Technology

product management, SunGard’s wealth management business

Do more with less: A study in process optimization

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“Do more with less,” is the mantra of consultants and the marching orders of senior executives.  In today’s world of increased competition and compressed margins, companies want methods to improve efficiency.  Automation is the “low-hanging fruit,” often offering “wins” for both the business and technical teams.

Gaining efficiency does not begin with automation, nor should automation be the end.  Automation is a piece of a larger puzzle; that puzzle is process optimization.  Too often companies look at automation as a technical project and fail to look at the larger business process and operating environment.  Approaching an automation project as a standalone technology project can mitigate the value and return of that project.  To capitalize on the best use of automation tools, you must understand the desired future state in terms of business processes and business systems.

Process optimization methodologies, such as Lean, TQC, and Six Sigma, seek to review the business process holistically, focusing on organizational structures, work distribution, quality, controls, knowledge and skills, sales and service, and technology investments.  The review typically results in recommendations for improvements, which can include standardizing processes, aligning resources to balance with the demand, improving communication with stakeholders, and improving relevant and actionable key performance indicators (KPIs).

The best time to look at automation with technology is when reviewing the standardization of processes and alignment of resources.  How much could you save by automating a piece of a given process?  Could you improve the efficiency of the organization, improve the quality?  How could you better align your resources to better serve your clients? And, what tools are available?

Technology is always moving, always progressing, so it is important to constantly re-evaluate the tools available and make sure you are using the best tool for the job.  Here are some to consider:

Optical and Intelligent Character Recognition (OCR/ICR) – OCR / ICR engines allow businesses to apply rules or processing logic to data that is captured most typically from forms. This can help organizations perform validations of the data and automate the exception management process for items received “not in good order” (NIGO).  The data can be directly integrated with other systems, stored, used for reporting, etc.

Web / Mobile – As core business applications continue to develop more robust middleware or service layers, organizations are able to leverage the Internet, mobile applications and social networks to help create portals or interfaces for their customers to interact directly.  This helps push lower level work, such as data entry or capture, status updates or general information queries, outside of the organization through client “self-service,” and helps to improve the quality of information before it enters the organization.

Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) Tools – ETL tools are used to extract data from one to many sources; to standardize, aggregate, clean, or apply a set of business rules or logic to that data; and then to load the resulting data into the destination system.  From an efficiency perspective, ETL tools help to minimize the ad-hoc and time consuming manual processes of collecting and re-formatting data to be used by the business and are ideal for high volume, batched data-driven activities.

Business Process Management (BPM) – BPM platforms connect disparate systems, groups, and people, and combine them into a single, cohesive process, ideally covering the end-to-end lifecycle of any given activity.  Efficiencies are gained by automating the movement of work throughout the organization, directly engaging systems into a business process, improving communication across the organization, providing exception management and resolution paths, and tracking a robust set of operational data.  The audit data captured can then be used to identify “bottlenecks,” as well as work volume, backlogs, efficiency and quality.

With any of these tools, there is an upfront investment of time and resources.  When evaluating the success of an automation project, think of a quadrant diagram with “frequency” on the X-axis and “complexity” on the Y-axis, with the ideal scenario  being low complexity and high frequency.

Automation projects can result in the resource availability to grow your business and expand service by helping your subject matter experts (SME) focus on tasks which add value to your business.  The goals of process optimization and automation technologies are to facilitate business efficiency, drive quality, and “do more with less.”

product manager, SunGard’s Omni Data Validation Web

Creating efficiency in payroll processing

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No matter how you differentiate your services from your competitor’s, every recordkeeping operations provider is faced with the repetitive task of collecting, reformatting, validating, and posting payroll data.

Finding ways to process payrolls more efficiently is a personal passion of mine. I am constantly looking for ways to improve the data collection process.  I also look to find ways to empower the person submitting the data with the information they need to adjust their payroll data in response to validation results.  With something as large as an employer’s monthly 401k contribution remittance at stake, finding every opportunity to efficiently collect and validate payroll data is more important than ever.

The days of manually keying from a paper listing are largely behind us, but there is still much room for improved efficiency and transparency in collecting payroll data. Many recordkeepers are playing the middle man, getting on the phone with plan sponsors to work through recurring payroll issues, or relying on corrections after the fact, instead of encouraging a sponsor self-service environment.

Successful recordkeepers have learned to do it right, or they will have to do it again at ten times the cost. They use recordkeeping validations to protect themselves from doing things wrong the first time. By providing tools to help plan sponsors and payroll vendors to efficiently fix problems up front, recordkeepers can create transparency with online systems that allow those submitting the data to identify and correct their errors before they become costly recordkeeping adjustments. Empowering those individuals with the proper tools to self-service creates efficiency by easily resolving data onboarding issues.

Of equal importance is the analysis of trends. By measuring and automating the most commonly occurring problems, recordkeepers can identify new patterns of recurring issues.  By finding these patterns, they identify new training and automation initiatives to continually help increase the efficiency of the payroll process.

With the addition of Web services and business process management, it is easier than ever before to connect disparate systems, giving the ability to network directly with the correct audience: the individual or organization who needs the information or who can best help address the problem. By networking with the correct systems and audiences, recordkeepers can bring new levels of efficiency to the payroll process.

Recordkeeping technology has come a long way from my initial experiences as a payroll technician. And, with products like SunGard’s Omni Data Validation Web, recordkeepers can accomplish the following:

  • Network the problems to those individuals who and organizations that are empowered to fix them.
  • Create system transparency to help expose back-office data directly to plan sponsors and payroll vendors.
  • Provide efficiency to help enable plan sponsors and payroll vendors to easily self-service their payroll submissions.

SunGard is continually looking for new process improvement opportunities, including expanding these solutions from payroll operations to other business processes in recordkeeping operations.

What business processes are the most challenging for your operation? What processes do you use to ensure your data is valid?

Click here to learn more about SunGard’s Data Validation Web

 

senior vice president, SunGard’s wealth management business

Best practices for designing mobile solutions

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Mobile technology has evolved to become one of the most widely deployed innovations in modern history. And, with the proliferation of mobile applications, consumers have a very high expectation of what their user experience should be like. Not all mobile solutions are alike, and not all are good, as most of us can attest.

In order to help firms be successful with their mobile strategy, there are seven best practices from an application design perspective that can help make mobile initiatives a success.

First, know your users. Observe how they obtain and process information. What types of activities cause them to initiate phone calls or online activities with your firm today?

Second, be sure to provide information and an interaction pattern that is appropriate for the channel. Mobility is not a “port your application” exercise. It is not wise to simply move your current solution to a new device. Consider the “who, why and what.” Think about who is the user, why they are coming to you, and then you will know what to make available and in what format. And, always design your solutions so that actions take less than three clicks to get to and less than five minutes to complete.

Third, it is important to prototype. By doing so, you can fail early, often and cheaply. Rapid iteration is key. Having an iterative development and design process will likely improve the final solution you bring to market.

Fourth, plan ahead as the mobile devices of today may not be the ones of tomorrow. Consider a cross platform approach versus development for specific devices. Doing so can better position you for adapting to new technology innovations in the future.

Fifth, don’t forget the feedback mechanism. Every mobile application should enable users to voice their opinion about your solution. Some of your best ideas or enhancements can come from your user community.

Sixth, become an advocate for the technology. It is important that you personally become an avid user of both tablets and smartphone solutions so that you have a solid foundation for providing direction and input on your mobile designs.

Lastly, be creative. Think beyond the obvious. How can you create a user experience that does not exist today? What information or function can you provide that is not currently available through traditional online means today? Remember, mobility is a unique opportunity to help improve the interactions your clients have with your firm.

 

partner, SunGard’s Wealth Management Global Services

Is there an advisor in the house?

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The human body is a highly complex, self-contained entity that relies on several subsystems to function.  A failure in any one of these systems could create a real crisis.  No one would like being told that his/her brain, cardio-vascular, endocrine, nervous or other system might stop functioning or begin to “over function.”   The results could be disastrous.  Like the human body, the global economy is an extremely complicated organism that has many different parts.  Regulation, taxation, business climate, employment, politics and other systems — all have the potential to dysfunction, creating a crisis that can impact your wealth.

Just as many people would seek a doctor for treatment to help with a problem with their body, many retirement plan participants have decided to seek professional help with planning their wealth at retirement.  According to a recent survey by Sun Life Financial, 53% of Canadians are concerned about running out of money during retirement, and 37% are concerned they will need to lower their standard of living.  Only 34% believe they will be able to afford healthcare in retirement.  These statistics for Canadian concerns are not unique to Canada.  A survey by Merrill Lynch of affluent Americans found similar concerns.  These and other surveys show that confidence increases when a professional advisor is working with participants.  Access to advisors can also help plan sponsors meet their fiduciary responsibilities to the plan.

So what’s the big deal?
Over the past 30 years, the sources of wealth for retirement have shifted dramatically.  From an era dominated by Social Security and defined benefit plans to an era of participant control and choice among various wealth building instruments, the need for a doctor (advisor) has never been greater.  The challenge for advisors is access to information.  As employees have moved between jobs, they have often left retirement accounts with their former employers.  Add the explosion in retail investments directly owned, and a typical investor may have a relationship with five or more financial firms.  What are advisors to do?  How can they properly help their clients plan for the future in such a realm?

Is the answer merely a technology solution, creating a central platform that allows access across multiple banking, mutual fund, insurance, and other financial institutions’ detailed record systems to present a consolidated view of investors’ wealth?

Does a solution require a fundamental shift in the way the financial services industry does business today, becoming more collaborative and working together to meet the needs of its constituents?

Has your organization found a way to address the issue of advisor access to data across multiple providers?

Credits: 1.  www.sunlife.ca/unretirementindex, 2.  www.ml.com/affluentinsights

 

product management, SunGard’s wealth management business

Creating a comprehensive mobile policy

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Today’s economic climate has led many financial services firms to shift technology investments to areas that help reduce costs and improve overall workforce productivity.  Increasingly, these investments include mobile solutions – and updating the enterprise infrastructure that is necessary to deploy and support them.

Mobile access to enterprise resources, such as CRM and client information or more sophisticated tools, can help significantly improve user productivity and client satisfaction.  But getting these capabilities into the hands of users requires much more than just investment in hardware and software.  A successful mobile strategy starts with careful planning and consideration of your business objectives.  Then, to successfully build, deploy, and manage mobile solutions, the significant technology, process, cost, and commercial risks involved must be properly addressed.

Comprehensive mobile policies share five key elements:  security, infrastructure and technology, user mobility and use policy, support, and future-proofing.

Securing mobile devices and the corporate assets on them is a challenge for any enterprise, but especially so in financial services.  The first step is deciding what information and services can be accessed on a mobile device, and how securely that information must be protected. Cybercriminals are increasingly turning their attention to the mobile channel, hoping to exploit security gaps that have already been closed on the web.  Many people are less aware of what constitutes risky behavior on their mobile device as compared to their desktop PC, and locking down employee-owned devices is impractical.  User profiling is not foolproof, and device hardware ‘sectioning’ tools are still nascent.  Ensuring your mobile infrastructure uses secure transport and data encryption is important, but the most effective approach to mobile security includes a combination of security at the infrastructure, communication, application and device levels, coupled with a robust policy that specifies what users can do with mobile applications and data.

Leveraging your firm’s existing infrastructure can help significantly reduce the costs and risks associated with deploying mobile solutions.  Making sure new technology and processes are compatible and easily integrated with existing systems is critical.  Firms should assess their hardware platforms, operating system and database software, software development tools and environments, communications, technical standards, internal and external data and business logic interfaces (and the physical location of data), as well as configuration management, support infrastructure, and release control procedures.

When creating a mobile policy, device management and inventory, user management and recognition, data access and authentication, analytics, performance monitoring, and mobility profiling as they relate to security must be considered.  These capabilities play a big role in developing a comprehensive information and device security policy, and are further complicated in the 70% of companies that already support devices owned by employees.  It is important to address the reality of lost and stolen devices, as well; regardless of whether it is an employee’s personal device or one provided by the firm, protecting corporate data requires a policy that covers both the reporting of lost devices and how and when lost devices are wiped.

An organization’s approach to supporting mobile devices and applications should address what apps and devices are covered, acceptable use of the information, loss prevention and recourse, and device repair and replacement.  If employees are allowed to access corporate assets on personal mobile devices, then the firm must decide on the amount and type of support that is offered to users and the additional security or policy measures required to mitigate risk. A training policy is also essential to cover mobile-specific risks, regulatory and compliance issues, and best practices.

As device and operating system fragmentation continue to increase, no comprehensive plan is complete without protecting the firm’s mobile investment against the next technology innovation.  The most effective mobile apps tend to be targeted at specific tasks most important to a mobile user.  These types of solutions often need access to a smaller, more manageable set of data interfaces than larger, more comprehensive enterprise applications.  If a firm’s core infrastructure is secure, scalable and designed to support modern Web services, development teams find it easier and more cost-effective to build new solutions on top of existing enterprise assets, and keep them current.

Mobile technology can help greatly improve the experience and productivity of the people that interact with firms utilizing it.  But it is vital to approach mobility with a comprehensive strategy, paired with effective policies and controls to manage costs, reduce exposure to data loss, prevent security breaches and compliance issues, and extend the useful life of technology investments.