Last month, BlazePortfolio Systems was an exhibiting vendor at the Charles Schwab national conference in San Francisco. Independent Financial Advisors from across the country gathered to learn and collaborate on best practices and key topics. As always, technology is a hot topic at these events and the Schwab Intelligent Integration (SII) initiatives took center stage. The SII initiative highlighted three themes; a best of breed approach, cloud hosted web-based solutions, and seamless integration between technology providers.
Best of Breed Approach
Because no two advisors that are alike Schwab is offering SII in two different flavors, Schwab Integrated Office and Schwab Gateway. With so many options available this suggests that Advisors can find the best fit for their firm by selecting best of breed providers with seamless integration.
Web based and cloud hosted applications
All of the SII providers currently have or are developing a cloud hosted web-based solutions. The trend is established as a growing number of RIAs are demanding web based software applications to meet the needs of a virtual office for Advisors. The days of expensive servers housed in an RIA’s office are coming to an end.
Seamless Integration
The Schwab Integrated Office and Schwab Gateway are touted as the prototype for seamless integration. With plans to integrate CRM, Trade Order Management Systems, and Performance Reporting the possibilities are endless. At the Schwab conference the three SII CRM providers demonstrated their version of intelligent integration there were clear differences. Schwab Intelligent Integration providers each tout their integration over the competition but the true test is in how advisors will benefit.