SAN FRANCISCO, CA — (Marketwired) — 09/18/13 — Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADVS) today announced multiple enhancements to the Black Diamond portfolio management, reporting, and rebalancing platform. Black Diamond-s major wave of innovation will deliver significant portfolio rebalancing enhancements and powerful new data mining capabilities for clients as part of its core platform as well as deeper, more seamless integrations with RIA custodians and other providers of advisor technology including CRM systems, trading platforms, and analytic tools.
“We are constantly talking to our clients about the technology they need to improve client service and enhance firm-wide productivity,” said Dave Welling, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Black Diamond, an independent business group of Advent Software. “Our vision is to provide the most powerful, open, and integrated platforms in the industry and with the support of Advent we-ve been able to turn up the innovation engine and deliver on that promise,” added Welling. “We-ve more than doubled the Black Diamond development team since joining forces with Advent two years ago and with that fuel added to our engine we have been able to innovate on many fronts simultaneously, including both internal capabilities and external integrations.”
Regular rebalancing, or household-level portfolio re-allocation based on events or drift, is a key advisor workflow, yet industry adoption of third-party tools remains relatively low due to difficulty of implementation, user experience challenges, and total cost of ownership. Seeing the need for a range of solutions to fit diverse needs of advisors, Advent has made significant enhancements to the Black Diamond rebalancing solution as well as expanded its integrations with other industry rebalancing solutions.
Easy-to-use, adopt, and implement, Black Diamond-s multi-custodial household level rebalancing solution has been purpose-built for advisors and is integrated within the Black Diamond platform, allowing advisors to rebalance any account or group of accounts across multiple custodians. New enhancements to the platform now provide tax awareness capabilities including cost basis integration, as well as the ability to handle allocations to separately managed accounts and rebalance those investments alongside other securities in one central location. Black Diamond has also added multiple tactical rebalancing workflows based on the unique needs of its advisory and wealth management clients.
“Adoption of the Black Diamond rebalancing solution since general availability last year has been tremendous, with more than a quarter of our client base now having access to the workflow to automate what has traditionally been a complicated manual, time-consuming, and error-prone process. The recent enhancements are based on the fantastic level of engagement and input from the clients we have using the platform and we will continue to enhance the platform based on their feedback,” said Welling.
Black Diamond also recently released a new integration to BlazePortfolio-s, ATOM Align®, a cloud-based rebalancing and trade order management solution. This integration adds to the existing integrations with several other advisor rebalancing tools.
Black Diamond also has added a data mining tool to the platform enabling clients to query, analyze, and access their own data in a high-quality, aggregated way from a fast, flexible, and intuitive tool within the Black Diamond platform. This exciting new tool lets advisors create and save valuable queries for ad hoc or repeated use and is designed to provide efficiencies for compliance monitoring, platform maintenance, research, ad hoc reporting, and advisor/business intelligence.
“With fully reconciled, high quality, aggregated data on the Black Diamond platform, our clients now have even more flexibility to access and query their data right at their fingertips,” said Welling.
Black Diamond also announced a direct integration with Salesforce.com® that will include a Black Diamond for Salesforce® app as well as several new integrations with other CRM systems. These new and enhanced CRM integrations seamlessly provide account and household level data within the CRMs that advisors feel is best suited to their practice. “While some portfolio management and reporting solutions integrate with a single CRM partner, Black Diamond is committed to continued openness to help our entrepreneurial clients succeed,” said Welling. “When portfolio and account data integrate seamlessly with CRM systems it makes an advisor-s job much easier, enabling them to focus on, and better communicate with, their clients while running their practice much more efficiently.”
Black Diamond-s open architecture enables it to integrate its portfolio management, reporting, and rebalancing platform with multiple CRM system providers. While Black Diamond has had existing connections with Junxure® (installed version), Redtail CRM, and Salesforce.com® (via third-party platforms), its independent advisor and wealth manager clients also work with other CRM providers. Responding to these needs, Black Diamond has begun beta testing direct integration with Salesforce.com® and will have direct integrations with Salentica CRM, Junxure Cloud, Market76, XLR8, and Grendel CRM, all expected for later this year.
Black Diamond continues to deepen its access to both advisor managed and held away assets to provide a holistic view of a client-s assets. Through Advent Custodial Data®, Black Diamond has access to more than 800 financial institutions and has formal relationships and integrations with the largest RIA custodians spanning from cost basis syncing integration, single sign-on, contextual linking, and intraday or daily access to custodial data within the Black Diamond platform.
Combined with the integrations and formal relationships Black Diamond has with custodians, including Fidelity, Pershing, Raymond James Financial (Investment Advisors Division), Schwab Advisor Services, TD Ameritrade Institutional, and Trust Company of America, Advent-s Black Diamond product offers one of the most comprehensive set of custodial data relationships in the market today.
Black Diamond service and implementation teams, which have doubled in staff in the past two years, are actively working with clients who want to benefit from these new enhancements. “We are committed to being great at what our clients expect but also realize that entrepreneurial advisors will want to choose technology for things that we don-t do. Our commitment is to be open, flexible, and willing to adapt to the vision of our clients,” said Welling.
An independent business group of Advent Software, Black Diamond provides investment advisors and wealth managers with a cloud-based portfolio management platform offering aggregation, customizable reporting and rebalancing combined with fully outsourced daily reconciliation and data management service. With innovative technology backed by exceptional service, Black Diamond frees advisors to focus on serving clients and growing their business. More than 460 advisory firms have chosen Black Diamond to help manage more than $180 billion in assets. Learn more at .
Over the last 30 years of industry change, our core mission to help our clients focus on their unique strategies and deliver exceptional investor service has never wavered. With unparalleled precision and ahead-of-the-curve solutions, we-ve helped over 4,400 firms in nearly 60 countries — from established global institutions to small start-up practices — to grow their business and thrive. Advent technology helps firms minimize risk, work together seamlessly, and discover new opportunities in a constantly evolving world. Together with our clients, we are shaping the future of investment management. For more information on Advent products visit .
Any forward-looking statements included in this presentation, such as statements regarding strategies or plans of management for future operations, technology and regulatory developments, and anticipated products, services, enhancements or availability and features thereof, involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions include continued sales of existing products and services, the successful development, timing, anticipated features, functionality, benefits and market acceptance of new products, services and enhancements, the impact of initiatives by competitors, continued uncertainties and fluctuations in the financial markets and economic conditions and other risks detailed in Advent-s most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and its 2011 annual report on Form 10-K, copies of which may be obtained by contacting Advent Software at (415) 645-1683 or by visiting Advent-s Investor Relations Web site at .
Any unreleased services or features referenced in this presentation or other public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Advent-s products or services should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements including any financial, product or other guidance, whether as a result of events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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