As mobile technologies gain ground, they will challenge incumbent systems and practices. A case in point is a new app for the iPad created via a version of a portfolio management system that has mobile reporting capabilities. The easier and more timely access to middle and back office data will test the conventions about front, middle and back office distinctions.
The new app is a version of Insight from Tradar, a provider of buy-side portfolio management and accounting solutions, that uses the mobile reporting functions from Nedelma’s Portfolio Amalfi platform. Nedelma is a financial data aggregator for desktop, smartphone and tablet devices.
The partners say the new application will give users remote access to detailed portfolio views on an as-needed basis.
“We began introductory discussions about nine months ago and partnership discussions and testing started simultaneously six months ago,” says Sachin Kachhla, director of business development for Tradar in the US.
Tradar is targeting internal and external groups such as investor relations teams and investors. The vendor also says the app will improve fund transparency and flexibility for a firm’s current and potential investors. The app also offers 3-D portfolio views, charts, summaries and capabilities to drill down to underlying trades. It also offers support for multiple currencies and languages.
How will this app be used by those in the middle office and back office?
“We can deploy our mobile reporting application to any middle or back office user,” Kachhla says. “The more senior individuals will find it convenient to see portfolio data on-the-go, and in read-only form and several COO’s and CFO’s in our client base have expressed interest. In our experience the middle and back office are really the owners and managers of the data, so they will more likely to want the full version of our flagship application Insight on their desktop.”
Kachhla says the “potentially more exciting” aspect of the new app is that it can facilitate new and expanded access to middle and back office data “in a way that is more timely, interactive and flexible than what they may currently be getting such as print-outs, PDFs, presentations and spreadsheets.”
For now, Tradar and Nedelma have are focused on the iPad. “But for the future, we have flexibility should other tablet devices become more widely used,” Kachhla say.
It’s early days for the new iPad app and Tradar is working with some clients “that have expressed interest over the last couple of months, but none are yet live,” Kachhla says.
It’s definitely not a given that buy-side firms (especially the more conservative institutions) will embrace mobile apps and systems. I suspect there will be ongoing skepticism and data security concerns about linking mobile technologies to mostly discrete and sometimes autonomous middle and back office systems. However, if the mobile challenge causes firms to rethink and possibly reimagine the utility of these distinctions, then mobile is worth the consideration.
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