Advent Software has launched a new investment management application that combines portfolio accounting and reporting with client relationship management in a single platform that runs on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server.

The new system, called Advent Portfolio Exchange (APX), emerged from 24 months of development and extensive testing by several asset managers.

Bryon Gilbert, investment systems administrator for Midwest Trust Company, was the first client to begin work with the beta version of Exchange more than a year ago.

“We saw the raw product,” he said over lunch in New York, in a tone that suggested it was not the prettiest sight ever to cross his computer screen.

William Penney, a director at Advent who was responsible for the project, said Advent developed it over nine months and then shipped it out for beta testing as early as possible.

“We had a rapid development and then worked on user ergonomics, and then we wanted to get the product in front of customers as soon as possible. We transformed Windows workflow to .NET for high-speed workers. The flexibility of .NET made it possible for us to add features like hot keys. We went through huge transformations in three beta cycles,” Penney said.

Midwest Trust has been using Advent’s Axys, and Gilbert thinks the transition to Exchange will be easy because the Windows-based interface is very familiar.

“It’s not going to require a lot of added training,” he said. “It’s very intuitive so it is easy for the user to migrate to it.”

The asset management industry has become much more security conscious in the last several years, and the SEC is routinely reviewing firms’ security, said Penney. With APX, system administrators can control access and use audit trails to follow changes back to their source.

That’s important to Midwest Trust, which has grown through acquisition. Now it needs to make sure client information is confidential and restricted to the firm and the advisor who has the client as a customer. APX makes it much easier to control access to information on the system, said Gilbert.

Rodney Engh, vice president of Bill Few Associates, another beta user, agreed on the importance of security. He also liked the ease of use.

“This solution offers so much more than any other product our firm evaluated by successfully combining client data management, portfolio management, and portfolio reporting in one convenient and easy-to-use package. For the first time, we are able to view the ‘whole picture’ of a client just by opening one program,” Engh said.

In its original form, APX was entirely browser-based, said James Kranz, senior market manager for Advent. Users said they wanted menus as well. While the portfolio managers use a mouse, power users want menus and hot keys so they can work fast.

Cathy Sawyer, director of Sterling Capital Management, said the browser interface has been a hit with younger employees because it is so familiar to them. The browser front end also makes it easy to support remote offices with a virtual private network.

“That will save us some manpower,” Sawyer added. “I expect some Christmas presents from client services.”

Sawyer also likes the use of SQL Server for the database.

“It is a much more robust platform and provides clean integration, including two-way communication, with Advent’s trade order management system. SQL Server also allows me to give users different views,” Sawyer said. “Some users, such as portfolio managers, don’t need to see everything in the system, so I can show them just what they need, which makes it a much more friendly user experience. Portfolio managers want to see summaries and client positions pretty quick and pretty easy.”

As an integrated enterprise system that combines front-office and back-office functionality, APX can be used across a firm or by several groups within a firm.

Like many of the latest systems in finance, APX provides transaction processing and information about the transactions. With its integrated client management and a feature called Packager, an investment advisor can pull up a client’s portfolio quickly and walk through the latest data on holdings. Because the system has been built on Microsoft’s .NET Framework, users can customize it easily.

“The user can pick from an approved list of what can be given to the client and can produce a report for that individual,” said Penney.

Gilbert appreciates the immediate integration of the SQL Server database and Excel.

“I can’t tell you how many times a day I pull something out of Advent and into Excel,” he said. Tapping an icon on the desktop will import data to a spreadsheet.

Although APX has a new name, and is a new system, Advent has made it so similar to Axys in data structure and appearance that firms can treat it as an upgrade, Gilbert added.

“It’s a new system, with improved ease of use and added functionality, but I don’t see this as having the risks of a new system,” he said. The new system has a higher price tag than Axys, but Gilbert said it also includes more, such as Packager, and Qube, the CRM module that is optional in Axys.

One client who was in the middle of a search for a CRM vendor stopped looking after he saw the CRM capabilities in APX, said Penney.

Another area where asset managers asked for more functionality was workflow, and Advent was able to use .NET to accommodate their demands quickly.

“They were surprised we could change the system so quickly,” said Kranz. “.NET is rapidly increasing our productivity and how fast we can deliver to clients. Clients now are keeping systems for eight or nine years, but this already looks like a different system from what they saw last October.”

Sawyer also had high praise for all Advent did to make the transition easy. Sterling had created many custom reports in Axys, she explained.

“Advent did a really good job of integrating all our old reports. Every one of them worked when we brought them into the new system. It would have taken weeks if we had had to start from scratch.”

Advent also provided tools to map ACT! customer files to Qube, which comes with APX.

“They’ve done a nice job,” said Sawyer. “We have $9 billion under management and we are fairly active traders. Their converting tool was robust and made the transition process less painful, so our rollout was pretty smooth,” she added. “Advent is much better than they used to be. When I first started with Advent products I don’t think the support or customer service was there. They didn’t seem to want to take their products to the next level. They had a nice little product and we were all using it. But in the last few years there has been a real effort to listen to what their clients need and to help us out. Our businesses are changing, and we need to have STP and get client reports out quicker. Advent seems to be developing the products we need.”

www.advent.com
www.midwesttrust.com
www.billfewassociates.com
www.sterling-capital.com