Dear Operations Professional, Below is an executive summary of the National Investment Company Service Association (NICSA)'s recent Technology Forum 2005. The summary is brought to you by Operations Management and NICSA. Operations Management is pleased to provide this value-added service to both our subscribers and to NICSA's members. I invite those of you not familiar with Operations Management to take a free trial on my behalf by clicking on the link below so you can see for yourself the vital news on securities processing and technology covered by our newsletter. Sincerely, Aaron Finkel Publisher, Operations Management Take a FREE TRIAL to Operations Management today! For more information about NICSA, please visit www.nicsa.org. C- Level Roundtable: What We Need From Our IT Organizations Moderator: Steven Miyao, Chief Executive Officer, kasina William Bridy, President Financial Data Services, Merrill Lynch Don Roberson, Sr. Vice President, National and Regional Broker Dealer Division, Lincoln Financial Distributors Paul O'Neil, Senior Director, Boston Financial Data Services Stephen Ward, Chief Investment Officer, Schwab Funds, Charles Schwab Investment Management Those who attended the C-Level Rountable learned that: Fund management executives are grappling with the burdens of several new regulations. Large firms will have to rely on automated solutions to ensure compliance with the rules. Market participants are not only required to comply, but they need to be able to demonstrate to the regulatory bodies that they have complied with the regulations. The Overworked, Under- Trained and Stressed IT Staff Moderator: Roger A. Michelson, Senior Vice President, PFPC - Automated Business Development Leslie D. Ball, Senior Executive Professor, College of Business Administration, Northeastern University Lauren L. Mackler, CEO, Lauren Mackler & Associates Donna Sinnery, VP of Worldwide Staffing, State Street Corporation Tom Woislaw, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, PFPC According to the panelists at this session: Retaining staffers during times of stress requires managers to communicate openly and honestly about a merger, acquisition and plans for staff reductions. While communication may sound unimportant, or an insufficient solution, in times of change it works well. Informed employees will not rely on gossip because they have a clear picture of the direction of their company. Technology for the Business User Moderator: Kevan Keegan Senraj Soundararajan, President & Chief Systems Architect, Ivesia Solutions, Inc. Mark Horvath, Engineering Director, Worldwide Financial Services, Microsoft Zane Teslik, Partner, IBM Business Consulting Services The panelists pointed out that: Service-oriented architecture (also known as web services) will eventually make back-end systems almost completely "plug and play," giving your business greater flexibility. Inductive User Interface solves the problems of user confusion that existed with traditional, less intuitive interfaces. Good information security relies only 10% on technology and 90% on people, processes and training. Connected systems can move you closer to a paperless office and improve ease of use by moving complicated technologies away from the user. How Technology Impacts a Relationship Michael Bellopede, Head of Technology Products and Solutions, SEI Investments Rick Gardinier, Sr. Vice President, Managing Director, Blattner Brunner/bbdigital Mike Ma, Vice President of Business Development, kasina Michael Love, Sales Engineer, WebTrends The main points discussed were: There's high demand from financial advisors for technology-delivered content and services. Usability is the number one barrier to technology use by customers. Technologically executed segmentation - by behavior and profit rather than by channel and sales - will be key to personalizing online marketing to your customer. Measure what works and what doesn't by applying web analytics to customers' online behavior. Technology Outfitting of the Trading Desk / A Day in the Life of a Trade Moderator: Andy Luro, Managing Consultant, Venture Financial Systems Group, Ltd. Andrew Sommers, Senior Vice President Director of Applications, Putnam Investments Mark Clark, Executive Vice President Direct Market Access Products, SunGard/BRASS Richard S. Enfield, CPA, Director, Product Management, Charles River Development The main points discussed were: Key technology issues for trading include: connectivity to market, intelligent trade automation, algorithmic trading, trade regulations, integration (with portfolio management, compliance and risk management) and market data access. Some key challenges for trading include measuring effectiveness of implementation on the equity side and copying with rising use of credit derivatives on the fixed income side. Changes in global regulations, such as Regulation NMS, are impacting the trading process. Pressure on broker-dealers is driving their focus on automated and rules based trading, enhancing personal relationships with electronic client relationships, and creating new equities trading models. The Road Ahead: Forces Shaping the Future Keynote Speaker: Andrew Zolli Zolli stressed the following: Key demographic trends involve youth bulge in developing world, graying of Europe, and U.S. moving to having fewer working age adults than children or retirees. Ambient technology, which involves embedding technology in physical items (like RFID), is a key new technology. New medicines will be customized to individuals and will significantly extend human lives. The Customer Advocacy Imperative Ron Shevlin, Vice President, Forrester Research Inc. Shevlin outlined these major topics: Investors are not loyal to their financial services providers because they believe that investment firms can't be trusted and they want to be more involved in managing their investments. Customer advocacy - the perception that the firm is doing what's best for customers, not just for the bottom line (at customers' expense) - is a key to increasing customer loyalty and future purchases. Information technology can help your organization become an effective customer advocate by 1) implementing collaborative financial planning, 2) reinventing broker workstations as relationship platforms instead of trading platforms, 3) building very good advisor websites, 4) pulling together steps 1-3. Chief Information Officers' Roundtable Moderator: Kerry Massaro, Editor in Chief, Wall Street & Technology Gary Hegedus, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, BISYS John Killeen, Chief Technology Officer, First Vice President, Global Private Client Technology, Merrill Lynch Mike Rizzo, Chief Information Officer, Boston Financial Ra'ad Siraj, Chief Information Officer, Eaton Vance Management The CIOs discussed themes including: CIOs are responding to demands that outstrip their capacity and mostly flat budgets by setting priorities with business partners, outsourcing tasks that they don't do well (as long as they don't endanger client privacy), and trying to squeeze more efficiencies out of their organizations. CIOs are developing trusting relationships with their business partners by working together at all levels, hiring business analysts and client relationship managers, and generally becoming more knowledgeable about business goals. To get financial advisors to adopt new technology, it must be easy-to-use, intuitive, and offer an obvious benefit to them. Compliance has become a major concern that consumes more of a CIO's budget and resources.