NICSA Technology Summit 2008

By Mike Ma
Mike Ma is a Principal with kasina, LLC and co-chair of the NICSA Technology Committee.

From the “Enterprise Collaboration Solutions Come of Age,” I became pretty convinced that we are finally ready to really use better use collaborative technologies. 

The numbers, especially for our industry, make the case for me.  We already do it a lot, and we can make it more efficient.  A quick straw poll of the Forum attendees, 60% of the audience responded that they worked from home at least 1 day a month, compared with 20% is the general US population.  Two quick points from the panelists:

- Oppenheimer has had benefits

o Increased wholesaler talk time from 6-7 minutes to 20-30 minute range with content rich collaborative technologies
o Reduced cross-country travel trainings to once a year from 3-4x times a year between New York and Denver
o Technology teams in Denver are building requirements are being built with higher accuracy and turnaround time despite coordination from New York. 

- Cisco has a account manager/specialist sales model which is not unlike our wholesaler/specialist model

o 51% increase touches and contact
o 30% increase in sales productivity, which I am reading as profitability
o 71% quality of life improvements for the specialists team

That last point was compelling for me.  We are able to help people’s lives get better, and technology is helping that along with the bottom line.  We need to start measuring more stuff like that in addition to the hard financial figures.

By Mike Ma
Mike Ma is a Principal with kasina, LLC and co-chair of the NICSA Technology Committee.

“Featuritis and obesity must disappear. Stop listening to your customers … the fat lady can’t sing anymore.”

This was #2 of 4 predictions that Nicholas Negroponte made about the Digital Revolution at NICSA’s Technology Forum.   For the record, he is pretty good at predictions (check this clip from 1984 where correctly made 3 of 4 predictions, one of which included something like…  oh… like the iPhone touchscreen).

The basic idea is that traditional customer technology cycles have forced us to increase features to keep price points the same, and he thinks this is going to go away.  The new mini-laptop market is an example of this phenomenon.

And to some degree this trend matches our internal budgeting cycles.  What are we going to give more to keep our budgets flat (or increase?)

I was moved by this particular finding as we are admittedly in difficult markets, this provided a refreshing reminder to rethink your technology plan this year.  Business units continually are trying to get us to do more with less.  However, this may give you the time to look your business partners in the eye and say perhaps it is time to do less with less.

Other things that may be interesting from his conversation:

• -He paid homage to Seymour Papert as an inspiration for his One Laptop Per Child Project.  Teaching kids to program is the best way to “learn about learning”.
• -The growth of wikis and other open source content creation has made more data about the data, than there is data.
• -Commercial forces have not helped create customers that can affect global change.  We are incented even in developing markets to “cherry pick” ideal customers, but that doesn’t create broad, developmental change.
• -The president of Uruguay has made it one of his legacy’s that every child will have a laptop and it appeared on the nation’s stamp.

I am admittedly a sap, but he is really living proof that technology can change the world.

NICSA’s Technology Summit 2008 wants to connect you to other members and to the fund industry at large by providing online access to speaker presentations, video clips, relevant links and online discussions about the sessions. In the weeks leading up to the conference, you will be able to view content, comment about the topics and ask questions of the presenters. Input from these discussions will help shape the live event.

This open concept is part of NICSA’s plan to offer more desktop delivery to our members. NICSA’s Technology Summit 2008, Innovate – Mobilize – Deliver, takes its theme quite literally, and offers a novel approach to business-technology content delivery.  While desktop delivery will not replace the experience of attending a conference, it offers the convenience of anytime, anyplace access to NICSA’s high quality content.

We encourage you to participate in the virtual experience by posting your comments and questions.

By Andy Luro
Andy Luro is a Managing Consultant with Venture Financial System Group and a member of the NICSA Technology Committee.

Who doesn’t like getting a “good deal”?  How often can you find something of value and pay less than you expected?  When it comes to Web sites, having deep budgets has historically allowed for greater opportunities and flexibility in trying out new ideas that can really make a difference. But when the dollars become short and budgets are scrutinized, expenses for web sites may fall way down the priority list.

Does this mean that we need to wait for better times? There are organizations that are continuing to make web site improvements without breaking their budgets. Those who continue to update their web sites to remain fresh will continue to elicit a stream of returning clients or better yet - potential new clients.  Others focus on making the site user experience and navigation more intuitive with techniques such as card sorting. Savvy IT groups resort to gathering site statistics using tools, such as Google Analytics, to identify where users are coming from and how they are navigating one’s site. Those considering prototyping extensions to their website may find using Simunication an effective tool.

I invite you to share your thoughts and ideas for smartly improving your web site. What tools do you find effective? What portions of a web site are ripe for improvements?

By Jeff Graves
Jeff Graves is a Vice President in State Street’s Global Product Management team and a member of the NICSA Technology Committee.

As someone who spends a fair amount of time both at work and at home relying on my laptop and my Blackberry to conduct business, it’s sometimes hard to fathom that not everyone lives a “wired” lifestyle.  For example, while my retired father is fairly computer literate, he mainly spends his “plugged-in” time emailing family and friends, and uploading digital pictures of his grandchildren.  In contrast, my mother won’t go near the computer, and while she owns a cell phone, rarely even turns it on, much to my father’s frustration.

Compared to my parents, I’m a geek - I’ve toyed with Twitter, I’ve created a very sparse Facebook page, I’ve built a moderate-sized network on LinkedIn, and I spend a ton of time being entertained by YouTube instead of cable TV.  I’ve got a list of over 60 blogs I follow via my Google Reader account, and I even started my own, long-dormant blog.  And yet, as I skim through my favorite technology blogs, I realize that there are an awful lot of people who are far, far more connected than I.  And a lot of them seem to be far younger than I.

Even though I’m technically a member of “Generation X”, I’m one of the older members of that group, and nothing makes me feel that way more than reading about “Gen Y” upstarts leveraging social networks, mashups, and blogs into viable business models.  It makes me realize that there’s something to the idea of a “generation gap”, and that what worked to reach my parents, might not reach me, and probably doesn’t have a chance of reaching that 20-something young professional sitting across the aisle from me on the commuter train in the morning.

Accordingly, investment companies like Charles Schwab and Thrasher Funds are starting to explore the use of new technologies and business models to attract business from the maturing audiences who have never known a world without PCs, digital music, or cable television.  And that’s the topic of a great panel discussion planned for the 2008 NICSA Technology Summit that will feature industry experts from Schwab, Thrasher, Access Data and Acxiom.  If you plan to attend the conference, please plan to join the discussion.  Even if you’re not attending, please use this blog to let the rest of the world know what you think about generational differences and how technology impacts them.

By Mike Ma
Mike Ma is a Principal with kasina, LLC and co-chair of the NICSA Technology Committee.

It is a question that fund families and distributors have asked of each other, and we resoundingly say yes.  We see a growth in the advisory business as both the numbers of advisors and fund flows that are advisor sold are growing in the industry.  High five’s all around.

The academic community thinks we are wrong.  Very wrong.

A study from Harvard Business School and the University of Oregon strongly suggests, no they do not, at least if it pertains to investment performance.  John Chalmers, a co-author of the study, will be speaking about his position when he and others take the stage on the first day of the NICSA’s Technology Summit, specifically at our panel on “The Advisor of the Future.”

After reading John’s study, I thought “What if it isn’t all about investment performance?” Personally, that isn’t what I use my advisor for.  In addition for the general planning aspect of the relationship with my advisor, my wife and I use our advisor for a lot of psychological benefit as well. We sleep better at night knowing we are on the right track.  We get hard questions asked about our lives that we don’t ask ourselves (“Mike, tell me what you want to happen if Katherine dies?” is not a regular kitchen table discussion at the Ma household).  How do you place a value on that?  Are we looking at the proper spectrum if we think of only investment performance?

As industry technologists, why do we care about the resolution of this debate?  Well, we are on the hook for delivering solutions to the advisors, and if we can deliver solutions that maximize the value of what advisors bring to the shareholder, we and our firms will benefit.  As one my clients says, “I’d rather be skating to where the puck is going.”

With that spirit in mind, I encourage you all to give the study a read and hear what others think about the role of advisors today and tomorrow.  In addition to John, the panel has great representation from LPL, Albridge Solutions, and American Funds, so I encourage everyone to push them on this blog whether you can make it to the conference or not.

Brian Stetson is Senior Vice President, E-Commerce, in the Information Services Division of Putnam Investments.  He will moderating the panel “Enterprise Collaboration Solutions Come of Age” at this fall’s Technology Summit.

In a world of geographically dispersed virtual teams, business partners, and customers,  how do you collaborate?  Whether you are in the same building or across the globe, companies need tools to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing among team members and clients.  What tools do you use – phone, video conference, email, web conferencing, document sharing, or a wiki? Are you interested to see what cutting edge technology and best practices for their use are being leveraged by your peers?

Please share your thoughts and experiences relating to your company’s experience in leveraging collaboration technologies to improve productivity and communication.  What tools are you using,why did you choose those tools, how are you using them to conduct business, and what lessons have you learned along the way? Please share the benefits of your experiences.