Pershing's Albridge Solutions Finds Interoperability Is Key to Increasing Advisor Efficiency

JERSEY CITY, N.J., August 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Albridge Solutions, Inc., an affiliate of Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon company, today released a new white paper that finds advisors must have seamless movement of data between third-party financial services applications in order to improve workflow, increase efficiency and stay ahead of their competitors.

According to the paper, entitled "Standardizing the Interoperability Framework: Promoting Seamless Application Integration for Optimized Workflow," 44% of financial technology executives[i] describe the management of the various applications they use as decentralized and fragmented. Many financial services firms have attempted to deliver a platform that allows for centralized and consolidated data management, but have been unsuccessful until now. To address the need to improve technological inadequacies, workflow redundancies and convoluted communications advisors experience, Albridge created the Applink platform.

"Seamless and fluid movement of data among financial services applications is necessary for advisors to stay ahead of the competition," said Gregg Klein, director of product management at Albridge Solutions. "Albridge Solutions strives to create operational efficiencies and Applink does just this by allowing advisors to transport data both to and from more than one application, thereby creating a true ecosystem of bi-directional interoperability. As a result advisors can increase efficiency, focus on their core competencies and increase their competitive edge."

Interoperability is communication and transportation of data both to and from more than one application or system – among diverse and dynamic third-party, advisor-facing application providers. Applink delivers interoperability by integrating more than 100 different applications and systems that aren't normally compatible with one another. There is a single sign-on (SSO) interface that integrates the third-party advisor-facing application providers into one framework. Additionally through Applink, advisors have the choice of which applications and programs they want to employ to structure their client data, creating a customizable workflow.

"Applink was created to be a part of whatever workflow an advisor wants to leverage because each advisor is different and how they manage their process is different," said Blake Marshall-Attle, Vice President and Product Manager at Albridge Solutions. "Applink was our way of saying that Albridge doesn't need to be in the desktop space and that we find value by powering and connecting with other systems and providing our clients with the interoperability framework."

Other key insights from the white paper include:

• The last five years have seen an evolution in how advisors and investors want to use wealth reporting and in order to enhance their workflow and experience, deeper integration should be the next step forward.
• Albridge's unique position in the enterprise data management industry allowed for the successful creation of the interoperability platform, Applink.
• Not only does Applink allow advisors their choice of applications and programs to understand and structure client data, but advisors can extract and create personalized wealth reporting data from different applications via the same portal without manual re-entry of client information.
• Bi-directional data transfers and contextual mapping are imbedded in Applink's framework and allow for workflow optimization and true interoperability.

To obtain a copy of the white paper, visit www.albridge.com.

Albridge Solutions, an affiliate of Pershing LLC, is a leading provider of enterprise data management solutions that deliver a single view of an investor's broad range of assets. Our proprietary technology consolidates and reconciles client account and transaction data from hundreds of data sources representing banking, brokerage, insurance, retirement, managed accounts and more. Albridge processes this cleansed data and uses it to power a variety of downstream technology solutions, including performance reporting, sales practice monitoring, data warehousing, business intelligence, imaging and workflow. Albridge provides the foundation for financial organizations to leverage a single source of information to power a number of mission critical technology applications. Additional information is available at albridge.com.

Pershing and its affiliates provide global financial business solutions to approximately 1,600 financial organizations, broker-dealers, registered investment advisory firms, advisors, fund managers and asset managers who represent over 5.6 million active accounts. Located in 23 offices worldwide, Pershing delivers dependable operational support, robust trading services, flexible technology, an expansive array of investment solutions, practice management support and service excellence. Pershing is a member of every major U.S. securities exchange, and its international affiliates are members of the Deutsche Borse, Australian Stock Exchange, Irish Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange. Pershing LLC (member FINRA/NYSE/SIPC) is a BNY Mellon company. Additional information is available on pershing.com, or follow us on Twitter @Pershing.

BNY Mellon is a global investments company dedicated to helping its clients manage and service their financial assets throughout the investment lifecycle. Whether providing financial services for institutions, corporations or individual investors, BNY Mellon delivers informed investment management and investment services in 35 countries and more than 100 markets. As of June 30, 2013, BNY Mellon had $26.2 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.4 trillion in assets under management. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage, service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com, or follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon.

[i] Aite Group: Wealth Management: Tech Priorities for an Adverse New Normal, October 2012

SOURCE BNY Mellon