TSAM London took place on 1 May 2024, with Kurtosys sponsoring the Marketing and Client Services Stream. Grant Swart, Head of Product at Kurtosys, led a discussion on how to deliver a seamless digital experience by developing a differentiated client portal.
Following the success of this well-attended fireside chat, and looking ahead to TSAM New York—where Kurtosys will once again sponsor the stream and host even more engaging discussions—Ana Luiza Olanescu sat down for an interview with Michelle Wright, Chief Product Officer, and Sunil Odedra, Chief Technology Officer at Kurtosys.
Drawing on their extensive experience, Michelle and Sunil explored the challenges and opportunities associated with client portals.
Is there a genuine need for these solutions? What are some of the learnings from implementing portals for Kurtosys clients? They also share practical tips and insights for building client portals that enhance the overall client experience.
Watch the full interview here.
What is the demand for client portals?
A recent study found that 70% of institutional investors expressed a desire for an enhanced digital experience, favouring the implementation of a digital portal. However, 77% of these respondents also indicated that they still prefer to receive their reports via email. This demonstrates a clear need for a multi-channel strategy. Portals offer the advantage of real-time interaction with investments, providing personalised updates within a secure environment.
What have we learnt from providing client portal solutions?
It all begins with data. High-quality data is the foundation for everything else. Once this is in place, innovative technology can be leveraged to address concerns around cybersecurity, scalability, and performance, ultimately delivering a seamless and secure client experience. Providing a personalised and tailored experience within the portal reduces frustration and inefficiency for clients, enhancing their overall interaction once they log in.
What does the future of a digital experience for Institutional Investors look like?
According to Michelle, personalisation is essential. A seamless login experience combined with a customised dashboard that displays relevant information is the way forward. It’s no longer just a “nice to have” feature; it has become a requirement, with 82% of institutional investors seeking solutions that meet their unique reporting needs.
Real-time access to data through a single, consolidated tool that integrates multiple market data sources allows users to monitor market trends, portfolio performance, and investment metrics efficiently.
Enhanced decision-making tools that analyse large datasets and offer predictive insights are not achievable with traditional reporting methods. However, simulating various market conditions, understanding risks, and developing strategies for different scenarios represent the future client reporting experience.
How does technology support this?
Personalised experiences will gain importance as the shift towards mobile-friendly interactions continues and self-service options will become essential as investors change the way they communicate. Real-time interactions with advisors through video calls will require enhanced security measures, including biometric authentication.
AI will be increasingly integrated into these experiences, with prompt-based interfaces and chat-like interactions becoming more commonplace. These advancements can be seamlessly translated into digital portal experiences, improving user engagement and satisfaction.
What can we learn from cloud platform providers on how to make this an investor-centric experience?
Tech companies have long understood the importance of having a client-led experience, something that asset managers can also fully embrace.
Here are some practical tips on how to start moving towards a more client-centric experience:
- Do more client research to understanding what truly motivates your clients.
- Using client segmentation to develop products tailored to specific client profiles
- Make data-driven decisions by using data analytics tools to track user behaviour and identify areas for improvement.
- Think about client adoption, have a deliberate adoption strategy to move clients to the preferred channel .
From a technology perspective, cloud technology providers have had many years of practice in creating user-friendly, secure online experiences. From our experience of creating these experiences, we have learnt to:
- put the client at the centre of everything. This includes creating a user-centric security design, and seamless login experience.
- quickly build a minimum viable product by adopting agile methodology and continuous improvement.
- gather real feedback, directly and with behavioural analytics tools to understand how users interact with a platform.
- automate cyber-security threat detection and response. AI and machine learning can be used to monitor for unusual activity and flag potential threats.
- empower users to self-serve wherever possible.
Client portals have become a popular topic of discussion, but the real challenge lies in creating personalised and tailored experiences that not only address security concerns but also leverage the power of automation.
If you would like to discuss your client portal needs, reach out to us here or meet our team at TSAM New York on 17 September. We will be sponsoring the Marketing and Client Services stream with great panel discussions and exciting fireside chats.
For the full TSAM NY agenda and free pass, visit the website here.
More about the authors
Michelle is the Chief Product Officer at Kurtosys, where she brings extensive international experience in digital product leadership from major financial centres including London, New York, and Singapore. With a proven track record of building transformative client-facing platforms for global leaders across Banking and Data Services, Michelle’s entrepreneurial and client-centric approach refines products to drive revenue growth, meeting evolving client needs.
Her experience encompasses the full spectrum of digital product design, delivery, and market introduction. Michelle has a demonstrated history of redefining product development strategies and spearheading innovation across numerous international enterprises.
Sunil is Chief Technology Officer having overseen the modernisation of the Kurtosys technology stack, including adoption of AWS, Cloudflare as well as architecting of the Kurtosys App platform. Sunil has worked with investment management software and services for almost 20 years.
