DIGITALENGAGEMENT & COLLABORATIONIN WEALTH AND INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

THE HYPE, THE REALITYAND THE FUTURE

Copyright © Objectway 2016. All rights reserved.

www.objectway.com

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface .......................................................................................................................................................3

Executive Summary ..............................................................................................................................4

Focus on one of the Denmark’s leading Financial Services Group ..........................5

Introduction .............................................................................................................................................6

Focus on Lemanik SA ................................................................................................................7

About the Survey ..................................................................................................................................8

Focus on BNP Paribas Fortis Private Banking .................................................................9

General Characteristics of Opinion Leaders ..............................................................................10

Digital Engagement and Collaboration .......................................................................................14

Digital Strategy ...........................................................................................................................14

Online Investment Management ..........................................................................................21

Case Study: CheBanca! ............................................................................................................24

Customer Experience ...............................................................................................................27

Case Study: Targobank ............................................................................................................30

Analytics ........................................................................................................................................32

Case Study: Nedbank ...............................................................................................................34

Social Media & Virtual Communities ..................................................................................36

Conclusion and Takeaways ................................................................................................................38

Final Synopsis .........................................................................................................................................39

About the Authors ................................................................................................................................39

Follow up ..................................................................................................................................................40

Webinar...........................................................................................................................................40

On-Demand Briefing Sessions ...............................................................................................40

Contacts ....................................................................................................................................................40

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PREFACEEfma and Objectway are delighted to present this

joint publication, based on a recent survey, “Digital

engagement and collaboration in wealth and

investment management: the hype, the reality and

the future”. The report explains and explores the

latest digital engagement and collaboration trends,

in terms of tackling challenges and leveraging

opportunities for the growth, management and

preservation of client wealth.

Two years ago, Objectway and Efma conducted a

joint survey: “Digitisation in practice: transforming

investment services for affluent clients”. This study

interviewed leading banks and wealth managers and

showed how firms were undertaking an integrated

digital strategy by examining five focal areas for

digitisation: customer centricity, channel interaction,

digital mobility, analytics and social media.

The results showed that wealth and investment

management services providers were recognising the

value of digitisation for improving customer centricity

and enhancing customer service. The clear trends

that emerged included an increasing use of analytics

and social media for learning more about clients,

new tools for simplifying access to investment data

and omnichannel integration for improving the

customer experience.

In this year’s study, we focused on observing how

the wealth and investment management sector has

capitalised on digital engagement and collaboration

in relation to our first survey’s findings. Consequently,

we continued to focus on customer experience,

analytics and social media. We also carried out a

more in-depth investigation into digital strategy

and online investment management.

The focus on these last two key themes aims to

improve our understanding of the current digital

engagement challenge.

Furthermore we also explored the future evolution

of the industry’s digital strategy to try to understand

if and how firms are now leveraging digitalisation to

grow their business, improve operational efficiency

and boost productivity.

We hope that you will find this detailed analysis both

enjoyable and informative.

LUIGI MARCIANO - CEO, Objectway

VINCENT BASTID - CEO, Efma

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Technology and digitalisation are radically transforming the wealth management industry and are considerably challenging its value proposition. Wealth Managers should think of clients in terms of digital awareness and sophistication and should look into their need for personalised investment advice, supported by proactive and collaborative guidance.

In this demanding context, should firms re-engineer their business models around the connected customer and deliver a differentiated digital wealth experience? Could digital engagement and collaboration tools meet evolving client expectations, reduce attrition and enhance efficiency?

The results of our joint survey offer an insight into how digitally-minded investors are approaching and will influence the approach to wealth management in the coming years. As a foretaste, the main findings of the study highlight that:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Digital Engagement and Collaboration is considered to be a strategic topic, with

board level commitment. Most of the respondents also consider it to be a multi-year

programme, with a multi-year dedicated budget.

The participants in the survey are quite well equipped in terms of digital engagement

and collaboration capabilities. However, the current situation is more about reactive

data provisioning, with a clear evolution towards a proactive approach and from a

unidirectional to a bi-directional attitude.

• Redefining the Client Onboarding Process is a challenge for many financial services

organisations. Building a healthy customer relationship in a compliant and efficient way

is imperative and a greater reliance on a self-service approach could improve efficiency.

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• Online Investment Management is considered

to be complementary to traditional service

offerings, but is also an offensive strategic

offering for entering new customer segments.

The hybrid advisory model is likely to be the

winning approach for investment servicing.

• Although Customer Experience is the key

element of the new corporate identity, only

a third of respondents affirm to have a

real-time, consistent experience across all

channels. Security is not a limiting factor for

digital engagement and collaboration when

using relevant and appropriate technology.

• Analytics and Social Media are becoming

an integral part of a firm’s digital strategy.

Over the next two years, they will become

important tools for profiling and interacting

with each client more effectively. Companies

will be able to develop the most appropriate

proposal by monitoring client life events,

mainly by capturing static data.

These are among the main themes that this

study will explore to increase our understanding

of the current digital engagement challenge in

an increasingly competitive context.

“Digital engagement and collaboration

between the financial institution and the

client is a fundamental topic because of

the demand generated by increasingly

informed customers. They are looking

for easy ways to connect and to be

educated, aiming to save time and money,

seeking transparency from their financial

institutions and expecting experiences

that fit into their everyday life. There

are also important drivers related to the

organisation’s needs - such as saving costs

and raising competiveness via automation,

reducing errors and delays from manual

processes, gaining control, freeing up

resources for more timely financial

analysis, drastically decreasing the burden

of compliance and using a self-service

approach by reducing administrative tasks

from the professionals and providing an

‘at your leisure’ service to clients.”

“The need for action is acute, especially

in today’s environment, as it has become

crucial to create sticky client relationships

in the digital world. Banks have only a short

period of time to become digitally proficient.

If they fail to take action, they risk losing

their competitive edge. Revenues and profits

will increasingly migrate towards banks

that successfully use digital technologies to

automate processes, create new products,

improve regulatory compliance and transform

the experiences of their customers.”

DIGITAL BEST PRACTICE Digital Innovation as the key to the future

CHALLENGE To create “sticky” client relationships in the digital word

FOCUS ON

ONE OF THE LEADING FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP

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DENMARK

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THE CONNECTED CUSTOMER

To rise to the challenge of engaging the

digitally-minded client, firms need to re-engineer

their business models around the connected

customer. According to many research

studies, the top reasons cited by investors for

switching to another financial advisor are all

communications-related: for instance, advisors

do not return clients’ requests in a timely manner

and are not proactive in providing advice.

Today’s connected clients want access to their

advisor on their own terms, using the channel

with which they are most comfortable.

REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS

Regulatory requirements represent a major

driver for IT spending, particularly in relation

to the application of rules based on the

forthcoming MiFID II regulation. This, along

with the control of the appropriateness of the

investment, implies that every order received via

a recordable electronic communication channel

is considered valid and needs to be recorded.

Therefore, companies should take all of the

digital steps needed to prevent employees or

contractors from having private communications

that the company is unable to record or copy.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

When engaging with a financial institution, a

potential client’s first impression of the wealth

firm will come from their customer experience.

This will form the lynchpin of the corporate

identity of the future. Clients expect leading-

edge technology when dealing with their

financial institution and advisor. A personalised

user experience is considered key to business

growth, and is one of the top elements in the

future evolution of digital engagement and

collaboration.

CLIENT ONBOARDING TRANFORMATION

The use of digital tools to engage and

collaborate with the client is transforming the

onboarding process into a revenue function,

with a strategic impact on a firm’s business.

Identification of the client’s risk level and the

standardisation of processes are key to ensuring

constant compliance. Furthermore, the client

experience can be enhanced if the onboarding

process is fast and of a high level quality.

Finally, the ‘straight through processing’

of onboarding can improve organisational

efficiency and keep customer loyalty high.

Wealth firms are feeling pressurised to implement a digital wealth management strategy and various factors contribute to this. However, the competitive advantage that digitalisation can provide also leads to business growth. This includes delivering concrete benefits for both investors and wealth professionals. To achieve this, financial institutions must manage their customer experience, data analysis and business processes in a digitally integrated way.

What are the major trends and challenges that should be considered for technological investments in digital transformation?

INTRODUCTION

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HYBRID ADVISORY AND GOAL-BASED INVESTING

Digitally-empowered clients tend to require a

complementary approach to financial advice: a hybrid

approach that combines human interaction with

digital capabilities. Investors can start their investment

experience with a robo advisor, and can then consult a

human advisor for investment decisions through safe

chat, video or co-browsing tools. Goal-based financial

planning increases the effectiveness of the investment

strategy through constant portfolio monitoring and

rebalancing.

This study explores how financial institutions are using

digital technology to overcome these challenges and

add value to their clients in wealth and investment

management services.

STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT

The findings presented in this report are divided into

two categories: general/demographic information about

the survey respondents and a detailed discussion and

analysis of digital engagement and collaboration trends

in the wealth and investment management segment.

Interspersed with the results are case studies and

quotes that highlight the strategies, best practices and

challenges reported by selected survey participants in a

series of drill-down interviews.

WHY WE UNDERTOOK THIS STUDY

Two years ago, Objectway and Efma conducted a joint

study, called “Digitisation in practice: transforming

investment services for affluent clients.” This involved

interviews with leading banks and wealth managers

and explored how firms were undertaking an integrated

digital strategy.

In this year’s edition of the survey, “Digital engagement

and collaboration in wealth and investment

management: the hype, the reality and the future”, we

have focused on observing how the wealth and

investment management sector has capitalised on

digital engagement and collaboration in relation to

our first survey’s findings.

As a result of this study, we can now enrich our view

by adding new aspects, calibrating industry vision,

monitoring its evolution and offering a glimpse of the

years to come.

DIGITAL BEST PRACTICE Digital transformation as a natural transition

CHALLENGE TO OVERCOME Improve the investment experience through algorithms

“The face-to-face approach continues

to be a fundamental interaction for our

private clients; on the other hand, we are

also aware that our customers often travel

and are not always resident in Switzerland

or Luxembourg where Portfolio Managers

are based. In these cases, face-to-face

interaction cannot be easily satisfied

without a digital support. In this, we

see digital transformation as a natural

transition.”

“We continue investing on innovation,

which is mainly focused on algorithms.

Our algorithms support the automated

advice model, where quantitative advanced

analytics are used for the construction of

model portfolios and product picking, at a

lower cost. The algorithms follow the rules

set by the portfolio managers and perform

theirs visions in the most automated

way. The combination of a good quality

engine and the precise inputs given by the

portfolio managers differentiate us from

competitors.”

Marco Silvani Managing Director

Lemanik SA

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FOCUS ON

SWITZERLAND

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• Workshop phase: An initial in-house workshop phase involving Objectway and Efma, including a

preliminary desk study, set up to analyse and understand the most important scenarios within the

wealth management market.

• Questionnaire: The workshop findings provided source material with which to prepare the

extended research phase. This involved an online questionnaire, with over 2,000 financial

institutions being contacted.

• Interviews: Some of these respondents were selected for interviews. We chose those that had

adopted particularly interesting approaches and conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with

them, to gain a better understanding of their future plans.

Here are the financial services providers that shared their digitalisation plans and strategies in the

interview phase:

• CheBanca! - Italy

• Nedbank – South Africa

• Targobank – Germany

• Lemanik SA - Switzerland

• BNP Paribas Fortis Private Banking - Belgium

• One of the leading Financial Services Groups - Denmark

The survey consisted of three phases:

The main objective of the joint Efma and Objectway study is to observe and explore the latest digital engagement and collaboration trends, in terms of tackling challenges and leveraging opportunities for the growth, management and preservation of client wealth. The results of the study enable us to identify the best practices for transforming the client experience whilst complying with regulations and safeguarding the operational efficiency of an organisation.

ABOUT THE SURVEY

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METHODOLOGY

The extended survey was based on a semi-

structured questionnaire containing 22 questions

(a mix of pre-coded and open-ended questions)

and lasting approximately 15 minutes. The

questionnaire was developed by Objectway and

sent by Efma to its member banks via computer-

assisted web interviews, with over 2,000 financial

institutions being contacted.

PARTICIPANT ROLES AND JOB TITLES

Managers from the marketing, business and

development areas were surveyed in their

institution’s head offices. They included executives

in the following roles: Head of Private Banking,

Head of Affluent Banking, Head of Investment

Management, Chief Operating Officer, Chief

Marketing Officer, Innovation Manager, Head of

Direct Channels, Head of Digital Strategy, Head

of Business Development, Head of Customer

Experience.

DIGITAL BEST PRACTICE Human & Digital Interaction

CHALLENGE To retain a competitive edge within a digital world

Jeroen MachielsenSegment Manager Private Banking

BNP Paribas Fortis Private Banking

“We believe that most customers

value human interaction above all

other forms of contact. However,

today the relationship between the

financial institution and its clients must

be digitally facilitated, whilst being

complementary to the face-to-face

approach: the two should go hand-in-

hand. In the private banking segment,

digital can support and enhance the

personal relationship.”

“Today, digital engagement and

collaboration is quickly becoming

the norm: it is a qualifier and a ‘must-

have’ within financial institutions.

Therefore, for banks and other financial

institutions, it is becoming harder to

differentiate themselves through their

digital offering. This means that the

window of opportunity becomes smaller

and smaller and it is more difficult to

maintain the differentiating advantage

in the long term.”

FOCUS ON

BELGIUM

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This section provides general information about the financial institutions that are opinion leaders and that took part in the study. These details include country location as well demographic information on their investment services, such as geographic focus, assets under management, and number of clients per advisor.

GEOGRAPHICAL RELEVANCE

The sample of opinion leaders was representative of the countries of greatest interest in relation to the

topics examined. It was well distributed and therefore offered a good coverage of the market mix.

The following chart shows the 27 countries where the financial institutions, that took part in the

study, are located.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF OPINION LEADERS

• AUSTRIA

• BELGIUM

• CANADA

• CZECH REPUBLIC

• DENMARK

• EGYPT

• FINLAND

• FRANCE

• GERMANY

• GHANA

• GREECE

• IRELAND

• ISLE OF MAN

• ITALY

• LUXEMBOURG

• MOROCCO

• NETHERLANDS

• POLAND

• PORTUGAL

• RUSSIA

• SOUTH AFRICA

• SPAIN

• SWEDEN

• SWITZERLAND

• UNITED KINGDOM

• UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

• ZAMBIA

27 COUNTRIESREPRESENTEDIN SURVEY

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AFFLUENT AND HNW INVESTMENT SERVICES: CLIENT SEGMENTS, AUM AND CLIENTS PER ADVISOR

The following charts focus on the main client segments served by the surveyed financial institutions:

the organisation’s assets under management (AUM) of HNW/affluent clients and the average

number of clients per advisor. We also investigated whether investment services to affluent and

HNW clients are considered to be a core service offering.

WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN CLIENT SEGMENTS?

HIGHLIGHTS

Most of the surveyed financial institutions (60%) are serving both affluent and HNW clients. There are also huge differences in assets under management, as shown in the chart below.

21%HNW CLIENTS

60%BOTH

19%AFFLUENT CLIENTS

WHAT ARE YOUR ORGANISATION’S ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT?

HIGHLIGHTS

Financial institutions providing investment services for the affluent and HNW market vary in size from small to very large. Our study provides insights from across this broad AUM range and is truly representative of a complete cross-section of wealth and investment management.

N.B. The opinion leaders consulted include individuals who, for reasons of corporate policy or because they work in more technical areas, preferred not to disclose precise figures for assets.

12%US$10-20BN

12%US$5-10BN

16%US$1-5BN

6%LESS THAN US$1BN

19%MORE THAN US$50BN

9%US$20-50BN

26%DON'T KNOW

FIGURE 2 | ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT

FIGURE 1 | CLIENT SEGMENTS

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ARE INVESTMENT SERVICES TO YOUR CLIENTS A CORE SERVICEOFFERING OF YOUR ORGANISATION?

HIGHLIGHTS

Investment services to affluent and HNW clients are considered a core service offering and in both cases they have existed as an offering for a long time. However, for affluent clients, 14% of the respondents express that the offering has just started, which would certainly explains the constant growth of digitalisation.

71%LONG-TIME EXISTING OFFERING

10%UNDER DEVELOPMENT

AFFLUENT CLIENTS

5%NOT CURRENTLY IN SCOPE

90%LONG-TIME EXISTING OFFERING

5%UNDER DEVELOPMENT

HNW CLIENTS

14%JUST STARTED OFFERING

5%NOT CURRENTLY IN SCOPE

FIGURE 3 | INVESTMENT SERVICES

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WHAT IS THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF CLIENTS PER ADVISOR IN YOUR ORGANISATION?

HIGHLIGHTS

On average, the institutions surveyed said that each advisor handles around 350 affluent clients, whilst the comparative figure for HNW clients is around 100 clients per advisor.

AFFLUENT CLIENTS

HNW CLIENTS

5%201-300

5%501-1000

5%DON'T KNOW

5%LESS THAN 100

5%MORE THAN 2000

24%201-300

24%101-200

10%1001-2000

24%301-500

5%501-1000

45%101-200

45%LESS THAN 100

FIGURE 4 | NUMBER OF CLIENTS PER ADVISOR

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Wealth and investment management is all about relationships and service. This means being able to collaborate and share information anytime, anywhere, by overcoming the traditional limits of physical encounters.

Always-on connectivity is ubiquitous. Clients use multiple devices to access the overwhelming amount of information that is at their disposal. They want to find what is valuable to them in the shortest possible time. It is therefore of paramount importance that the advisor and the firm can engage in processes and collaborate with their clients to improve the customer experience and to enable them to access services in the most simple, natural and context-aware way.

DIGITAL STRATEGY

Today’s investors - at least, those that are growing - are different. They use social media to

support them to make financial decisions, they watch financial videos on YouTube and often

prefer to video-chat rather than meet their financial advisor in person. They also expect

leading-edge technology when engaging with their financial institution and advisor.

Are advisors and firms ready to rise to this challenge and deliver a differentiated digital

wealth experience?

DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION

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WHAT IS YOUR ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGY IN RELATION TODIGITAL ENGAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION?

Digital engagement and collaboration is considered a strategic topic, with board level commitment. Most of the respondents also consider it to be a multi-year programme, with a multi-year dedicated budget. In fact, the statistics demonstrate that 90% of the institutions are working on it.

HIGHLIGHTS

46%A BOARD LEVEL COMMITMENT

WITH A STRATEGIC FOCUS

22%A MULTI-YEAR PROGRAMME

WITH A MULTI-YEAR BUDGET

12%A PROJECT, WITH A

DEDICATED BUDGET

15%AD-HOC INITIATIVES

2%THERE IS NONE

2%DON'T KNOW

FIGURE 5 | DIGITAL STRATEGY

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WHO ASKS FOR DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION?

In the affluent segment, 47% of the respondents affirm that digital engagement is considered to be the mainstream interaction approach for most customers, enabling them to manage a large number of clients per advisor.

In the HNW segment, a smaller percentage of customers seek digital engagement and collaboration tools, but financial institutions are sometimes improving their digital capabilities to address specific target needs (i.e. millennials).

HIGHLIGHTS

21%MINORITY OF CUSTOMERSACROSS ALL SEGMENTS

47%MAJORITY OF CUSTOMERS

16%MINORITY OF CUSTOMERS IN SPECIFIC SEGMENTS

11%FINANCIAL INSTITUTION IS PUSHING THIS TO THE CUSTOMERS

5%ALL CUSTOMERS

6%DON’T KNOW

11%DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT IS NOTTHE MAINSTREAM INTERACTION APPROACH AT ALL

22%MINORITY OF CUSTOMERS IN SPECIFIC SEGMENTS

33%MINORITY OF CUSTOMERS ACROSS ALL SEGMENTS

MAJORITY OF CUSTOMERS28%

AFFLUENT CLIENTS

HNW CLIENTS

FIGURE 6 | DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT

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RANK THE CHANNELS THAT YOU CURRENTLY USE FOR INTERACTINGWITH YOUR CLIENTS

HIGHLIGHTS

The respondents’ preferences show that a hybrid and complementary approach is required: a branch-based advisor with a face-to-face approach is needed for the most sensitive issues, whilst remote support with digital collaboration opportunities ensures immediacy, connectivity and ubiquity.

BRANCH-BASED ADVISOR

2° MOBILE ADVISOR

3° INTERNET

4° REMOTE MEETING ADVISOR

5° MOBILE

6° AGENT OR INTERMEDIARY

1°

FIGURE 7 | CHANNEL IMPORTANCE

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WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION CAPABILITIES? MULTIPLE CHOICE ALLOWED

The participants in the survey are quite well-equipped in terms of digital engagement and collaboration capabilities, and are willing to enhance these further. This suggests that wealth and investment firms will opt for a tailored mix of digital features for engagement and collaboration, rather than for one prevalent tool.

However, the current situation is more about reactive data provisioning, with a clear evolution towards a more proactive approach (online recommendations) over time, and from a unidirectional to bi-directional attitude (co-browsing) over the next two years. Interaction is considered pivotal.

HIGHLIGHTS

49% 26%DOCUMENT INPUT & OUTPUT

42% 28%MARKET INTELLIGENCE

33% 24%ONLINE CALENDAR & CONTACT FEATURES

33% 29%WEBCAST

26% 16%TASK MANAGEMENT

19% 22%ELECTIVE CORPORATE ACTIONS

29% 34%ACTIONABLE SOFT REPORTING

27% 37%CO-BROWSING

35% 45%ONLINE RECOMMENDATIONS

40% 41%VIDEO

44% 44%CHAT

FIGURE 8 | DIGITAL CAPABILITIES

HIGHLIGHTS

A greater personalisation of the user experience, behavioural analysis, access to dedicated tools and a virtual personal assistant are quoted as the top elements in the future evolution of digital engagement and collaboration.

The opportunity to enable a differentiated customer experience, based on the organisation’s business and depending on the type of client being served (such as affluent and HNWI), will be key to feeding business growth. Being sufficiently distinctive to provide new sources of value is the main aspect.

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WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT FUTURE ELEMENTS OF DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION?

DEEP PERSONALISATION

2° BEHAVIOURAL ANALYSIS OF YOUR CLIENTS

3° ACCESS TO DEDICATED TOOLSquantitative tools, calculators, personal financial management, back-testing, screeners, projections

4° VIRTUAL PERSONAL ASSISTANT

5° SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION & INTERACTION

6° THEMATIC VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

7° SHERPA APPROACH learn by watching over the shoulder of a professional

8° COLLABORATIVE APPROACHES share insights, earn recognition

9°ACCESS TO BROAD MARKET INTELLIGENCEnews, fundamentals, corporate events, instrument data, historic data

10° PEER-GROUP ANALYSIS AND COMPARATIVE BENCHMARKING

11° SELF-TRAINING, EDUCATION AND ONLINE LEARNING

1°

FIGURE 9 | LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

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WHAT TYPES OF INFORMATION AND EDUCATIONAL TOOLS COULD BE RELEVANT FOR YOUR DIGITAL STRATEGY? MULTIPLE CHOICE ALLOWED

HIGHLIGHTS

All information and educational tools are almost equally relevant for building a digital strategy. This is not surprising, as digital investors are more demanding in terms of accurate and constant information about their investments. Moreover, a growing self-service approach fuels the need for them to become more educated on financial matters and to collect information from many different sources, including financial news portals, blogs, investor communities and online automated investing services.

28%ONLINE CERTIFICATION

70%ONLINE EDUCATION AND TUTORIAL

77%PERIODIC MACRO INFORMATION

80%MARKET REPORTS

69%NEWS OF INTEREST

IF A SELF-SERVICE APPROACH IS AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF YOUR FUTURE DIGITAL STRATEGY, FOR WHICH ASPECTS IS IT IMPORTANT? MULTIPLE CHOICE ALLOWED

HIGHLIGHTS

A self-service approach is

considered to be an essential

element in many areas: onboarding

processes; tools and simulators; risk

profiling; regulatory questionnaires;

and standing payments/withdrawals.

The approach depends on the

respondents’ most urgent needs.

Most of all, redefining the client onboarding process is a challenge

for many financial services

organisations.

Building a healthy customer

relationship in a compliant and

efficient way is imperative, and

relying on a self-service approach

could improve efficiency. If self-

service could be directly accessed

by the clients, once the data has

been collected, a clear investment

strategy can be designed for them,

which will eventually lead to an

account set-up process.

25%PEER-GROUP ANALYSIS

67%ONBOARDING PROCESS

59%

TOOLS, SCREENERS, CALCULATORS, PROJECTION TOOLS, SIMULATORS

55%RISK PROFILING AND REGULATORY QUESTIONNAIRES

52%STANDING PAYMENTS/WITHDRAWALS

49%FACT-FINDING

KNOWLEDGE/TRAINING ON INVESTMENTS 44%

38%ORDER CAPTURE

37%EDUCATION

5%

SELF-SERVICE APPROACH IS NOT STRATEGICALLY IMPORTANT AT ALL, MAYBE IN THE FUTURE

8%TAX HARVESTING

FIGURE 10 | INFORMATION AND EDUCATIONAL TOOLS

FIGURE 11 | SELF-SERVICE

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IS THERE AN ACTIVE MOVE TOWARDS ONLINE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT?

Online Investment Management does not replace the current capabilities: in fact, 31% of the respondents see it as a complementary offering to traditional service offerings.

For a quarter of them, it represents an offensive strategic offering for entering new customer segments. Only a small number of respondents don’t show any interest in it.

ONLINE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

Investors are at the centre of the new digital workplace. A set of technologies and solutions enable

them to interact with services, contents, advisors, investment experts, helpdesk employees or other

fellow investors. A connected client is a new kind of client who needs access to advisors on his

own terms, at a time and through channels with which they are most comfortable, using safe online

investment tools.

HIGHLIGHTS

13%AS A SANDBOX / PLAYGROUND

31%AS A COMPLEMENTARY OFFERING, NEXT TO TRADITIONAL ONES

13%NO ACTIVE INTEREST

10%AS A DEFENSIVE STOP-GAP OFFERING TO AVOID CUSTOMER ATTRITION

9% AS A STAND-ALONE SERVICE

3%DON’T KNOW

21%AS AN OFFENSIVE STRATEGIC OFFERING TO ENTER NEW CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

FIGURE 12 | INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

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IS ONLINE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT FOCUSED ON A SPECIFIC PART OF THE MARKET?MULTIPLE CHOICE ALLOWED

HIGHLIGHTS

Online investment management isn’t seen by most respondents as being specifically for a certain segment of customers (i.e. age, size) but potentially appeals across the whole spectrum of clients.

ACROSS THE FULLWEALTH SCALE39% 50%

ONLY VALID FOR SOMEGENERATIONAL SEGMENTS34% 33%

14% 28%ONLY VALID FOR CERTAIN

PORTFOLIO SIZES

NO CLEAR OPINION14% 11%

FIGURE 13 | MARKET SEGMENTS

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WHAT TYPE OF ONLINE INVESTMENT AND WEALTH MANAGEMENTTOOLS ARE YOU OFFERING TO YOUR CLIENTS?MULTIPLE CHOICE ALLOWED

Many firms are thinking about how to position themselves in terms of online investment management services, but not many are yet providing tools and services for this purpose.

The chart underlines the belief that in the next two years, an evolution from online investment tools to online investment servicing will take place, with a strong surge in robo and hybrid advisory as online investment solutions for the next future.

HIGHLIGHTS

HYBRID ADVISOR8% 45%

ROBO ADVISOR8% 52%

FINANCIAL PLANNING32% 39%

INVESTMENT PROPOSAL49% 42%

PTF MGMT & ALERTING TOOLS44% 39%

GOAL ANALYSIS27% 35%

RETIREMENT PLANNING TOOLS37% 32%

FAMILY BUDGET37% 32%

PRODUCT SCREENERS32% 28%

PROTECTION ANALYSIS21% 25%

FISCAL TOOLS14% 23%

FIGURE 14 | ONLINE TOOLS

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CHEBANCA! DIGITAL INNOVATION IN ONLINE INVESTMENTS

The established Milanese investment bank, CheBanca!, is offering customers a new concept in banking by providing products that are simple, safe and low-cost, and tailored to meet the needs of modern consumers.

To achieve this, CheBanca! has deployed a multi-year programme with a multi-year budget designed to make wealth management much more accessible and more client-oriented for the mass affluent segment. It will also facilitate money transfer from savings to investments for its existing customers and will attract new ones looking for an auto-investment experience at an affordable price.

Digital engagement and collaboration is one of the main interaction approaches requested by most CheBanca! customers. The digitally affluent and next-generation customers value this approach to satisfying their payment and investment needs. “We have identified the hybrid advisory model as the best fit for the demand for consumer advice. It is also the most competitive one, as it combines best-of-breed digital technologies and user experience with human interaction” says Alessandra Grendele, Director at CheBanca!.

CheBanca!’s goal is to offer its customers a native multichannel model which provides them with a few simple product offerings, a product offer expansion, and an innovative and distinctive advisory service.

“To do so, we are focusing our efforts on developing a totally digital and paperless platform for our advisory channel, with customer behavioural analysis, a virtual personal assistant, self-training, education and online learning, collaborative approaches that include sharing insights and earning recognition etc. and last but not least, a peer-group analysis and comparative benchmarking.”

BUILDING A NEW ADVISORY MODEL

The bank also aims to encourage existing traditional and conservative customers to move their assets from low-yielding cash accounts and term investments to higher-yielding funds, equities and fixed-income investments. It is providing the advisor network with a platform to make high-quality and tailor-made advisory solutions available.

CASE STUDY

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• CheBanca! has conquered the

market thanks to a simple, intuitive,

and transparent product offerings,

and an innovative & distinctive

advisory service

• The bank has identified the hybrid

advisory model as the best and

most competitive fit for the demand

for consumer advice

“We would also like to disintermediate some steps of the onboarding, goal setting and financial planning processes, by giving our customers the freedom to choose if and to what extent they want to operate by themselves or to be assisted by any other channel: branches, customer service, or advisors” explains Grendele.

CheBanca! continues to invest in innovation to meet its customers’ demands. The bank offers a multichannel distribution model that is geared towards maximum efficiency – website, customer service and branches – and relies on a customer-centric service with a distinctive offering: transparent, standardised and price-efficient products.

“This gives us a distinctive business approach that satisfies our clients’ needs, such as: savings, high standards of service and consummate professionalism. We can meet these demands by enhancing the banking business model - from IT systems to staff training and distribution - and by leveraging the strategic opportunity offered by the rapid changes in the regulatory environment and the traditional customer-bank relationship” points out Grendele.

To retain its competitive edge, CheBanca! is also deploying an offensive strategic offer to enter new segments as well as providing excellent capabilities, innovative technologies and competitive products and services.

DISRUPTIVE HYBRID ADVISORY PLATFORM

“We are proud of having believed in the value of selling investments online” affirms Grendele.

In January 2014, the bank started selling mutual funds through an open-architecture model, which later became an insurance product. Today, it offers a disruptive, automated hybrid advisory platform, combining human interaction with digital capabilities.

Clients can use a robo advisor and then consult a human advisor for more complex investment decisions. This will provide both the advisors and the customers with a unique experience of goal-based analysis and investment planning.

In conclusion, with Yellow Advice, CheBanca! wants all investors to have access to an advisory service which is currently reserved for private banks. This is unique, because it is simple, personalised, monitored, multichannel and threshold-affordable. In fact, the minimum threshold to access the service, along with the lower costs, make it a very democratic product that is available to a range of customers that have previously been neglected.

“We hope to bridge this gap by making the investment world really affordable for everyone” concludes Grendele.

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WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE THE LONG-TERM SWEET SPOT OF ONLINEINVESTMENT MANAGEMENT?

15%NO CLEAR OPINION

3%OTHER

10%AUTOMATED ROBO MODEL

1%NOT REALLY LONG-TERM

VIABLE

71%HYBRID ADVISORY MODEL

The use of these online investment tools and service offerings will change wealth managers’ business models. According to 71% of the respondents, the hybrid advisory model will represent the winning approach for investment servicing. There is no ‘prototype client’ that requests a totally automated or face-to-face contact: some clients prefer to be approached online whilst others prefer a personal, face-to-face engagement.

Between these two extremes, financial institutions need to be able to support a wide variety of approaches. This need could be satisfied by a hybrid approach that complements human interaction with some digital capabilities. Investors can start online in a self-service model and then request help from an advisor, typically for more complex or strategic investment decisions, via the digital channel they prefer - asynchronously or in real time via safe chat, video, co-browsing tools etc.

HIGHLIGHTS

FIGURE 15 | LONG-TERM SWEET SPOT

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Customer experience will become the key element of the corporate identity of the future. As everyone

pays attention to how branches are organised and how to approach clients in the physical branch most

effectively, the same level of attention should be given to how clients are approached in the digital

branch. The customer experience is a vital aspect of corporate identity and is a pivotal element in

attracting, retaining and inspiring customers.

Personalisation and the development of a specifically tailored service are considered key elements

for enabling future business growth, and are two of the main aspects of the future evolution of digital

engagement and collaboration.

IF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IS RATED AS STRATEGICALLY IMPORTANT WITHINYOUR ORGANISATION, HOW DO YOU MONITOR IT?

HIGHLIGHTS

Most of the respondents claim to periodically monitor customer experience in several ways: net promotor score tracking (NPS), regular customer surveys, a customer experience focus team and competitive benchmarking. Customer experience is the new competitive battlefield and its monitoring is considered fundamental.

40%NET PROMOTOR SCORE TRACKING (NPS)

30%REGULAR CUSTOMER SURVEYS

12%CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE FOCUS-TEAM

10%COMPETITIVE BENCHMARKING

4%USABILITY LABS

3%AGILE USER EXPERIENCE POLISHING

1%OTHERS

FIGURE 16 | MONITORING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

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ARE CHANGES IN CUSTOMER LOYALTY EXPERIENCED IN A MAINLY DIGITAL RELATIONSHIP VS. A MAINLY FACE-TO-FACE RELATIONSHIP?

HIGHLIGHTS

For more than half of the respondents, the digital relationship is an issue when it comes to customer loyalty. How does a financial institution create a ‘sticky’ relationship with a predominantly digital customer?

The top reasons cited by investors for switching to another financial advisor are all communications-related: e.g. advisors do not return clients’ requests in a timely manner and are not proactive in providing advice.

Additionally, when the digital process is not automated and is inefficient, clients could feel that working with the firm is a tedious process and might decide to stop doing business with that financial institution. Making digital engagement an enjoyable experience is therefore an essential objective of the customer experience mantra.

33%DIGITAL RELATIONSHIP IS LESS LOYAL

NO CLEAR OPINION30%

19%IT COULD BE AN ISSUE

3%FACE-TO-FACE RELATIONSHIP IS LESS LOYAL

15%NO (OR NON IMPORTANT) DIFFERENCE

FIGURE 17 | CUSTOMER LOYALTY

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IS YOUR DIGITAL INTERACTION REAL-TIME AND CONSISTENT ACROSS ALL YOUR CHANNELS?

The information provided by omnichannel and omni-device solutions needs to be consistent and real-time across all channels. Two years ago, 48% of the respondents said that customer experience was not consistent and was not real-time: this figure has now decreased to 36%.

Although customer experience is key to the new corporate identity, only 31% of respondents claim to have a real-time and consistent experience across all channels. There is therefore still a lot of efforts required to create a consistent omnichannel customer experience.

HIGHLIGHTS

TWO YEARS AGO

NOT REAL-TIME & NOT CONSISTENT48% 36%

REAL-TIME & CONSISTENT15% 31%

NOT REAL-TIME BUT CONSISTENT18% 22%

19% 11%DON’T KNOW

NOW

FIGURE 18 | CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CONSISTENCY

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TARGOBANK IMPROVES THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE FOR THE DIGITAL CLIENT

In today’s world, online banking has almost become a commodity. However, 15 years ago, when the Euro was making its first steps across Europe, thinking about the creation of an online banking service was quite revolutionary. TARGOBANK, the German retail banking arm of Crédit Mutuel, was an early mover at that time.

The bank has understood the importance of having an online presence since the very beginning of the wave of online channel integration into the banking ecosystem. This is why, as a ‘true omnichannel bank’, TARGOBANK now offers Internet, mobile, telephone and branch banking. With over 360 locations across Germany, it provides personal banking to private clients.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CONSISTENCY

Over the last three to five years, the growing demand for self-directed advisory services has led to a new challenge for TARGOBANK: providing its digitally-minded clients with a hybrid journey, where they can start the advisory process on mobile and then complete the mandate at the branch. They started delivering a robo advisory functionality - an online investment planner that is fully consistent with the branch data - to give clients a quick view of an investment plan (including ATR, asset allocation, quick recommendations etc.) in a couple of steps.

CASE STUDY

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• TARGOBANK’s objective is to

improve the consistency and quality

of customer experience across all

channels and to optimise the costs

of traditional face-to-face advice

• The delivery of a superb client

experience to a very clearly focused

segment is a key aspect of turning a

project into a success

• Once a customer starts online,

it’s important that the first digital

interaction stays consistent across

all the channels and services

offered by the bank

In undertaking this effort, TARGOBANK’s objective was clear: to improve the consistency and quality of the customer experience across all channels, and to optimise the costs of traditional face-to-face advice. Equally clear was the target to serve customers with a minimum of €50,000 investible assets. “This hybrid segment now represents 25-30% of our customer base” says Juergen Lieberknecht, Member of the Board and Head of Marketing, Product and Sales. “Delivering a superb client experience to a very clearly focused segment was a key aspect of turning the project into a success.”

In parallel, TARGOBANK is in the process of delivering 30 more mobile banking services that are already available on its Internet banking channel. “Once a customer starts online, it’s important that the first digital interaction stays consistent across all of the channels and services offered by the bank.”

Furthermore, TARGOBANK plans to increase the automation of its banking and wealth management services in areas such as KYC (know your customer) policy, reducing manual intervention, and making the robo advisor more sophisticated, with additional functions such as automatic rebalancing.

How TARGOBANK dealt with legacy constraints is exemplary. Integration with legacy systems is often an obstacle to digitisation. Consequently, in TARGOBANK, “All of the digitisation hangs off our core banking system, implemented with the acquisition by Crédit Mutuel in 2008. That was pivotal for the success of this project” points out Lieberknecht.

Is there any challenge that this firm still has to face? One, of course, is keeping up with regulation. Because this effort could be very costly, in the coming years dealing with increasing compliance issues will be crucial.

This includes the MiFID II compliance of digital communications: for example, tracing and archiving any advisory conversations using features such as virtual meetings, video, chat, co-browsing, is a highly relevant element of TARGOBANK’s agenda.

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IS SECURITY SEEN AS AN OBSTACLE TO DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION IN YOUR ORGANISATION?

ANALYTICS

Analytics offers a better way to listen to and understand client needs. Relevant information is

needed to grasp, profile and monitor customers’ behaviour. Combining information about client’s

lifetime events with the financial institution’s customer database offers a clear advantage for

providing differentiated and personalised services and experiences.

Security is not a limiting factor for digital engagement and collaboration when using relevant and appropriate technology. It is a qualifier that is perceived to be under control.

HIGHLIGHTS

FIGURE 19 | SECURITY

HOW DO YOU USE ANALYTICS TOOLS WITHIN YOUR INVESTMENT SERVICES?

FIGURE 20 A | ANALYTICS TOOLS

TWO YEARS AGO

50%USE ANALYTICS TO CAPTURE STATIC DATA

USE THEM TO CAPTURE BEHAVIOURAL DATA25%

11%DON’T KNOW

6%ACTIVELY USE THEM TO TAILOR SERVICE TO CLIENT BEHAVIOUR

8%DON’T USE ANALYTICS TOOLS

56%IT IS A CONCERN BUT WE ARE EQUIPPED WITH ROBUST TECHNOLOGY

SECURITY LIMITS WHAT WE CAN DO IN THE DIGITAL AREA 26%

8%NO CLEAR OPINION

4%SECURITY INHIBITS OUR DIGITAL INITIATIVES

6%NO IMPACT, NO CONCERN

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In previous years, financial institutions have used analytics mainly to capture static data. Today and in the near future, it will be used to extract relevant life events of the client. A financial institution stores an incredible amount of valuable data about its clients, especially when they start interacting more and more digitally.

This vast amount of customer behaviour information is typically untapped and hardly used. However, it contains relevant data about clients that could support a bank to approach them more effectively, according to their own specific ‘landing strip’.

HIGHLIGHTS

HOW DO YOU USE ANALYTICS TOOLS WITHIN YOUR INVESTMENT SERVICES? MULTIPLE CHOICE ALLOWED

TO BETTER UNDERSTANDTHE CLIENT69% 28%

TO EXTRACT LIFE EVENTSOF THE CLIENT35% 44%

34% 34%TO TRAK DISCREPANCIESOUTLIERS AND PATTERN CHANGES

38% 34%FOR PEER-GROUP COMPARISON

38% 31%FOR SPENDING PATTERN ANALYSIS

IT’S NOT USED TO IMPROVESERVICE OFFERING11% 4%

IN TWOYEARSNOW

FIGURE 20 B | ANALYTICS TOOLS

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NEDBANK’S DATA INTELLIGENCE FOR PERSONALISED INTERACTIONS WITH CUSTOMERS

Nedbank is Africa’s most admired bank by all stakeholders: it is ambitious and strongly supported, as it strives to achieve digital transformation.

With more than €16 billion of assets under management and 7.7 million clients, it is one of the top five banks on the continent. It provides insurance, asset management and wealth management solutions, as well as a wide range of wholesale and retail banking services. The bank operates in 39 countries across Africa, with a major presence in six countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and East Africa1.

In this region, it aims to put itself “ahead of the competition”, affirms Simon Marland, Executive Head of Digital and Business Intelligence, Retail Client Engagement.

DEEP CUSTOMISATION THROUGH DATA ANALYTICS

To achieve this goal, Nedbank is implementing its new ‘single client portal’ to enable all clients to interact online with transactional banking and the wealth management aspects of their full banking offering. The digitisation trend, the cost of face-to-face meetings, and customers wanting to help themselves drove the bank towards providing clients with a tailored digital interaction.

However, since there had not been a huge uptake of online capabilities in the past, due to tools that were too feature-rich and difficult to use, Nedbank embarked on this project with ease-of-use as its focus. The bank therefore adopted a three-step, scalable approach: configuration, clustering, and personalisation.

1 Nedbank Group at 30 June 2016

CASE STUDY

35

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Using Nedbank’s ‘single client

portal’, clients can interact online

with all aspects of banking

including wealth management

as a one stop shop

• Data and business intelligence are

strategic for enabling the complete

digitisation of the bank

• Through the creation of ‘digital

personas’, Nedbank can segment its

clients and tailor its offerings to suit

their preferences

In the first phase, Nedbank created ‘digital personas’, which define the default client configuration of the banking app and portal. These provide a default view of what a client sees and can do on the app or portal. As an example, HNW investors would have a target-specific configuration showing their brokerage account and portfolios, whereas a pure retail client would only have a view of their bank account.

Through these personas, the bank can categorise which segments of clients are more open to using digitally-enabled financial services, and can then tailor their offering to their clients’ preferences. Nedbank also took into consideration their customers’ negative feedback about complexity of use and decided to cluster the available features into functional grouped themed releases and send them out incrementally to clients, accompanied by tutorial mediums on how use them.

The ultimate stage is the delivery of a personalised ‘single client portal’, enriched by one-to-one marketing actions, to provide an experience that is unique to each client. The key objective of the portal is to increase each customer’s ‘stickiness’ to the Nedbank brand through daily and easy use. “We aim to offer a ‘golden nugget’ to our clients every day” says Marland. This could be as simple as ‘your data needs updating’ or an offer based on the client’s behaviour. “Personalisation will be the key differentiator for Nedbank when compared with our competitors” he adds.

When the new single client portal has been released, “Nedbank will also rely on better customer interaction data” says Marland. The bank’s Data Warehouse, in fact, collects a huge amount of information about its customers’ financial activities. Using its Interaction Management Engine to provide a database of every client’s consolidated interactions and touchpoints, the bank can look at the client’s activity and behaviour on the portal and can instantly push a product offer as a pop-up through its ‘Offer Engine’.

“Data and business intelligence are strategic for enabling the complete digitisation of the bank” concludes Marland. “Our empowerment plan envisages the digitisation of a significant percentage of our business by 2020.”

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SOCIAL MEDIA & VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

Social media in wealth and investment management is a controversial topic. However, the survey

results show that it is becoming more and more important to understand clients, interact with

them and offer them the solutions they expect. Moreover, for many respondents, a thematic virtual

community represents an opportunity for favourably positioning the organisation within relevant

public communities.

IS THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AN INTEGRAL PART OF YOUR DIGITAL STRATEGY?

So far, social media is being used by nearly half of the institutions and often is not integrated within the investment value chain. Over time, it’s becoming a more integral part of a firm’s digital strategy and, over the next two years, it is perceived as becoming an important tool for profiling and then interacting with each client according to his/her profile.

Social media provides the financial institution with a potential wealth of public information about its clients. Harvesting and analysing the publicly available knowledge about clients, or about a certain segment of clients, will become a more mainstream activity over the coming years.

HIGHLIGHTS

NOW IN TWOYEARS

NO, IT ISN’T19% 10%

AS A PUBLIC RELATIONSHIP TOOL48% 10%

TO INTERACT WITH EACH CLIENTONE-TO-ONE11% 22%

TO INTERACT WITH OUR CLIENTCOMMUNITY AS A WHOLE17% 18%

DON’T KNOW2% 8%

3% 31%TO FRAME AND UNDERSTAND EACH CLIENT BETTER

FIGURE 21 | SOCIAL MEDIA

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ARE THEMATIC VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES BECOMING AN OPPORTUNITY OR A THREAT FOR YOUR INVESTMENT SERVICES?

For over half of the respondents a thematic virtual community is considered to be an opportunity. It could help to position the organisation favourably in relevant public spaces and 9% of the respondents argue that they have already implemented this in their own customer community.

Enabling clients to interact with other members of their peer group can be seen as a differentiator for an organisation. The client community can become part of the differentiated and enjoyable customer experience that sets an institution apart.

HIGHLIGHTS

9%THEY ARE A THREAT BECAUSE THEYREDUCE OUR DIRECT IMPACT/INFLUENCEON A CUSTOMER

9%THEY ARE AN OPPORTUNITY ANDTHEY ARE IMPLEMENTED IN OUR OWNCUSTOMER COMMUNITY

16%NO IMPACT AT ALL

24%NO CLEAR OPINION

42%THEY ARE AN OPPORTUNITYTO POSITION THE ORGANISATIONFAVORABLY IN RELEVANTPUBLIC COMMUNITIES

FIGURE 22 | VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

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Our survey results and case studies demonstrate that digital engagement and collaboration is considered to be a strategic topic, with board level commitment. They also show that digital capabilities will become increasingly interaction-related. Furthermore, the opportunity to provide a differentiated customer experience, based on the organisation’s business and depending on the type of client it is serving, will be key for supporting business growth. Here are the main findings and key takeaways of our study:

DIGITAL STRATEGY

In terms of digital engagement and collaboration capabilities, the current situation is more about

reactive data provisioning, with a clear evolution towards a proactive approach and from a

unidirectional to a bi-directional attitude.

A greater personalisation of the user experience, behavioural analysis, access to dedicated tools, and

a virtual personal assistant will be the leading elements in the future evolution of digital engagement

and collaboration. Moreover, redefining the client onboarding process is a challenge for many financial

services organisations.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Customer experience will be the key element of the corporate identity of the future. It will be strategically

and periodically monitored through net promotor score tracking, regular customer surveys, customer

experience focus teams and competitive benchmarking. Nevertheless, only a third of the respondents claim

to have a real-time and consistent experience across all channels. If the digital relationship is not automated

and efficient, this could be an issue that affects customer loyalty. Security is not a limiting factor for digital

engagement and collaboration when using relevant and appropriate technology.

ONLINE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

Along with the pivotal role of interaction, there will be a greater adoption of hybrid and robo advisory

tools than other online investment management solutions over the next two years. The use of these tools

will change the business models of wealth managers: investors could use a robo advisor, and then consult a

human advisor for more complex investment decisions, using the digital channel of their choice. In the long

term, the hybrid advisory model seems to represent the winning approach to investment servicing.

SOCIAL MEDIA & ANALYTICS

The use of Social Media is becoming an integral part of a firm’s digital strategy. Over the next two years,

it will become an important tool for profiling and interacting with each client, by monitoring client life

events in order to develop the most appropriate proposal.

In the same way, analytics will be used to gain a better understanding of the client, to identify relevant

life events and also to create peer-group comparisons.

CONCLUSION AND KEY TAKEAWAYS

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

FINAL SYNOPSIS

Digital engagement and collaboration enables a financial institution to ‘mass customise’ their investment service. Mass customisation is about providing a service for an audience of one. It combines a very tailored, personalised service with factory-style, operationally-efficient processing and operations. It is the ‘sweet spot’ for most institutions and the adagio of the ultimate market leaders.

Digital engagement and collaboration, and all of the facets described above, are ingredients for

gradually establishing a mass-customised business model over the coming years. Leaders in the

industry have developed programmes for making quantum steps in this area. This approach can

further distinguish market leaders from market laggers.

To conclude, the results of this survey from Objectway and Efma show that baseline capabilities for

digital engagement and collaboration are rapidly becoming important qualifiers in our marketplace.

Objectway is a leading provider of investment

management and digital software solutions

to the worldwide financial services industry,

with more than 60 million in revenue and

clients in 15 countries. Its awarding-winning

software platform is the trusted choice of

leading wealth and investment firms across

the globe, from EMEA to Canada to Central

America. From offices in Italy, Belgium, the

UK and South Africa, Objectway’s roughly

500 employees support more than 100,000

investment professionals, who manage more

than one trillion euros in wealth. To learn more

visit www.objectway.com

A global non-profit organisation, established

in 1971 by banks and insurance companies,

Efma facilitates networking between decision-

makers. It provides quality insights to help

banks and insurance companies make the

right decisions to foster innovation and drive

their transformation. Over 3,300 brands in 130

countries are Efma members. Headquarters in

Paris. Offices in London, Brussels, Barcelona,

Stockholm, Bratislava, Dubai, Mumbai and

Singapore. To learn more visit www.efma.com

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FOLLOW-UP

WEBINAR

Objectway and Efma will present the findings of this joint study in a webinar that will include a

discussion with a panel of opinion leaders from the Efma members that participated in the study.

The webinar will be recorded for the benefit of Efma members.

ON-DEMAND BRIEFING SESSIONS

If you would like to learn more about the topics discussed in this report, Objectway would be happy

to hold a briefing session at your convenience. We can provide consultations and can help you to

prepare for the opportunities taking place in the digital technology arena.

To learn more, please contact one of our professionals listed in the ‘Contacts’ section below.

CONTACTS

facebook.com/objectway

twitter.com/objectway_fs

linkedin.com/company/objectway-spa

youtube.com/objectway

PETER SCHRAMMEChief Business Development Officer

peter.schramme@objectway.com

+32 478 385 028

ALBERTO CUCCUChief Client Solution Officer

alberto.cuccu@objectway.com

+39 335 757 6089

BARBARA GENTILEMarketing Manager

barbara.gentile@objectway.com

+39 366 672 2043

FOLLOW OBJECTWAY

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DIGITALENGAGEMENT & COLLABORATIONIN WEALTH AND INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

THE HYPE, THE REALITYAND THE FUTURE

Copyright © Objectway 2016. All rights reserved.

www.objectway.com