Client intake and profiling
Strategic planning
Investment policy statement
Asset allocation
Implementation
Monitoring and maintenance
The client intake process determines the client's identity, goals, risk parameters, time lines and, finally, scale. Just as with asset management, this is also the part of the process that allows the advisor/consultant and client to get to know each other and become more familiar with each other's thinking.
Using the information derived from the "client intake," an IT professional can come up with a strategic plan that maps out the envisioned technological solution. The plan would then take written form, just like an investment policy statement.
In developing a technological solution, "asset allocation" consists of choosing the components that best fit the client's "investment policy statement." This is a balancing act, just as it is in working up the equity and fixed-income ratio of an investment portfolio. This is followed by "implementation," which involves selecting the specific products used to fill each allocation basket after a due diligence process
"Monitoring and maintenance" involves making sure the new technology is doing what it was designed to do and remains up to date. Just as an advisor may have to rebalance a portfolio, IT staff may have to adjust to changing needs and conditions. It's also a step that involves maintaining the client relationship and following up periodically with the market and client to make sure that the "investment policy statement" has not changed and that the overall plan is being followed.
As you delve more deeply into this step-by-step approach, consider the following:
Client Intake: This involves learning the complexion of the client's technology needs on a global level, considering factors such as regulation, compliance, risk tolerance, etc. Just as a portion of a portfolio may be categorized as "low risk," components of a technology plan may each have their own risk levels. You may want a technology "asset class" such as reporting to have very little risk of error, but you may be less concerned with risk in something like a CRM system, where there is little compliance risk and lots of upside for process improvements.
Strategic Planning: This establishes how the firm will use technology and try to formally compose a document similar to an investment policy statement that looks at technology use and implementation for the medium and long term. The way a category is implemented may change, but not always. The notion that security, or network defense, is important to the firm should not change very much over time.
Asset Allocation: Lay out your applications into several different "asset classes" to create an overview of all of the different IT assets that should be a part of your technology "portfolio." The accompanying chart depicts a sample "asset allocation" for a rapidly growing multifamily office that serves ultra-high-net-worth clients.
The graphic illustrates four main asset classes used by the wealth management firm: the desktop computing environment, communications, knowledge management and financial applications. A fifth class, called "other tech," consists of IT functions that are generally hidden from network users.
The five classes may be thought of in the same way that an asset class category such as large-cap stocks is viewed in an investment portfolio. Within each technology class, there are different components, just as there would be different sectors and different stocks, mutual funds or separate accounts under the heading of "large caps" in an investment portfolio.