OWIN23: Key takeaways from the Objectway user conference
At its bi-annual user conference, held last week in Venice, wealthtech and banking technology provider Objectway set out its strategy to try to become more tactical within its customers. Its aim is to enter conversations at an early, planning stage, with several user case studies across the two-day OWIN23 event meant to demonstrate this in action.
OWIN23: Key takeaways from Objectway’s user conference
The coming together of Objectway’s banking, wealth and asset management customers is a reminder of both the breadth of its product suite as well as the fact that it is made up of applications from a mix of sources.
The Italy-based company has made multiple acquisitions over the years which means its 200+ customers across 16 countries (nearly all in Europe) are on applications of different technologies and ages. Some of the applications are also country or region-specific.
A prime example is its mid-2021 acquisition of Die Software Peter Fitzon, with its long-standing OBS core system used by a dozen or so banks in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. While Objectway points out that it now has a core banking system as a result, its relevance is arguably limited to German-speaking Europe.
Its eXimius portfolio management platform came from Thomson Reuters (Belgium-based eXimius NV was itself previously acquired by Thomson Financial); its UK-derived suite came with the acquisition of 3i Infotech’s business here in 2014 (Rhymesight, Fiscal and Altimis).
The shift towards a more strategic role is in part explained by market changes. Alexander Cassar, chief business development officer, pointed to the need of the “traditionally conservative” wealth management sector to catch up with other sectors, including moving from a product-centric to a customer-centric approach. Drivers include demographic shifts, heightened regulations, the arrival of new competitors and disruptors, and technical innovation.
The company tends to refer to the “Objectway Platform” but to a degree this looks to still be work in progress. Alberto Cuccu, chief solution officer, explained that the aim has been to keep all of the underlying applications in play, with an over-arching open API layer providing the integration.
In terms of customers where the results can be seen in action, one is Rathbones, a UK-based wealth and investment manager. Its chief operating officer (COO), Andy Brodie, set out the project to build its MyRathbones customer portal, underpinned by Objectway’s Conectus omnichannel platform (Rathbones is also a long-standing user of the company’s custody and settlement systems).
The project at Rathbones was led by customer experience (CX) design principles, said Brodie, and was delivered on time and in budget. Features are added on a rolling basis, with upgrades at six-week increments and, today, Rathbones has 52% of its clients registered, with an average of 6.4 log-ins per month by active users, he said.
OWIN23 was held in Venice
Another relatively broad and long-standing user is Belgian banking and insurance group KBC, including for its EveryoneInvested wealth tech spin-off and KBC Securities Services. Among other recent projects, KBC has created a digital onboarding portal, built on top of eXimius. Nico Permentier, head of user experience (UX) creation at KBC, explained that the UX team at the bank now comprises 32 staff and that it is wholly focused on “ease of use and solving problems… there’s a big correlation between ease of use and loyalty”.
On the OBS side, one notable project of late has been at Hauck Aufhaüser Lampe, a coming together of three German private banks. It opted for OBS, migrating the operations of Bankhaus Lampe from another long-standing Germanic platform, FIS’s Kordoba. Gap analysis started in November 2020 and cut-over was mid-2022, with the project on time, despite the need for around 200 enhancements to OBS to cater for the Lampe-derived business. The combined entity has assets under management and administration of over €200 billion, total assets of over €13 billion and more than 1,300 employees.
Venice was a wonderful host city, of course, and in some ways its vulnerability to rising sea levels seemed to have parallels with the rising tide of customer demands, regulations (including ESG) and new tech – AI and ChatGPT gained a lot of mentions – currently engulfing the wealth management sector.
Objectway would like to be there in a strategic role to help its many users swim, not drown, with seemingly progress in this direction based on the testimonies from OWIN23 but also with work to do to further integrate and evolve its mix of offerings.
