social media platforms, saving you time and effort.

From a regulatory perspective, it is a requirement that you have an archival and record keeping process in place.  Surveillance tools can help automate the tedious tasks of capturing and retaining all your social media messages for compliance purposes.

While you may not have jumped onto the social media bandwagon yet, the benefits and evolution of technology to support your social media efforts makes this an opportune time for you to seriously consider adding it as part of your prospecting and client servicing strategy.

senior vice president, SunGard’s wealth management business

FPA major firms symposium – Key observations and highlights

Posted by

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend and present at the Financial Planning Association’s (FPA) Major Firms Symposium in San Diego, CA.  So much has changed in the financial planning space since last year’s symposium that I thought I would share a few key observations and conference highlights that stood out to me.

First and foremost, the technology landscape has changed and is moving faster by the day. The evolution of the iPad has taken us all by storm. I have to remind myself regularly that the iPad was launched just in April 2010. It would be a dream-come-true if we could capture a percentage of that adoption for other advisor tools that are currently on the market. But nonetheless, it is fair to say not only that did the symposium’s presentations evangelize the power of the iPad, but also that it was obvious how tablets are changing the way advisors adopt technology. Advisors are now, more than ever, pushing technology providers, SunGard included, down the innovation path and at a quicker pace than ever anticipated.

Second, the method in which advisors perform financial planning is should evolve to be a “higher touch” experience. During George Kinder’s presentation titled, “Financial Planning as the Value Proposition” he spoke about how important it is to have deep emotional relationships with clients. This involves a great deal of listening and asking the non-financial questions to truly obtain the ultimate “goals” or “dreams” a client has. He quoted a statistic that 75% of clients would not refer their advisor to others. That is astonishing. In times when advisors have to work harder than ever to earn their clients trust, it seemed apparent that advisors could help re-establish trust through “life planning.” Based on this information, I am very interested to explore how technology can help advisors make the shift to this type of planning approach.

Lastly, I found the presentation by Cambridge Investment Research discussing their approach to social media very enlightening. Instead of fighting (or denying) the power of social media, they chose to embrace it for their advisors. They established a dedicated support team internally and then implemented social media monitoring software that allows their advisors to use LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Content has to be pre-approved and then software is used ongoing to monitor. They do not yet track revenue and referrals by virtue of social media, but they do have specific advisor testimonials that document how they have won new clients and revenue as a result of their efforts. In less than one year, they achieved over 15% adoption from their advisors.

There were several other quality presentations I did not get to touch on, but I am sure you can see from the little bit I have shared that technology and advisor interactions can have a strong positive impact on a client’s planning experience. Considering how much has changed, I greatly look forward to seeing what the symposium agenda will bring next year.

product management, SunGard’s wealth management business

Creating a mobile strategy in the financial services world

Posted by

Since it was introduced 20 years ago, mobile technology has evolved to become one of the most widely deployed innovations in modern history.  There are more than 5.3 billion mobile devices in use globally[A1] ; nearly 80% of the world population owns a mobile phone.  In comparison, world-wide there are 4 billion FM radios, 1.6 billion TVs sets, and the number of PCs in use trail behind at a relatively meager 1.2 billion.  By the end of the 2011 almost half the US population – 150 million people – will have a smartphone[A2] , and in much of the world the Internet is already accessed more from mobile devices than from computers connected by landlines.  But what does this mean for financial services companies?

Nearly 12% of U.S. consumers use mobile banking today – more than 10 million people – and according to Forrester Research, their ranks are expected to swell to 20% of U.S. adults by 2015[A3] .  The Yankee Group (June 2011) predicts that there will be 500 million m-banking users globally less than four years from now.  And while it is true that some people may never choose to bank or manage their investments using their mobile phone due to security, privacy, or technology concerns, within a few years these people will be a small minority.

Yet with all this growth and widespread use, we face difficult choices around how to prioritize new products and services for mobile devices; the sheer diversity of phone hardware and operating systems, known as fragmentation, is daunting.   Further, the rapidly evolving landscape of mobile technology means that the platforms you develop for today will most likely be obsolete in only two years.  We will see new technologies emerge and old channels replaced or extended with entirely new devices like Internet-connected TVs, printers, vehicles, clothing, and other devices that have not even been conceived yet.  Making the situation more difficult, the return on investment is hard to measure in financial services.  Early adopters of mobile have seen little or no additional revenue, and their cost to deliver services has, in many cases, remained the same or increased.  So how do you take advantage of the incredible opportunity mobile represents while continuing to enhance your existing channels and protect your bottom line?

There are many parts to a comprehensive mobile strategy – policy, technology, security, support, marketing, the list goes on – and I will address these in future blogs.  But an effective strategy that builds real value for your enterprise must be more than just a channel strategy.  Starting with a clear view of the business objectives you want to achieve and the problems you are trying to address are important first steps.  Here are a few suggestions that can help shape your strategy:

-          Develop a clear understanding of who wants to interact with your services on a mobile device and why.  This will help steer you towards what to deliver.  Carefully consider the trends in your market and use this information to help prioritize your mobile investments.

-          When designing mobile offerings, look closely at how the technology is changing the world from a user perspective.  In just 20 years the telephone has evolved into an affordable hand-held wireless tool that connects us to anyone, anywhere, and at any time from pretty much everywhere we go.  But mobile devices have become so much more; the ultimate personal device, they allow us to streamline and simplify access to services, connect to banking and other financial services, make payments, participate in social networking, receive education, entertain, and surf the Internet.  Modern mobile devices share four key characteristics – portability, accessibility, geo-awareness, and personalization.  If you want to deliver truly innovative solutions, consider how to apply the strengths of mobile technology when you design your what.

-          Don’t forget to include SMS in your mobile strategy – it might have less appeal than ‘apps,’ but text-based messaging is still by far the most widely used mobile device capability – 8 trillion text messages will be sent in 2011 [A4] alone; marketers will tell you that open rates for SMS messages average 4 times higher than email.  According to Juniper Research (May 2011), by 2016 application-to-person (A2P) messaging will overtake person-to-person [A5] (texting) messaging.

-          Make sure to take mobile computing into consideration when planning ongoing infrastructure investments.  Much of the cost associated with enterprise delivery of mobile solutions is related to re-architecting existing application middleware, data and user security.  Given the high rate of change in mobile technology, the best way to future-proof your investment is to ensure your current infrastructure is stable, flexible, and extendable.

There are many approaches to build mobile applications; each has strengths and weaknesses.  But no matter which approach you take, leveraging your existing assets – data, business logic, security, networks, and so on – will help shorten your time to market and reduce both your development costs and total cost of ownership.

 

manager, SunGard's wealth management business

Technology that can make a difference in client services

Posted by

Communication is such an integral part of what it means to provide a meaningful client experience. When we speak, write or otherwise misconvey our true intention, however, it is difficult to understand why a problem does not get resolved. Technology has helped everyone to be more available and productive. However, that same technology also has caused us to stray away from natural methods for interpreting interpersonal communication.

E-mail, issue tracking systems, Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn all rely on typed words for communication.  According to A. Barbour, author of the book, Louder Than Words, it is our non-verbal communication that determines the interpretation of the words spoken. Barbour breaks down non-verbal communication into the following: 7 percent verbal (words), 38 percent vocal (volume, pitch, rhythm, etc.), 55 percent body movements (mostly facial expressions).

With the continued drive to embrace and leverage technology, we need to look for ways to make it support more personal and interactive methods of communication. One such method is interactive video, which is becoming the preferred communication method for international departments. Skype, FaceTime, GoogleTalk, WebEx and other instant messengers also give individuals the ability to visually communicate. These technologies provide the interpretive assistance we need so our senses can to go to work and help enhance communication clarity.

Recently, Cisco’s WebEx application began leveraging video in its online collaboration software. SunGard implemented this upgrade, which allows for up to six participants to be seen at a time and interact. Through the sharing of desktops, this type of technology continues to help us see what problems exist and allow WebEx participants to communicate issues better.

Although the technology exists, nothing in the marketplace indicates a movement toward choosing video calling over e-mail or some other Internet-based messaging service. On the contrary —a recent InboxQ survey reported that 64 percent of the people surveyed would rather buy or do business with vendors who responded to queries via Twitter. It seems that people would rather communicate through the written word rather than in person (video). People are self conscious about being seen through a webcam. I recently polled a sampling of our own client services team about leveraging video; only 2 of the 20 polled indicated they would do it. The others — 90% —did not want people looking at them. When I asked if they would be open to adding a service like Twitter to answer client issues, a majority of the team liked the idea.

Embracing emerging technologies like Twitter early could help you retain clients, but it may take more time to leverage video. An option could be to introduce a social media outlet initially and use video conferencing for presentations. As the employee’s comfort level increases with video look at implementing on a more granular scale.



Have you implemented any new technologies, such as Twitter or interactive video services, to help enhance communications with your clients? How was your implementation experience, and what effect has it had on your client interactions and productivity?

product manager, SunGard's wealth management business

Expanding by fostering investor trust in a recovering economic climate

Posted by

The recession hit everyone hard several years ago and, barring a few aftershocks, recovery has been slowly gaining ground. As investors across the globe try to deal with the tremors caused by the economic and financial services crisis, new wealth is being created and growing in the East, while the West shows it is growing still. Globally, growth impacts the wealth management industry by spurring on new competition and creating opportunities to capitalize on change through expansion.

In the East, financial services firms who are capable of doing so are opening new branches and service lines to deal with the growing demand.  Several of the industry’s more global competitors are focusing more on the Eastern or South East Asian countries as well. In Germany, wealth is accumulating by nearly 200 billion Euros every year — growth that has caused firms in Germany and other European countries to reevaluate their business goals and efficiencies.

I see the wealth management industry in Germany dealing with several challenges in this recovery growth period. In addition to addressing new regulations focused around consumer protection, firms are experiencing increased pressure to maintain profitability amid a new environment of more transparent, and most likely shrinking, revenue from sales commissions. All the while, advisors continue their efforts to reassure clients whose trust in both the markets and wealth management advisory services in general has been shaken.

To take advantage of opportunities in the current climate and rebuild investor trust in the market, wealth managers have to focus on deepening their client relationships. Tactics should be included in their business goals to better understand their clients’ goals and objectives, their rational or irrational behavior, and to increase transparency. By deepening client relationships, wealth managers can help ensure that clients invest in the products and approaches they recommend. In addition, relationship building helps assure that they keep valued clients during times of uncertainty. It may also result in the acquisition of additional clients through positive referencing, which is the type of expansion every wealth management firm hopes to achieve.

What methods are you employing to help deepen and strengthen client relationships?