IN Tech

Fidelity ramps ups the integration of six apps for WealthCentral

September 27, 2011 12:21 pm ET

Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services announced today that it is delivering integration for six new applications on its WealthCentral platform.

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These include providers in both the portfolio management and client relationship management space — specifically Envestnet Vantage Performance Reporting, Morningstar Office, Redtail Technologies, Salesforce.com and AppCrown LLC.

Fidelity IWS also added features to WealthCentral in the areas of document and workflow management working in conjunction with XTRAC Solutions and Redtail Technologies.

Also part of today's announcement are deeper integrations with several already established WealthCentral partners.

Among these are what are Fidelity refers to as "deeper contextual" integrations, which allow client data that is entered in one application to automatically flow through to and be referenced "in links between the other applications being used."

I'm seeking some clarification on what exactly that means. For example, I want to know if the data is persistent or overwrites previous data or is non-persistent or, in over-simplified terms, is read-only and is viewable only during that session. I will update this post accordingly when I get some answers.

In the meantime, the included partners and applications with deeper integrations are Advent Software Inc.(with its Advent Portfolio Exchange and APX OnDemand products), Black Diamond Performance Reporting (now a part of Advent), EISI (the NaviPlan Select financial planning application) and Oracle CRM On Demand.

The details thus far provided on the Black Diamond enhancements point to "bi-directional data integration, contextual navigation, cost basis synchronization processing and data directly from Fidelity for life insurance, tax exempt and Fidelity Charitable accounts."

As for the Advent APX revamp, improvements include cost basis synchronization as well as "enhanced graphical reporting." Advent also plans to come out with a "flexible security master" sometime in the fall.

Users of the popular NaviPlan Select planning software will be able to import securities positions into their plans with a single click.

There have been improvements made to the Oracle CRM On Demand offering as well. For one thing, clients can now access new pre-built reports. In addition, synchronization with Fidelity custodial data has been enhanced. New mobile and email marketing capabilities are supposed to be available in the fall too. Perhaps these will help with the underwhelming level of adoption of the offering among registered investment advisory firms thus far.