BlueSky ahead for the iPad

Black Diamond Performance Reporting today is expected to announce the availability of a new application specifically designed for the Apple Inc.’s iPad. It has been amazing for me to see the excitement building among financial advisers for the Apple iPad — even without much in the way of, er, core applications available to them. For those in need of a refresher, Black Diamond provides web-based, outsourced portfolio management and reporting platforms to independent advisers (the company’s programs are also being used by broker-dealers, asset managers, banks and family offices). I’ve written about the iPad’s being used by advisers for sharing performance reports with clients, about a lovely looking financial planning application being imported from Europe, and quite a few iPad applications that have been introduced by some of the big market data companies (see the related stories below). But as far as I know, this is the first iPad application from a portfolio-reporting and management provider. In talking yesterday with Eric Higginbotham, vice president of engineering at Black Diamond, I found out that building the application wasn’t much of a leap for the company. “This was made possible by BlueSky’s extensibility,” he said. “It only took us abut one month of development.” Rolled out in June, BlueSky is basically a total rebuild of Black Diamond’s user interface. The BlueSky system was built from the ground up with the acknowledgement that the company would need to be fast on its feet to adapt to future developments — such as the iPad. While built on Microsoft Corp’s .Net platform (.Net 3.5), BlueSky’s structure is much more scalable than that of the old system. “Basically, you have to separate the idea of presentation and logic. And for the iPad application, we didn’t have to rewrite the logic, just build a new presentation layer,” explained Mr. Higginbotham. Since it was designed specifically for the iPad operating environment, the developers at Black Diamond optimized the mobile program as much as possible for the unique presentation and navigation aspects of the device. For example, advisers can toggle between their pre-defined SkyView dashboards and those they might already have created online from their office PC (the iPad application is synchronized with any personalized settings the user has already had on the BlueSky web application). Using the iPad app, advisers can scroll through selected SkyBoxes of user-configured information displays and drill into data tables, charts and graphs while away from the office. Having taken the application for a test drive prior to the announcement, I can say the program is attractive and quite intuitive (see our accompanying slide show for a few screen shots). I will add, though, that its speed is dependent on how strong your 3G connection is on AT&T’s network — assuming that’s how you are connecting to the Internet. Things are speedier if you can connect with a Wi-Fi wireless connection, though. And hey, maybe those Verizon/Apple rumors will pan out. Meanwhile, the folks at Black Diamond said they’re seeing a trend in the adoption of the iPad among financial services companies. “The iPad could have a large impact on the wealth management industry, first for reasons of mobility,” said Dave Welling, Black Diamond’s chief solutions officer. “Second and perhaps more interesting to us is how this is going to be used as a communications vehicle with clients, because with the app itself, you get a native ability to look at portfolios,” he added. While Black Diamond clients can already download the application from the Apple App Store for free, the company will not begin providing access to their backend client data until early November. At that time, advisers will be able to log in using their current Black Diamond credentials. Another intriguing thing the folks at Black Diamond gave me the heads-up on is that during November and December, they will also be offering a free iPad to clients to help bolster adoption of the new technology. The giveaway will also provide feedback on how the new tool fits with advisers’ practices. In the meantime, Black Diamond will demonstrate the new application at The Charles Schwab Corp.’s Impact conference next week in Boston. For more information, visit Black Diamond online. 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