Take one look at your smartphone, and you’ll realize just how reliant you are on tech applications.
In your personal life, you may use dozens of apps — from the social media app that connects you with friends to the banking app that manages your checking account to the rideshare app that gets you home at night. Our business lives are no less tech-reliant. A recent Wealth Management/Fiserv survey found that two-thirds of advisors use four or more applications or business tech solutions throughout the day.¹
Although technology plays a central role in daily work, most advisors also identified challenges with integration and usage. According to our own WealthTech survey, advisors only use 70% of their tech stack on average.² Think of the wasted time, money, and lost efficiencies resulting from fragmented tech!
What is the cure to a disjointed, ineffective tech stack? It lies with solutions that have been built using open architecture. Let’s take a closer look at open architecture and how you can use it to implement your ideal tech stack — one that is streamlined, easy to use, effective, and fully integrated.
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Open Architecture: The Solution to Disjointed Tech
What exactly is open architecture? Gartner defines it as “A technology infrastructure with specifications that are public as opposed to proprietary. This includes officially approved standards as well as privately designed architectures, the specifications of which are made public by their designers.”³
A public technology infrastructure allows you to build points of connection between various software solutions, even if they were built by different vendors. Integrating your tech stack solves several pain points advisors face.
- Facilitates seamless information and data transfer. You risk losing information when you have to rely on copy/paste to get data from one tech tool to another. An integrated solution automatically shuttles data between your systems.
- Reduces compliance risks. One of the greatest risks a disjointed tech stack creates for a financial advisory firm is compliance-related. Regulatory agencies expect you to maintain secure, correct, centralized records, and that’s difficult to do when data is scattered across multiple platforms.
- Streamlines your daily workflows. How much time do you spend each day toggling between different tech tools? It may only be a few minutes of frustration at a time, but those minutes add up to valuable hours you could be investing in face time with clients or business development work.
- Maximizes your tech investments. You spend a lot of time and money on selecting, implementing, and maintaining your tech solutions. If the tools aren’t being used to their full potential, you’re throwing it all away! Integrating your tech stack ensures your employees can fully utilize each solution.
How To Build an Integrated Tech Environment
Now that you understand what open architecture is and how it works, you can see the real value it brings in helping you create an integrated tech stack at your firm.
However, there’s still work to be done between understanding the concept of open architecture and implementing solutions to integrate your tech stack. How do you start creating a tech stack that’s aligned and connected?
1. Begin with a Mindmap
The first step to creating an integrated tech stack is understanding the tech solutions you currently have. The easiest way to assess your tech setup is by using a mindmap.
Mindmaps rely on the classic hub-and-spoke design to help you identify connections between your existing tech tools. You can start the process by placing your most essential tech solution at the center of your map. Depending on your firm’s workflow, this may be your client portfolio tool, custodian, or something else.
From there, add all of your other tech solutions to surrounding bubbles. Don’t only jot down client-focused tech; think about every application or tech solution you use. This includes HR or talent-management platforms, internal communication channels (like Slack or Microsoft Teams), and document storage tools.
Of course, your mindmap should also include essential advisor tools, like your CRM, custodian, financial planning software, data aggregation tools, and compliance or risk analytics solutions.
Once you’ve added each solution to its own bubble, draw arrows between the ones that are already connected, with the arrow pointing in the direction of data flow from one tool to the other. If solutions could be integrated by aren’t yet, connect them with a dotted arrow.
2. Assess Your Ability to Integrate
Armed with your completed mindmap, you can begin to map out your potential integration moves. Here, you’ll create a matrix, with the X axis labeled “hard” to “easy” and the Y axis labeled “high” to “low.”
Begin to place each of your current solutions into the matrix. Each solution’s placement on the X axis represents how hard or easy it would be to implement fixes to improve your tech stack. On the Y axis, your focus is on whether the changes would have a high positive impact on your team or a low one.
The tech solutions that fall into the upper right quadrant, representing high value and easy implementation, are your low-hanging fruit. This is where you want to focus your integration efforts.
Solutions that land in the lower left quadrant, on the other hand, can be deprioritized. These changes would be difficult to implement and offer little value to your team. No need to invest your time and energy in low-value work!
3. Adding To Your Tech Stack: Evaluating Partners
Once you’ve maximized the potential of your existing tech stack through integrations, you may be ready to add new solutions. When it comes time to expand your tech stack, you can now do so with an eye toward integration. Assess any future tech providers’ ability to integrate their solutions with the stack you’ve already built to ensure you invest in the best solution for your firm.
As you meet with new vendors, ask them the following questions:
- How does your solution integrate with my current technology?
- Do you have an API or offer data streaming? (This allows you to share data between applications more easily.)
- What does your product roadmap look like? What future integrations are you exploring?
When you approach potential new vendors with these questions, you walk away with a more complete picture of their solution’s suitability for your firm. Remember, what’s suitable for your firm depends on your needs and existing tech stack — it’s not always the solution with the biggest hype or most extensive user base.
4. Lay the Groundwork for Success
Once you’ve selected your new technology vendor and signed your contract, it’s time to implement it. This can be a make-or-break moment for your new technology, so invest the time in thoughtfully managing the process.
First, you must define what success looks like. Identify a clear set of parameters that will signify a successful implementation. These parameters will act as your North Star throughout the process; as the implementation progresses, ensure all of your actions are in service of achieving your definition of success.
Next, communicate with your team. One of the quickest ways to lose the hearts and minds of your employees is to make a change that impacts their daily workflow without telling them first. Instead, overcommunicate your plans, particularly with the individuals most affected by the new tech rollout. Solicit their feedback and ask for their continued input as the process progresses. This is the best way to maintain buy-in.
Finally, acknowledge that the implementation will be challenging! Change is hard, and there are often hurdles to overcome when embracing new technology. Focus on communication, working together, and striving for your definition of success to stay motivated throughout the process.
5. Implementation Is a Team Effort
Along those same lines, remember that new tech implementation and integration is a team effort. To make the process as painless as possible, it helps to identify an internal champion.
This does not have to be the person who made the buying decision, but it should be someone excited about what the future will hold once the tool is fully integrated at your firm.
Your champion should be reliable, enthusiastic, tech-savvy, and a strong and empathetic communicator. They will be essential to keeping morale high throughout the integration process, and they’ll play a vital role in educating the rest of your team about how to incorporate the new solution into their existing workflow.
Once your champion is on board, identify a small beta group who will test drive your new solution. They will work with the internal champion to experiment with the tech, identify any potential kinks, and uncover the best ways of working in the new environment.
6. Integration Is an Ongoing Process
Once you’ve successfully integrated a new solution into your tech stack, take a moment to celebrate! But then remember that integration is never really done. As technology advances and your firm’s needs change, you will identify new opportunities to expand and strengthen your tech stack. It’s a best practice to review your tech solutions every six to 12 months and to make adjustments as necessary.
The good news is that once your team has been through a successful integration process, it will often be easier the next time. Everyone has seen the value of embracing new tech solutions, and you have developed a method for successful implementation. All that’s left is to repeat the process and continue to improve your tech stack in a way that supports your team, serves your clients, and fuels firm growth.
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