When I think of sexy sports cars something European usually leaps to mind.
The same now goes for financial planning software.
I recently saw, hands down, the best
looking financial planning and portfolio dashboard application yet — and it was from a European company. Finantix.
Let me be clear, I'm making this statement entirely on the basis of aesthetics and interface design.
I haven't yet seen the underlying assumptions, algorithms, or formulae.
The application, called Wealth-X, was running on and built for the Apple iPad and could rely on either the device's 3G technology or a WiFi connection for linking up via the web to the system's backend data.
Let me say, the application looked very comfortable in its native habitat.
(see our Related Photo Gallery/slideshow, below left)
I got to see the program during lunch the other day with Alessandro Tonchia, founder and director of Finantix, an established provider of wealth management and sales applications to banks and other financial services companies in Europe.
Shoving aside our Vietnamese egg rolls, he snatched up the road-weary cover protecting his iPad, flipped it open and began to demonstrate the program like some kind of proud orchestral conductor.
He had all the movements one can use with the iPad down pat and the application was responsive in a way I haven't yet seen with other financial services programs adapted to it or even written specifically for it.
Wealth-X is both a planning application and a portfolio dashboard that allows an adviser to monitor accounts and portfolios and has the ability to tag accounts for rebalancing.
The screencaptures in the accompanying slideshow only hint at the application's attractiveness; you would have to see it in action to fully appreciate it.
While Mr. Tonchia said he was considering putting together and posting a screencast (basically a video recording of an application's use onscreen) sometime soon, he was still a bit reluctant and fearful of imitators that might try to reverse engineer his company's work.
I think they have enough of a head start not to worry, having already produced some wealth management applications for wealth management on the iPhone in Europe.
So serious is Finantix about getting into the U.S. market that they signed a strategic partnership with NorthStar Systems International in June.
As part of that agreement Finantix's CRM tools and its iPad and iPhone applications for wealth management will be bundled with NorthStar's software-as-as-service solution for financial advisers. Both companies also have strong offerings on the enterprise side, mostly in banking, that can be bundled to offer not only wealth management and planning but single client view applications as well as portfolio construction, compliance monitoring and client reporting.
Part of the Finantix appeal is the way that their software has been architected for multi-channel use (as has Northstar for that matter), meaning that in Europe it can be found in use by advisers, clients, bank branch employees as well as call centre agents, albeit in modified forms specific to them.
I traded e-mails with Bob Skea, president of NorthStar, who wrote that he was very excited about the potential the partnership represented.
“I think wealth management is the
spot on use-case for the iPAD in financial services,” he wrote, describing what both he and I had experienced with the Finantix Wealth-X application.
“Advisers sitting with clients over lunch to review portfolios and plan together sans the cumbersome aspects of paper, or the technical inefficiencies of a laptop, it is truly an elegant solution,” wrote Mr. Skea.
A number of lucky wealth managers Stateside and abroad are currently piloting the iPad application.
Availability of the application is still slated for sometime in the third quarter but no details yet on pricing or the specifics of availability from Northstar.
For more information visit
Finantix and
Northstar online.
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