I. Introduction
Current wealth management industry is experiencing multiple challenges due to several reasons. Firstly, the rapid development of technology that offers a plethora of customer facilities has proved itself as a potent tool to attract customers. Gone are the days of long phone calls and face-to-face meetings, or for that matter researching through piles of documents, which have been replaced by a few mouse clicks. The digital world has proved itself as a tool for saving money, time and energy for all, and the IT companies are now busy in inventing and improvising their business models to provide more accessibility on information, which in turn influences the business processes of the wealth management (henceforth will be referred to as WM) companies to a great extent. Even elderly members of the high net worth customer base are considering Web as their source of financial advice (The Case, 2008). This excessive leaning on technology in a way undermines the role of human resources, which even a decade ago was considered as the prime tool of business. Thus the wealth management industry is caught in a dilemma what could be the right mix of technology and human resource that would garner competitive advantage for them
Secondly, much like a paradox, the connotation of wealth management itself has taken a new turn with the rise of human resource, where it added newer WM products like intellectual property management or talent management, which require new and innovative services, and it is not possible to follow a particular business model to manage these newfound wealth and assets since these are highly dynamic in nature, though strong intellectual property practices have already become an integral part of company operations, which explain the importance of intellectual property assets (Arena and Carreras, 2008).
Thirdly, the customer base has become far more demanding than it was before, due to the easy information flow, where the companies are literally engaged in information war, voluntarily providing all possible information on their products and services to entice the customers. This in a way has enhanced the knowledge base of the customers and consequently they have become keen to utilize the scope to compare and contrast various products before coming to a decision.
Fourthly, the tightened level of compliance too has risen to a great extent and consequently the IT companies stand to reap the harvest. So much so, the market for WM compliance systems is set to jump 15 annually from the current 178 million to 318 million by 2011, according to a new report that also predicts that compliance will become an essential component of primary back-office systems (Rodier, 2007). This state of affairs in turn points to the fact that the WM firms have no way but to spend on this, since the business has crossed the physical barriers and this is a trust-based industry where companies stand to gain by reflecting a holistic outlook.
Fifth, the increasing state of this WM industry has been attracting more players who are jostling for their share of customer-centric, trust-based role of wealth management - trust banks, brokerages, insurance companies and family offices all are there in the race of creating business from hitherto untapped customer base that is now gradually surfacing across the globe. For example, India with its average GDP growth rate of 8 each year and with a massive increase in the growth of individual wealth can be considered as a future goldmine for WM companies, if the Merrill Lynch Cap Gemini Asia Pacific Report for 2008 has anything to go by, which says that Indias HNWI (High Net Worth Individual) population has grown by 23 and definitely is a fastest growing market (Mahesh, 2008).
Sixth, the dilemma regarding investing on self-run system or outsourcing the same to maintain customer data has cast a serious challenge to its business security. There is a good amount of money involved in setting up stand-alone business systems, as such systems requires deployment of experts and maintenance personnel, besides investing on improvisation of the system.
In all, the competition had never been so intense in this industry as it is today, and at the same time business had never been so promising like now. The number of soon-to-be-retired population across the globe is astounding high, coupled with rapid increase in the number of wealthy young people (Hamilton, 2007). Both the reasons above are impacting changes in this industry opportunities from newer business zones courtesy e-commerce and emerging asset classes are virtually forcing the WM companies to invest more in core processing platforms and constantly upgrade them to meet the dynamism of the customer demand. After all, wealth management is not just portfolio management, and instead it aims to provide long-term returns (Rao and Joshi, 2008).
Accordingly the firms involved in WM industry are seeking their way to meet the evolving needs of its existing and prospective members spread across the globe while accommodating the fact that there is a need to bring systems together to provide tailor-made financial planning and advice, customer data, client service through competent modes of Business Intelligence (BI) and reporting. This study therefore, explores the above said challenges, before arriving at its own conclusion.
I.A. The Purpose of this Study
The above mentioned state of affairs clearly show that the operating field of WM has grown to a great extent and accordingly the new, evolved situation has generated multiple complexities that can easily confuse not only the existing and prospective customers, but also the members of this industry. Thus the purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of creating a balance between the key drivers of this business, i.e., technology and human resource to garner competitive advantage.
II. Brief Definition and History of the Industry
It has been mentioned earlier that todays WM industry is buzzing with an expanded client pool and at the same time it is plagued by a plethora of complexities and a stiff-neck competition created through mergers, acquisitions and the introduction of non-traditional players. Quantum leap of digital technology has eliminated the physical boundary of human transaction and that too with lightening speed, and in the process has set a completely new order of activities for companies that want to reap their benefit from it. Otherwise, the central tenet of WM still remains the same, i.e., successfully applying growth strategy to customers wealth and reaping the dividends of growth. According to the book Wealth, jointly written by associates of Merrill Lynch and Capgemini, the world is poised to witness the greatest period of wealth accumulation in history, as a large number of people from all corners of the globe have become wealthy in a short period of time, and their growth was steady all along the last decade, barring 2000. WM is inherently multidimensional since it covers all financial involvement of the clients, ranging from healthcare costs of a grandparent to tax strategies, or for that matter education expense of children (Merrill, 2008).
Wealth mentions about the four pillars of wealth management, viz. Time Horizon, Risk Tolerance, Liquidity needs, and Performance Expectations, besides reminding that a practice of disciplined wealth management would look towards protecting and growing of the wealth of an individual or family under a dynamic setting, where all the above pillars would continuously change over time, thereby influencing the processes of WM to update and refine every now and then (Merrill, 2008). However, such simple explanation of WM contains several processes laced with complexity and uncertainty. For example, any of the following processes could become either a source of joy or nightmare to any WM firms
Developing Market analysis and Growth Strategies In each case the firms are expected to provide customized market sizing and analysis, which should be based on sound models that can cover a broad range of industries and are conversant with the needs of HNW individuals. The firms should be able to leverage their models to collaborate with the clients firm to address new market entry analysis and market growth strategies, besides accommodating clients strategic requirements.
Capturing Growth The firms should be able to improvise their strategies for faster growth and for that matter they should optimize customermarket-facing initiatives besides optimizing advisordistribution channel facing initiatives.
Creating or Outsourcing State-of-the-art Advisor Workstations Advisor workstations must have the ability to deliver superior customer experiences, while remaining cost-effective. Workstations should be able to improve firm advisors efficiency, and for that matter it must have an integrated, end-to-end WM platforms and products, besides productivity tools, suggested business processes and allied technology to improvise any business situation.
Successfully Managing HNW Clients More often than not, sophisticated and affluent HNW clients have complex demands at one or the other wealth levels and the companies have to provide ready solutions with high levels of transparency, apart from maintaining a vaulted state of clients privacy.
Constant Research and Tracking All market trends and market leads and all probable actions based on them must be at the fingertips of the advisor to garner best possible results out of any investment activity (Wealth, 2010).
In brief, the basic differences between pre-digital era and digital era of WM industry can be framed like below
1. Volume and scope of Business The volume and scope of business in the pre-digital era was mostly limited to regions, whereas digital era has erased such physical boundaries and enabled the companies to do business worldwide.
2. Types of Products The pre-digital era was mostly confined to financial and immovable assets, while the business in digital era is dealing with more products and even their combinations.
3. Processes of Business Most of the current business processes in WM are dependent on digital information technology, which saves money, time and energy.
4. Customer and Company Approach to business Stiff competition and enhanced business vision in the recent times have impacted several changes in the business approaches of both customers and companies, where the former has become more knowledgeable and demanding, and the later has become customer-centric.
5. State of customer demands With the development of wealth, existing customers demands too have become ramified and complex in nature (Budge, 2007).
The above differences also serve the pointers to several challenges before WM, which can broadly be framed under seven areas, and a brief review of the same could provide the clue on how the companies under WM industry could create a right mix of business drivers to garner competitive advantage.
III. Business Challenges III. A. Competition
The issue of competition in WM sector deserves top spot, since the line of distinction between various financial businesses are fast fading with the rapid development of digital technology that is enabling the companies to venture into markets that were so long earmarked as special trades. For example, banking sector was not much into WM in earlier times, but now it is facing stiff competition in their original retail and commercial zones, where the fear of losing HNW customers is looming large, and accordingly they too are trying to carve a niche in the WM sector by offering wealth-management and investment-advisory services (Monga and Banerjee, 2007). This picture is more or less the same across the globe, where both private and public sector banks are making serious attempts to convert their retail banking customer base into WM customer base. With their organized base, wide range of products and sheer professionalism, banks are poised to garner more market share. Since WM is a fee-based business, banks stand to gain by two ways - one, through fees, and two, by selling third-party products like mutual fund units or insurance policies (Mahesh, 2008). Due to these entrants, the volume of competition in this sector has swelled to a great amount, and there is a constant competition, with regard to launching newer products or services to woo the prospective customers.
III. B. Marketing and Customer Demand
Matching the stride of the evolution of WM products and processes, the marketing strategies too have evolved to a great extent, which recognized the potential of the Internet and the necessity of attracting the customers towards inexpensive ways to invest, besides accommodating the fact that the days of business monopoly have gone once and for all, since the investors have wide access to all kind of financial information from the Internet. In the process, the fees too have gone down and more emphasis is being given on more complex, higher margin products and services such as REITs, hedge funds and structured products integrated with advice-centric models. The World Wealth Report that found a large number of advisors admitting the increase in alternative investements corroborates this (Strategic, 2005).
The challenge of the current marketing strategy is to accommodate and comply with customers demands, irrespective of their complexities. Thus the challenges like successfully explaining and simplifying the products and services, or to convince the clients about value-proposition of the fees or the efficacy of service need to be effectively handled by WM firms. To meet such challenge the wealth managers are now expected to cover a large area of operation such as
Segmentation and client targeting
Client servicing and relationship building
Remaining up-to-date with technology
Client acquisition and retention
Market and geographical knowledge
Access to third party productservice through open architecture
Revenue and cost management
Maintaining organizational linkage and cross-sell
Such a package of marketing could provide the feeling of a superior business experience to the clients, opines Capegemini report (Strategic, 2005).
III. C. Financial Challenges
The current state of wealth pyramid contains the following distribution of wealth among various segments
Ultra HNW 50 million
Very HNW 20 million 50 million
HMW 1 million 20 million
Wealthy 500,000 1 million
Affluent 100,000 - 500,000
However, the encouraging state of pyramid does not indicate the state of challenge lying in this zone, involving financial planning, which, according to Ringquist (2009) can broadly be classified into 10 sections
Managing a solid asset strategy In the absence of an integrated platform this is not an easy task
Evaluation of the entire household wealth This factor often becomes a barrier in leveraging the entire household financial picture and thereby satisfying the clients long-term investment management needs
Providing consistent advice delivery across multiple accounts For this the advisors have to rely heavily on the state of technology, which may or may not help to the satisfaction of the client
Identifying clients risk tolerance Apart from liability and compliance issues, there may be other factors that might not feature in the questionnaire or in the answers of the client and later pose a potential threat for business (Costa, 2009).
Curtailing time-intensive processes Most of the time the processes of relationship and trust building take more time, the same can happen to the building of a portfolio too. Such situations prove a barrier in building a holistic balance sheet with a more accurate picture.
Creating a long-range cash-flow plan Lack of liquidity could prevent such goals in timely manner, which may take place due to wrong timing, like principals nearing retirement while the children are entering college.
Gathering a clear understanding of the effects of taxes and inflation over time Due to the increased dynamism of the business and financial environment, financial planning has become a more complex process than before.
Ensuring compliance This too is now dependent on the quality of systems that enables WM professionals to develop a comprehensive investment policy statement.
Building a scalable, efficient back-office This may not always be possible for the WM professionals to deploy state-of-the-art technology to ensure smooth and enhanced state of operation.
Stuffing challenge in the advisory industry Report underpins this crisis and that is another challenge in financial planning (Ringquist, 2009).
The above state of affairs coupled with the fact that not all WM companies can afford to use high technology, create an impression that the industry is still not equipped to meet the challenges of the business environment that demands clarity in content and swiftness in operation.
III. D. Human Resources
While it is true that the modern WM companies cannot do without using digital systems, it is also equally true that it cannot do without using humane qualities that machines cannot deliver. It is for this reason that the simulation technique may lose out to the ready wit of a human while competing to provide a unique solution under a given context. Moreover, it is the humans who run the show, and they are at the loose end when systems fail to deliver or behave wrongly. From another perspective, technology in the end carries the reflection of human qualities to the clients in this sector, like ethical sense, concern for client, sincerity and sense of responsibility regarding task, etc. Because of these reasons, the role of human resource has become more important in this sector, especially where the elements like relationship and trust prove to be the main bridges to business. The role of human resource appears even more vital over anything in this trade, when one realizes the fact that the main driver WM business is managed by humans only, i.e., strategic marketing, which covers a huge area of operation in this sector and applying several humane elements.
Therefore, the main challenge in this zone is to deploy well-equipped personnel in its various operating zones. The role of customer relationship managers (CRMs) is extremely crucial in this trade and unfortunately the current survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (2009) reveals that the majority of CRMs have neither the experience, nor the training. The said report advises the senior management of WM companies to focus on this problem at the earliest, and underpinned the sharp fall in recruitment in CRMs category as the fallout of their bad performance.
III. E. Technology
Operating models have become the most sough-after tools these days, which not only help to reduce costs, but also to enhance business growth by providing all types of support in analyzing and assessing both business and in-house situations. PricewaterhouseCooper report (2009) predicts a 5 reduction in outsourcing portfolio management because of the enhanced dependency on operating models run under company management.
In addition to the regulation jobs like portfolio management, risk management and wealth situation analysis, the current models are also helping to formulate client communication strategy, and PricewaterhouseCooper report predicts that 63 of CCOs would increase their IT spending and 82 of them would go for system upgrade, and 36 of them would introduce enterprise-wide solutions for their organizations. Thus it can be said that the development of technology has influenced a huge change in operational strategies in this sector. Another forthcoming features concerning technology according to the above report would be shared services among companies, centralization of organizational structures and increase in the use of open architecture. Robust risk management too is going to be the mantra of the future, and accordingly the improvisation of the risk-framework systems is on the anvil.
III. F. LegalRegulationPolitical Challenge
The state of challenges from this zone mostly come from the issue of compliance, which has been a worrying factor for WM organizations right from the beginning of the millennium, which appears to have created a flutter in the WM industry where its members want to be compliant because the law says they have to be, and even if anyone wants to walk the other way, then there is the industry standards and much-important customer expectations that would prevent one to do so. This shows that there is a need to develop better understanding regarding compliance, which is about conforming to the controls and procedures imposed on the company by appropriate laws or rulings, e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley Bill of 2002 (which is also known as SOX or SarBox), the more recent Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). It is because of such rulings compliance is often referred to as regulatory compliance.
Though the personnel belonging to WM industry are familiar with the terms like above or about other terms of compliance like HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, 1996), GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999), or FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002), it is only a clear perception about why such regulations are there, that would enable the WM professionals to do better business on a laid-down track of safety and clarity. From this perspective it can be said that compliance regulations have created a shift towards corporate responsibility, where controls over information systems and security have actually enabled the companies to safeguard their data and business, and to earn confidence of their clients.
One of the most important features in compliance is its emphasis on data security, where various rulings help to prevent trespassing of any companys private zone. In this regard the publicly listed companies and other affected organizations have reasons to be happy, and should make up their minds too on refraining from encroaching on the domains of small companies. This still appears to be a gray area since there is no common preventive system that would update itself regularly to monitor advanced hacking activities of the companies. Thus the challenge in this area is to convince all players in WM industry about the positive impact of compliance and the importance of maintaining it. For that matter the companies need to declare their stand by quoting all appropriate rulings they follow, instead of issuing vague circulars like company is being in compliance.
For that matter companies need to use such information systems (software products) that would provide them powerful security, besides enabling them to meet the essential requirements in most regulatory compliance standards like monitoring and auditing capabilities. There is a need to upgrade such systems with the evolution of laws and international standards, which would help companies to meet the prescribed standard of compliance. From this perspective, there is a clear need of understanding between systems maker and the users of such systems, because such synchronized approach to compliance would definitely help in garnering the confidence of the customer.
The significance of understanding between systems makers and WM professionals can be seen from another angle, i.e., price-control of systems. Constant rise in the price of systems has become a constant source of agony for WM professionals, but currently they have no control on the same. According to the report published by Celent, a Boston-based company, the market for wealth management compliance systems is poised to jump 15 each year to convert todays 178 million industry of compliance systems to 318 million industry by 2011. Thus there is enough ground for anyone assuming that by virtue of the factors like data security, upgrade, and flexibility, the compliance companies are milking the WM professionals, since all of them, ranging from Chief compliance officers (CCOs) at hedge funds, broker-dealers, institutional asset managers, retail financial advisers, trust companies, or banks use automated compliance systems to monitor and track all compliance related issues (Rodier, 2008). Currently CCOs primarily use three types of compliance systems, viz., trade compliance systems, operational risk compliance systems, and wealth management compliance systems, to track several elements, ranging from the feasibility study of client investments against objectives, risk profiles, etc., to secure client gifts within regulatory parameters.
According to the above report, registered investment advisors will eventually spend more time on compliance systems as they are the big players with assignments from most of the wealth investment firms, where more complexities would compel them to engage more with compliance issues. For example, Hedge funds may face heightened regulation, and therefore this sector is expected to increase spending on compliance systems from current 41.5 million to 78.8 million annually.
Apart from above, compliance is gradually becoming an essential component of primary back-office systems in WM organizations, like trade order management systems, e-mail surveillance and retention systems, workflow tools, document retention systems, and the research firm notes. Thus the current challenges in this zone involves the issue of synchronization between systems makers and WM companies to control price rise in systems as well as improvising them, besides the task of synchronizing the needs of customer and the company within the framework of compliance (Rodier, 2008).
Another challenge, i.e., developing an outlook of exploiting the compliance, is no less important, since it continues to be a key driver of business, a fact that is amply reflected over the past few years, when WM organizations had to comply with a steady stream of regulatory requirements involving SOX, Patriot Act, Best execution, Employee surveillance etc. under tight deadlines. It is for this reason the companies should accommodate the utility value of compliance and take initiatives to make everyone of WM industry conversant with regulations as well as keen to keep track of the changes taking place in them, having in-depth knowledge about various aspects of compliance like Know Your Client (KYC) regulations, Anti Money Laundering (AML), pre and post-trade compliance, employee surveillance, trading regulations like Reg NMS and MiFID and SoX and Basel related risk measures, would not only enhance the productivity, but also would create an ambience of clarity in the industry, which then would move away from earlier notions of satisfying regulators to a more fruitful approach of deriving competitive advantage by exploiting all compliance initiatives (Vemuri, 2007).
The political impact on this sector too is being felt, where the governments are applying pressure tactics to convert its fund flow in government-regulated banks, besides influencing all tax havens and International Private Banking Sector (IPBCs) not to engage in or support unacceptable tax planning. In all, a complex maze of barriers have come up in this zone, comprising political, fiscal, social and regulatory drivers, which is gradually pushing this industry into an era of compliant confidentiality (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009).
III. G. Ethical Challenge
Ethical challenge in this trade is something that requires sheer power of innate values to overcome, though it is equally important to apply business sense and vision to reap the benefit of ethical approach. Holding on to ethical grounds does give guarantee to do well in maintaining the three golden rules of business, such as maintaining good client relations amid volatile business environment, maintaining focus on professional integrity to enhance the industry image and keeping alive the quest for constant learning, which is the key to professional growth. Though there are many attractions to earn quick money, yet, the real challenge is to build a trusting client relationship and to create a favorable public perception about the integrity of WM industry (Chan, 2009). From perspective of current post-downturn business environment, it can be said that emphasis on applying the highest standard of professional ethics could rejuvenate the spirit of the investors, who have taken a conservative stance after experiencing the global financial crisis.
However, the issue of ethics is always embedded with individual orientation, no matter how much one learns about its positive impact on business in later years. Sense of ethics in an individual should involve a broader spectrum that ethics is not a mere tool to enhance business, and instead it is a tool to align individuals purpose of action with ideal desires such as contributing to collective development and sharing the joy and happiness with others. Thus the real challenge is not to invite mental poverty in the pursuit of accumulating material wealth, since profit making cannot be an end in itself. These concepts about ethics are expected to govern the actions of wealth managers, and for that they need to have an appropriate orientation preferably in their formative years. For example, if someone learns Holy Jesus love commandments, which is the central force of Christian ethics at a young age, then that knowledge would definitely serve as the individual foundation of ethics for the person. Other ethical views such as Kantian ethics that is based on the idea of treating persons as ends and never as means, or intuitionist pluralism, are equally effective in creating the foundation of ethics among humans (Audi, 2003). Thus, be it earning the peace of mind and spirit of service or contributing to the brand image of the company, WM professionals have to meet the ethical challenge effectively.
III. H. Other Situations
As it has been mentioned earlier that data security breaches are commonplace affairs in WM industry, which could even destroy a WM company in terms of reputation and business. It is for this reason the companies have the challenge to evaluate all systems deployed in business with utmost care and caution, without being hesitant to pay more if so required to safeguard their business.
Same state of uncertainty surfaces in the event of outsourcing systems, where WM industry faces double dilemma involving the factors like utilizing standardized offerings such as sophisticated portfolio analysis, portfolio performance and risk management, etc. to cater to the mass affluent market segment with little cost on operation or opting to ensure more security to business data by installing costly, self-controlled systems. Though the provider companies are aware of the fact that trust is the bridge between their business and WM companies, yet this remains a sensitive issue and the biggest challenge here is to team up with companies that share a common vision and commitment to trust and security.
IV. Industry Responses, Strategies, and Solutions
In order to match the challenges, the companies in this sector have been trying to improve their customer services, besides keeping an eye to reduce operating expenses. Segmentation of the clients by affluence tiers, such as emerging affluent, mass affluent, high net worth, mid-tier millionaire, or ultra-high net worth have already helped them to control operational costs as well as to understand the customer demands at each of such level. In the first case, the companies are dividing the client base into different web-based self service offerings, e.g., shifting an HNW to a costly web-based self-service, or providing value-added services like more sessions with advisors, while placing a lower-tier client in a call-center oriented self-service and cutting their operational costs in the process. Alongside, strategic utilization of enhanced services to lower-tier clients also proving effective (Strategic, 2005). Utilization of Web 2.0, i.e., the online social platforms is also gaining grounds, as they are already recognized as important tools of relationship marketing and customer-relationship building. However, initiatives like equipping the human resource to exploit people skills in garnering business are yet to gain momentum.
V. Conclusions and Recommendations
The review of literature clearly shows that there is lot to be done to make WM industry capable of exploiting the promise of business before it. The overall situation clearly identifies the fact that Internet has grown to become an integral part of business operation by providing high technology wealth models, and it has the power to attract even the inveterate HNWs to search for financial advice. The business prospect of intellectual property too appears to be rosy, so is the growth rate of HNWs. In all, there is huge amount of opportunity in this sector waiting for the worthy harvester.
However, at the same time the review shows that this industry is plagued by several problems covering both technology and human resource areas. The absence of strong ethical approach in Web usage, and inability to use high technology due to financial constraints prove to be the main barriers in exploiting the potential of technology. On the other hand, human resources in this sector are found to be unequipped in providing the desired humane touch and grasping the nuances of compliance. The lack of instance regarding utilization of free resources of Internet, such as community sites, chat applets or video conferencing facilities, also consolidates the impression that human resources of this sector is yet to come of age. Lack of understanding between systems makers and users of WM industry too poses a problem.
The review does not suggest that the factors related to government could be potential threats to the business prospect of this sector. Issues like channeling business in government-run institutions or probing the clarity of transactions in some areas could be seen as blessings in disguise, as the former instance could enhance the competitive attitude in this industry, and the later would actually secure the reputation of it.
Thus the state of business in this industry in the coming future would depend on the state of synchronization between various elements of it such as synchronization between systems makers and WM companies, WM professionals and systems, between knowledge and sense of ethics of the WM professionals, between people skills and CRMs, and so on. However, these can still be considered as teething problems of an industry that appears to be in its infancy as against the staggering state of opportunities before it. Therefore, it is perfectly possible to create a balance between the key drivers of WM industry, i.e., technology and human resources.
Considering the shortcomings of industry as shown by the above review, this study recommends the following solutions
Stress should be given to develop the skill and knowledge base of human resources engaged in this industry Such initiative would solve many problems together, such as lack of understanding regarding compliance, lack of understanding between systems makers and WM companies, lack of people skills, and lack of strong ethical approach to business. The systems makers should realize that if they can provide affordable yet quality system solutions, then that would mean more business to this industry and they too stand to gain from it.
Stress should be given to the research and development of systems The customers preference for single-window operation is gradually gaining momentum and WM industry should meet that demand. Open architecture is another very important factor that is influencing a good many changes and hence commands more attention. The need to offer more combination of products and services should also be met at the earliest, and for that matter the systems should be equipped.
Regarding security, companies should invest in good IRM programs that are capable of assessing information risks by documenting, analyzing, reporting and remediation of controls based risks and eventually benefiting the companies in the following manner
Helping the company to assess the readiness for a compliance audit by federal regulators
Aligning with Global Information Security Standards, like aligning controls to ISO17799COBITISFand NIST 800-14
Identifying potential risks through comprehensive assessment and recommending a remediation strategy to provide a robust risk management
Earning competitive advantage by generating greater trust in information controls and increased level of customer confidence and satisfaction.
In all, there should be a disciplined and balanced business approach with customers at its center of activity.
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