Marc Butler is president and COO of Skience, a firm providing digital solutions and consulting services within the Salesforce ecosystem.

How did you personally become involved in fintech?
In the mid-1990s I had the opportunity to be a part of what I refer to as the first wave of digital wealth management when I joined a PC Financial Network, which eventually became DLJdirect. The company had great vision, the right mix of technology and traditional financial services leadership, and was one of the best teams of people I have worked with throughout my career. We developed a number of market-leading innovations in the race to beat the likes of Schwab and Fidelity in the climb to the top of the online broker ratings. After leaving the DLJdirect team, I led the creation of the NetExchange platform offered to Pershing’s broker-dealer clients. NetExchange Pro was the first web-based workstation for advisors to manage their client accounts, trade securities, and access market data.

What does your firm do/offer within the fintech space?
Skience is one of the best-kept secrets in financial services and is well-positioned to help firms implement their digital onboarding and cloud migration efforts. Our business directly aligns with both of these areas of strategic focus. We have a product that wealth management firms, custodians, and fintechs can leverage to transform their client onboarding experience. Skience provides a world-class wealth management platform for those firms utilizing the Salesforce CRM solution. Our other business is focused on helping financial services firms accelerate their digital transformation efforts. We were the first Salesforce Financial Services Cloud (FSC) consultant and helped Salesforce develop the initial version of FSC. We have helped firms across the financial services spectrum reinvent how they manage client relationships, how they service clients, and how they integrate legacy technology applications. Based on what we are seeing, and due to COVID-19, we expect investments in digital onboarding and cloud migration to accelerate.

What areas of fintech do you think will grow the most in the coming 5 years?
In January, I wrote a LinkedIn article about trends in financial services. The list below includes some of those observations and a few updates.

  1. Digital Transformation Efforts – This is applicable across almost every category of fintech providers. While a lot of attention is paid to the digital transformation of customer and user experiences, reinventing business processes using digital technologies is equally important.
  2. Creating Differentiated Customer or Client Experiences – Fintechs will need to help their clients think through the Direct, Indirect, and Technology Touchpoints in their businesses in order to deliver a delightful customer experience. If companies want to drive a differentiated customer or client experience, they will need to excel in each one of these Touchpoints.
  3. Cybersecurity – Cybersecurity is emerging as a top business issue (not just a technology issue) for leaders across the financial services spectrum. The bad guys are only getting smarter, so fintech solution providers will need to get smarter to protect their clients against cyber threats.
  4. Moving Beyond Training and Adoption – Adoption of fintech solutions is typically deemed successful if a user can access a solution and pay a subscription fee, without regard for how they use the solution and to what extent. In order to demonstrate true business value for their clients, leading fintechs will need to rethink traditional training and adoption to get users to leverage their solutions in more impactful ways.
  5. Artificial Intelligence and Predictive Analytics – These have been hot topics in the industry the last few years and the best is yet to come. When the availability and use of these solutions become more widespread, there is no doubt it will have a dramatic impact on the relationships financial services firms have with their clients. Firms are also likely to become more data-driven in how they manage their business.