Every advisor wants a “seamless” technology experience, but few know what goes in to making that a reality. Understanding a bit about how different platforms interact can help you evaluate which technology makes the most sense for you and what questions to ask when you’re considering a new service.
What does it mean to be “integrated”?
Integration is a blanket term used to refer to the ways different technologies talk to each other. There are many ways to create these connections, but the most common is called an application programming interface. You’ll almost always hear this referred to by its abbreviation — API.
Essentially, an API is a middleman of computer code that allows two different technologies to talk to each other. If you start your practice with a basic customer relationship management system (CRM) and begin to add different programs to your tech stack, like planning software or a billing system, an API can allow the different technologies to talk to each other. However, there can be glitches since communication is dependent on not just a middleman, but two vendors committed to establishing and evolving the connection. Everything from system upgrades to ongoing development can lead to snags in the user experience for both you and your clients.
There are other types of integrations, too. For instance, a webhook is a one-way API. An integration services component, or ISC, uses a local server to share data between two programs. These methods have various pros and cons, but at their core, they involve two separate technologies communicating in some way.
In-house development
When in doubt, we prefer to develop technology in-house instead of integrating with external technology. The reason for this is simple: No communication with outside technology will ever be quite as smooth as a holistic system.
This idea was central to our creation as a firm. After years of working with advisors, our founder Hailin Li and many members of the core Advyzon team, heard one consistent piece of feedback: We would love to consolidate our tech stack to fewer providers, but we need all of the features we enjoy today. No one wanted to keep adding to a tech stack, and we thought advisors deserved a one-stop shop.
At the time, a comprehensive solution was fairly revolutionary. It ensured no client data would be compromised or lost when different programs talked to each other, and it made for a better experience for both advisors and their clients. Still, building every element from scratch takes time and testing, since we want everything we build to function smoothly. That said, we do integrate with select partners, but we only embark on these partnerships when we can ensure the experience will be seamless for our users.
Integrations and partnerships
An integration between two technologies depends, like many things, on good communication. That’s why Advyzon is very strategic about who it chooses to integrate with. We wanted to share those criteria here, as it’s helpful for advisors to know why we have (or haven’t) chosen certain integrations.
Focusing on a few key integrations at a time allows us to make sure those integrations are top of the line. It’s a quality focus rather than quantity. For instance, consider our integration with Riskalyze. Not only is there a huge advisor demand for Riskalyze technology, they are also enthusiastic partners who work with us to make sure every part of that partnership is seamless. It’s truly a two-way, interactive, and collaborative experience. You don’t have to leave Advyzon’s platform to engage with Riskalyze, for instance.
This type of partnership is important to us. To ensure you only get the highest caliber integrations, we prioritize these partnerships based on both demand and the quality we’ll be able to deliver.
The Advyzon edge
We mentioned earlier that Advyzon was one of the first all-in-one technology solutions, and we want to elaborate on that a bit more. These days, there are a number of comprehensive approaches to advisor technology. But many of our competitors function differently than we do on the backend.
More specifically: These firms tend to grow through acquisition. If they don’t have a CRM, they might acquire one, and then integrate it into their platform. The key word here, though, is integrate. While the CRM now falls under their technology umbrella it is, in a sense, an in-house integration.
Compare that to Advyzon, where our CRM was designed by our team and has been native to our platform from day one. It was designed to function with our Portfolio Management System and Reporting tools. In fact, CRM tools are so deeply engrained in Advyzon, you won’t even find a “CRM” button in the system.
That’s one reason that a comprehensive platform provides such a smooth experience compared with piecemealing standalone, “integrated” tools.
Curious to see what we’re talking about in-action? Schedule a demo with one of our team members.
