Fintech

Davis D. Janowski: How does Schwab PortfolioCenter rate with advisers?

Venerable app gets four out of five stars on Schwab site; 'dated'

Schwab PortfolioCenter received an overall rating of four out of five stars.
So says the new Schwab OpenView MarketSquare site built by Schwab Intelligent Technologies, which was announced as open for business Monday.
Five stars is the highest rating a product can receive and the review was based on a total of 71 user-generated reviews. Those reviews were in turn edited by the folks at SIT and the highlights consolidated into a single text passage of a few hundred words (see the inset screenshot, below right, for this very example).
The text was not a whitewash and noted some semi-harsh criticism of the venerable application including that while it is reliable it feels dated, “vintage” according to one reviewer.
This was the singular example put out in PDF form along with a prepared statement Monday from SIT.
Since MarketSquare was announced in Nov. 2012 the SIT folks have received 400 reviews from among the almost 7,000 advisory firms custodying assets with Schwab. Those reviews span 80 different products.
Included in yesterday’s launch were reviews of 15 of those products that included CRM, portfolio management, document management, trading and rebalancing, and financial planning applications.
Third-party technology providers first agree to allow having their products reviewed on Marketsquare and are allowed to post a response to the reviews.
There are 40 companies that have agreed to participating, among them CRM Software Inc. creators of Junxure CRM, Envestnet | Tamarac, Salentica CRM (which is built on top of Microsoft Dynamics CRM), Morningstar Inc. and of course Schwab Performance Technologies (the Schwab subsidiary behind PortfolioCenter).

MarketSquare Methodology

MarketSquare reviews consist of a combination of both quantitative and qualitative feedback. Advisors rate a product on a five-point scale across several categories, including feature and functionality, setup and implementation experience, and customer service and support. They can also include lengthy written comments.
The reviews are then categorized and analyzed so that prevailing sentiments are identified, and a consolidated review is produced. Common themes are highlighted from advisor comments – both positive and negative – that include verbatim quotes that help amplify the voice of advisors. Only products with a minimum of five reviews are candidates for inclusion.
“The process aims to minimize subjectivity and to provide advisors with a meaningful summary of reviewer feedback in a convenient, accessible format,” said Brian Shenson, vice president of Advisor Technology Solutions for Schwab Advisor Services. “We will continue to add new reviews, products and vendors to the site in the coming months.”

I will be speaking with Mr. Shenson on Wednesday afternoon so advisers with questions about the reviews or process please leave a comment here or get in touch via e-mail, twitter etc.

For more information on Schwab OpenView MarketSquare visit Schwab Intelligent Technologies online.

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