Most advisors need to juggle multiple applications, searching for the client or account each time, to properly service a single customer. Advisor productivity and client experience suffer as individual tasks take longer to perform and mistakes are made. Advisors need a consolidated view of their customers with embedded tools and not just links to other applications.
This is where an Integrated Advisor Desktop can make all the difference by offering a unified view of all customer information and advisor tools. At NexJ, we have successfully implemented Integrated Advisor Desktops with many integrated applications at top tier firms like Wells Fargo Advisors (19 integrated systems), RBC Wealth Management (15 integrated systems) and UBS (14 integrated systems). All of these implementations:
- Are client and household-centric
- Contain all information about each client and household
- Integrate with other systems, allowing advisors to complete processes without logging into multiple applications and switching contexts.
Why are these implementations successful? Each implementation leverages two kinds of integration: UI and Data.
Welcome to a three part blog series that describe how NexJ customers have created IADs to increase advisor productivity while still providing personalized service.
In this blog, we will discuss how IADs use UI integration to make advisors more efficient. The next blog will focus on data integration and how building a comprehensive view of a client can both improve client service and power AI initiatives. In our final blog we will discuss the concept of a Wealth Management Model that simplifies and future-proof's the implementation of an IAD.
UI Integration must drive efficiency
Many vendors will tell you that they can integrate with any system, typically with pre-packaged integrations. But not all integrations are equal. Accessing a link, calling a few documented APIs to pass a bit of information or launching a process does not help advisors increase their productivity. When working with clients, advisors typically move from app to app, logging into each one, searching for the same client and then finding the information they need to continue their work. Links or API based UI integration aren't enough. Advisors need a single application that contains their client facing applications in a single user experience. No more switching applications and searching for the same client over and over. This is an Integrated Advisor Desktop.
For advisors to see the full value of an IAD, it must provide the following: Single Sign-On (SSO), Portal Services, and Context Sharing.
SSO allows advisors to authenticate once during a session and still access each different application. Typically, this is done while signing in to the workstation or laptop.
Portal Services create mashups of portlets into a single user experience. The contents of each portlet is managed by different applications, but the user experience appears as a single desktop of related components.
Context Sharing allows the portlets to talk with each other and change together. For example, when looking at a client dashboard, each portlet, regardless of which application is managing it, will show information about the same client. The benefit is that the user only needs to change the context once, and every application will react.
An integrated advisor desktop, that leverages these technologies, allows advisors to concentrate on the client and not worry about which application has the data they need or the function they require to provide client service. For example, an advisor could understand a client's holdings, recent transactions, open service requests and recommended actions all from a single screen before they make a call.
A true out of the box IAD does not exist. Without these technologies, pre-built integrations may look like a cheaper alternative, but will not give your advisors the productivity boost that you need. RBC built a tightly integrated IAD that saves their advisors a minimum of 2 hours per week, which they invest back into engaging directly with clients.
Please watch for our next blog about data integration. UI integration helps to create an efficient advisor experience, but to really improve customer service, we need to look beyond the UI and understand the data about a client and their household.
