Stockgroup’s Collaborative Technologies for Investors

In a Web 2.0 age, it is not only speed, but meaningfully delivering aggregated market data, news content and interactive Web services that count. Many say they do this. Few do this well. Many brokerage firms have invested in advisor technologies, and in technologies to enhance the customer experience, but few have invested in technologies that directly impact the advisor-client relationship.

A financial services technology provider that has led the pack is Vancouver, BC-based Stockgroup, an online financial solutions provider that has helped brokerages seriously differentiate their offerings to a growing baby boomer population of affluent investors.

“Client retention is a major focus among financial services providers,” said Stockgroup president and CEO Marcus New. “Clients want to see more to do more, and the financial advisor is entering into a new dimension of interaction with clients in order to service them.”

That service – a white-labeled integrated package of real-time portfolio management, charts, technical analysis and news – has enabled brokerages to better serve their clients, and to retain them through customer intelligence of their clients’ wallet-share, trading behavior, and other analysis.

Case in Point

One of Stockgroup’s initial StockStream customers, Quebec-based Disnat Direct, the online brokerage division of Desjardins Securities, has contracted to provide its elite clients with StockStream Platinum, a real-time, streaming portfolio management product that includes not only live quotes and portfolio management capabilities, but insight into market depth, news alerts, charts and analysis.

“Customer service is key, and providing our most active Disnat clients with a sophisticated tool like the StockStream portfolio product is a recognition of their needs and their value to us,” said Martin Leroux, Disnat’s Quebec branch manager. ”

But information, however current and packaged, is not enough in itself, according to Stockgroup. In our Web 2.0 world, advisor-client collaboration is another distinguishing feature. Many investment tool packages exist that active traders can access, but Stockgroup has also provided its clients with additional, strategic features such as co-browsing, messaging, and advisor-set alerts and watchlists.

The New Active Trader

Stockgroup has sold StockStream to firms that service the sell-side investor, and through its collaborative technologies has been able to garner insight into the needs of this growing client population. “As our customers provide us with information on their individual clients – like asset distribution, percentage of asset capture, and trading activity – we can better service them with an inside look,” said Stockgroup’s New. “That, then, gives firms the knowledge base for the high-touch approach that sets them apart from services investors find on their own on the Internet.”

The most satisfied customer at a brokerage firm has about 67 percent of his or her assets with the firm. That leaves 33 percent of assets in other places or on the table – for satisfied clients. Knowing their clients’ trading preferences and patterns and tolerance for risk gives these Stockgroup-participating firms a means of client approach they otherwise would not have.

That means alerting clients to new investment opportunities based on what they already prefer to trade rather than on what they don’t, or providing news feeds that are relevant to a particular client’s portfolio. “Timely, appropriately aggregated investment information is the what, but our clients also are looking to identify the where, the who, and the how,” said Stockgroup’s New. “We are helping them do that for better customer service, and that leads to client retention.”

An Eye to the Not-Too-Distant Future

A long-time Microsoft partner, Stockgroup is already aiming for the next generation of investment information delivery – mobile devices. That project, just months away, is typical of Stockgroup’s business philosophy – intelligently lead, not follow.

Its technologies are entirely Microsoft based – its Internet and database servers all run on Microsoft Windows and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 – and Stockgroup has transitioned quickly onto .NET for even more efficient and better integrated push-pull financial data management. Its wireless products run on Windows Mobile 6 devices.

The company’s StockHouse.com is also leading the pack, in citizen journalism, that is, obtaining news and information through collaborative communities on investments instead of only through screened, and slower, sources. Averaging over 800,000 unique visitors and 84 million unique page visits a month, StockHouse.com – which provides message boards, blogs, and now collaborative news – is among the top investor sites in North America.

“We are building today for what we see happening tomorrow,” said New.

www.stockgroup.com