News
Going Web-based: NaviPlan is winning advisors over with a powerful, integrated technology platform
Now
that the best-of-breed developers of technology
for the financial services industry have proven
the strength and capabilities of their products,
the time is now to get all the tools advisors
are using working together in a single format.
The March 2004 issue of Bloomberg.com Wealth Manager explores the "integrated desktop platform of the future" with help from the CEOs of various technology companies and financial institutions acting as custodians.
"One thing is clear," writes Joel P. Bruckenstein of the integrated, Web-based platform advisors are gearing up for. "The functionality will be powerful, impressive, and integrated.
"Core components are sure to include trading and custody services traditionally provided by custodians to independent advisors, combined with portfolio monitoring and reporting, investment research and analytics, customer relationship management (CRM), and financial-planning software."
EISI's President and CEO Dr. Mark Evans, who is quoted throughout the article, points out that the key benefit to advisors with having all of their tools integrated with data import capabilities and toggled online/offline planning is enhanced productivity.
Says Evans: "It reduces the time required to prepare and update financial plans, and there are fewer errors."
Pershing, a custodian acting as integrator, testifies to the strength of a current integration partnership with EISI. Marc Butler, director of Pershing, says: "Our firm realizes there is no such thing as a 'one-stop shop' anymore, so we will partner when necessary to deliver the best set of tools to our clients.
"EISI's financial-planning software, NaviPlan Standard, has seamlessly integrated with NetExchange Pro, Pershing's account-management and trading platform, enabling advisors to automatically populate NaviPlan with a client's demographic, account, and portfolio data without re-keying any information."
The article cites Butler as saying: "NaviPlan's disconnect feature enables advisors to download client data to a laptop computer and work with NaviPlan without being connected to the Internet. When the advisor returns to the office, he or she can simply upload the updated information to the central database."
Bruckenstein writes that as the war for "control of the advisor's desktop" conquers new ground on the Web, look for other tools, like risk assessment and management, account aggregation, and comprehensive databases to become integrated.
