What are the missions of the CTO in a management company?
The CTO answers directly to the top management, in order to implement the company’s strategy, but he/she occupies a transverse position in the organization, whatever its size. The number one mistake is to imagine the CTO’s function as being reduced to questions of technological choices. In an asset management company or a family office, the CTO collaborates as much with the compliance department as with the asset managers or the relationship managers.
The CTO determines the objectives of the technology strategy
The CTO is the backbone of the asset management company’s digital transformation and defines priorities. Should investments in new technologies be focused on efficiency and profitability? Or should they help the company implement a new business model?
It guides the company’s digital transformation
One of the many roles of the CTO is to implement innovations, especially through the acquisition of new analytics and data management tools. To do this, the CTO analyzes the business processes, collects the users’ needs and makes sure that the company’s vision, medium and long term, is in line with this. This means helping stakeholders think more clearly about use cases by first determining the results they want to achieve.
Selects technical and technological solutions
The asset manager’s environment is evolving more rapidly The speed of change can make the selection of technology solutions complex.
First of all, there are the functional needs, in terms of data management, compliance, interface with custodian banks… Taking into account only this aspect does not allow to make a definitive choice.
The work tools must be integrated in the most fluid environment possible while meeting the expectations of the users and the new organizational models: telecommuting, collaborative tools as well as the use of various online software and applications.
It drives cultural change
70% of digital transformation plans fail, mainly because the human dimension of change is not taken into account. This is the most difficult part to master but also the key to success.
One of the roles of the CTO is to ensure that the technology is adoptable and adopted. A targeted communication must be predefined, sharing the company’s vision with its employees.
The major challenge to ensure the success of the CTO’s objectives is the operational training of the teams.
The CTO plays a key role in the performance of the digital transition of companies. However, few asset management companies integrate this position into their team due to their small size.
In order to help asset management companies in their digitalization, KeeSystem, a Swiss fintech offering a portfolio management solution for independent managers and family offices, provides an innovative solution: the services of an outsourced CTO!
A high value-added service for asset management companies: the outsourced CTO.
Providing such an innovative and performing software is not enough anymore. Today, the success of this type of project implies a real change management, a complete accompaniment so that the change becomes a sustainable movement.
The outsourced CTO helps create a complete working ecosystem. Thanks to the API systems (connectors), he integrates the functionalities of KeeSense, KeeSystem’s portfolio management solution, but also the other software and applications used by the client.
The objective is to make data flows more fluid, to save time and data quality. A concrete example: for one of our customers, we suggested and integrated an application to scan business cards that directly records the data in the KeeSense CRM. Today, he saves precious time thanks to this solution.
Relying on a long-term technical consulting partner avoids difficulties related to changes or the adoption of new solutions. At KeeSystem, during the migration of the infrastructure to the cloud of one of our customers, we immediately brought up the points of vigilance identified during the previous evolution 5 years earlier. A big gain of time and serenity for our customer.
In the future, these changes will multiply and accelerate. The support of the outsourced Chief Technology Officer is decisive in the long-term success of the digitalization of independent managers. The KeeSystem teams who have relied on this service for their clients are convinced of this.
