Schwab Performance Technologies (SPT), a subsidiary of Charles Schwab Corp., intends before the end of the year to sell a version of PortfolioCenter that provides hardware and software support but no data management.
PortfolioCenter is Schwab's flagship portfolio management and accounting system for independent advisors. SPT now offers PortfolioServices, which provides not only a hosted version of PortfolioCenter, but also full data management and reporting. The new product, SPT PortfolioCenter Hosted, will simply provide hardware and software support for PortfolioCenter. Advisors will still maintain control of their data and will be responsible for downloads and reconciliation, report generation and other administrative functions.
"Advisors want to run their businesses, not their servers," says Brian Shenson, vice president of Advisor Technology Solutions at Charles Schwab. "The cost and complexity of managing the server and the software is something that many of our clients would like to outsource. Advisors are looking to decrease time spent on technology infrastructure tasks like software updates and database backups, but still want to control their own data and customize their client experience."
Shenson added that there will be additional benefits to PortfolioCenter Hosted. These include the ability to offer advisors access from anywhere, a boon to multi-office firms or those with employees working remotely. It will also allow Schwab to offer access for the Mac operating system as well as popular tablet systems.
Meanwhile, SPT also recently announced it will integrate PortfolioCenter, as well as PortfolioCenter Hosted, with OpenView Gateway, which allows data from Schwab Advisor Services to work with third-party technology systems.
Shenson expects integration with Salesforce to be available first, followed by the other Gateway CRM participants, such as Junxure CRM and Microsoft CRM. The plan calls for all of the integrations to be available before the end of the year.
For further information visit: https://schwabpt.com/.