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Advisor Applications
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For An Advisory Firm, A Private Cloud May Not Always Have A Silver Lining |
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Friday, May 17, 2013 14:43
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Tags: cloud
Private clouds for advisory firms usually have a silver lining. Other times, however, they don’t let the sunshine in and can hinder your firm.
Private clouds are nothing new. A private cloud is very often based on old “terminal services” technology that has been around for over a decade. This allows you to put desktop applications on a Web server and use it securely. So instead of keeping a server in your office, you might put it in a hosting facility. This Website Is For Financial Professionals Only
When using this type of private cloud, you can derive some important benefits. Your apps are accessible from the Web and employees can access them securely from any Web connection. Plus your servers are safer in a hosting facility than in your office.
However, this type of private cloud is not the latest and best technology and has some big disadvantages versus other options for moving to the cloud.
A newer technology for creating private clouds uses “virtualization” to emulate a desktop experience in the cloud. This newer technology allows each user to have his own unique desktop, while the older type of private cloud set up means that all your users see the same desktop. The new private cloud technology makes it easier to manage printers and other peripherals and can offer better security.
But both types of private clouds offer disadvantages when compared with Web applications. Web applications are the most modern ecosystem and will almost always offer the best software and user experience. Software companies are not putting resources into improving desktop apps because Web apps offer much better economies of scale. They don’t need to be hosted in a private cloud and their features are much more easily updated and offer better security.
A4A is going to be offering a series of webinars beginning today to help advisors understand the benefits of private clouds, their drawbacks, and the different kinds of private clouds. The series will be tapping the expertise of IT consulting firms from around the country that focus on serving financial advisors.
We’re going to make this very confusing area of technology understandable and we’re going to tell you how much it costs to do these things right. We’ll explore the limitations of private clouds being offered to advisors by software vendors and explain how Microsoft Office and Exchange fit in with private clouds.
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Schwab Performance Technologies Launches “PortfolioCenter Hosted;” Do You Know What It Really Is? |
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Tuesday, May 07, 2013 17:06
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Tags: Charles Schwab | Portfolio Management Software
Schwab PortfolioCenter is now available to advisors in a new way—a hosted version—which is bound to confuse some advisors. Here’s an explanation of what it is and what it’s not, along with a discussion of some key considerations. This Website Is For Financial Professionals Only
“PortfolioCenter Hosted allows advisors access to data online anytime, anywhere, in a protected, secure environment,” says a Schwab press release.
“It is an ideal fit for advisors who want to keep control of their data, but want to spend less time managing technology infrastructure,” said Brian Shenson, vice president of Advisor Technology Solutions for Schwab Advisor Services.
Schwab clearly has a cloud solution that will work for some but not all advisors. However, trying to understand just where it fits in among the different modes of IT operations may not be so clear. Here is a no-spin explanation of the issues surrounding PotfolioCenter Hosted:
What is “PortfolioCenter Hosted?”
The IT infrastructure that you get with PortfolioCenter Hosted requires that you keep running PortfolioCenter’s desktop version, but you run it in your own private cloud. For $4800 a year, you get a single user license to PortfolioCenter and it is hosted for you in your own private cloud. You also get the hosted version of Microsoft Office, so you can create spreadsheets and documents right from your private cloud. Additional seats cost $100 a month and interfaces for additional custodians and services costs $100 a month. You are not getting the full benefit of the Web by running this IT structure, because PortfolioCenter is not a real Web app and you are not gaining the scaled economy of a data management service. In fairness, however, RIAs in no hurry to get the latest and best technology might be satisfied using this IT infrastructure. It’s reliable and involves the least amount of change for your firm. With this infrastructure, you or your staff download and scrub your account data daily. Any mistakes in calculations of performance are your mistakes, but you are not relying on a third party to handle your clients’ data. It is not as efficient as outsourcing data management, but you may not mind the additional cost because you have other problems to fix first or just feel most comfortable with this technology.
What “PortfolioCenter Hosted” Is Not.
PortfolioCenter is not a Web app. Web apps are multitenant applications. PortfolioCenter handles one RIA at a time. The desktop version of an app is not multitenant and, therefore, not as scalable as a Web app. Web apps are scalable systems that can handle lots of concurrent users. The best apps built today are Web apps, and you’re giving up having the latest technology by choosing not to get a Web app. Web apps are much more easily integrated with other apps. So you get the benefit of the most recent changes in technology faster with a Web app. Just yesterday, for example, Adobe announced it would end the life of its Creative Suite desktop application and only develop the product for the Web. This trend is occurring throughout the software world. Because Web apps are less expensive to maintain, and the savings can be passed on to you in the form of lower prices, businesses are moving to the Web. The PortfolioCenter Exception. PortfolioCenter is an exception because it is owned by Schwab. Schwab looks at PortfolioCenter as a marketing and sales tool in its custodial business. Schwab doesn’t need to make money on PortfolioCenter. It can afford to not look at PortfolioCenter as a profit center. Giving an RIA favorable pricing on PortfolioCenter or PortfolioCenter Hosted is not a problem, because it makes the relationship stickier. PortfolioCenter Hosted is attractively priced for advisors who want their own private cloud.
Switching Portfolio Management Systems
Schwab PortfolioCenter Hosted is for an RIA looking for the least disruptive option to getting to the cloud. It’s a way for an RIA seeking to host PortfolioCenter on a network server or PC to get better security and some of—but not all of—the benefits of the Web. The cost savings and features gained by switching to a Web-based app might not be worth the hassle in your estimation. If you’ve been using PortfolioCenter for 12 or 15 years, switching to a Web app can be a real challenge. Be prepared to pay to run two PMS systems during a one- to three-month transition period and your staff will need to be trained on the new system while you’re still running PortfolioCenter.
Virtualization. PortfolioCenter Hosted relies on virtualization to turn one server into many virtual servers. Instead of having to host his own server, an RIA shares a server with a other RIAs, but each is treated virtually as a separate server. It lowers the cost of hosting drastically and it is stable.
Latency. I’ll have to do more research to address latency, and would welcome any comments from users in the meantime. Users of PortfolioCenter Hosted are logging into their private clouds using Citrix software.
Control Of Your Data. Schwab’s press release says that PortfolioCenter Hosted is “an ideal fit for advisors who want to keep control of their data, but want to spend less time managing technology infrastructure.” To be clear, you can probably lower your costs and save staff time by outsourcing data management. Allowing a third party to handle data management gives you the benefit of their scale, which should be passed on in favorable pricing. The other kind of data-control issue RIAs worry about is not security but fungibility. It’s true that keeping your data in a private cloud lets you retain the same ownership rights to your data as any desktop app you are now using. For the record, however, even if you switch to a Web-based app, you should retain the same ownership rights to your data.
New Advisors. If you’re starting a new firm or breaking away from a broker-dealer, PortfolioCenter Hosted is not the best solution. Moving directly to a Web app would make more sense. If you are starting fresh, start with the newest technology and go with a Web app.
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Amazon Accidentally Leaks World's First Small-Screen Windows 8 Tablet |
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Saturday, May 04, 2013 21:29
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The 8.1-inch Acer Iconia W3-810-1600 was briefly available for perusal on Amazon, PC World reports. This device is for an advisor who just wants to consume content. It's decent for email and browsing the Web, but don't give up your work computer just yet. This Website Is For Financial Professionals Only
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Facebook Home Passes 500,000 Installations On Google Play One Week After Launch |
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Tuesday, April 23, 2013 18:02
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Facebook’s new Home Android launcher has passed the 500,000 download mark on the Google Play store after a little over a week in the wild, though it continues to accumulate mostly negative reviews and has sunk to an average rating of 2.2. While most advisors do not use Facebook for marketing, it's good to to mnitor its progress. This Website Is For Financial Professionals Only
According to The Next Web, Facebook first released the software in the US on April 12 before rolling it out to international users on the 16th. 500,000 downloads is a modest start for Facebook, but its dwarfed by the one million downloads of Instagram within 24 hours of when it arrived on Android last April.
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Securities America Wins BISA Technology Innovation Award for Advisor Dashboard |
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Friday, April 05, 2013 15:12
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Tags: advisor technology | broker-dealers | client portal Securities America received the first Technology Innovation Award for its advisor workstation dashboard at the Bank Insurance & Securities Association (BISA) annual conference. This Website Is For Financial Professionals Only
Securities America’s e*Office Advantage workstation dashboard offers advisors three views: client, office and branch. Each view can be customized by the advisor or assistant using dozens of available widgets, which draw data from multiple sources in seconds. This data aggregation makes advisors more efficient and effective, whether dealing with clients, identifying the practice’s most profitable clients, or analyzing production for a group of advisors.Securities America Financial Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc. (NYSE MKT: LTS).
BISA created the award to recognize leadership in the advancement of the industry’s products, services and platforms through technology innovation. The organization plans to grant the awards annually at its annual convention each spring.
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