2 0 1 7
Is It Time the Asset Management Sector Stopped Using Excel? Excel’s popularity has also increased the need for document conversion services. But is Excel on its way out from the wealth management sector?
Managed Outsource Solutions 8596 E. 101st Street, Suite H Tulsa, OK 74133 (800) 670 2809
Microsoft Excel has remained popular for more than 3 decades now, and that is quite a lot for a software program. The financial industry, especially the asset management sector has relied on it for all these years, and continues to do so. Excel
conversion
is therefore one of the most
sought-after document
conversion services. This format is an ideal tool for survey data entry and analysis of data. It helps in entering, calculating, and analyzing company data such as sales figures, sales taxes, legal or medical data entry, and various other purposes in an organization. Even though Microsoft excel is an excellent tool for analyzing and calculating limited sets of data, it can quickly become overwhelming as the project starts progressing. Now that there are so many beautifully designed, intuitive customer service applications available, consumer expectations have increased accordingly. Customers now want such appealing, intuitive applications when it comes to how their wealth is managed and explained to them. Following are some of the limitations of Microsoft Excel. Excel was not designed for asset management: Basically, Excel was conceived as a solution to a requirement for a more efficient way of conducting analysis. It lacks in desirable asset management features. Excel is purpose agnostic. Excel spreadsheet does not have a way of knowing whether the data entered in a row, cell or column is financial data or the result of say, a weekly event. Excel is difficult to decipher and keep track of the state of progress of the project. Excel can sometimes prolong and complicate conversations about money rather than simplify them, especially in the case of larger data sets. Since asset records are not updated immediately, errors could arise. If the maintenance team does not update asset records within a short time, there are greater chances of errors. If multiple users try to access and edit the same spreadsheet, there could be chaos. There is also the risk of someone accidentally deleting the spreadsheet. Asset data must be accurate and up-to-date for it to have value. Spreadsheets may contain outdated information, and you cannot know the status of your assets right now, what their current locations are, or what maintenance is scheduled against them.
www.managedoutsource.com
Excel spreadsheets are not ideal for managing assets on-the-go. Excel is not a very mobile-friendly format, and its full benefits can be enjoyed only on a desktop or laptop. It is difficult to pinpoint who last interacted with an asset and when that interaction took place. This concern arises when many users contribute data to a spreadsheet. Only one-way communication is possible. Excel does not allow your assets to communicate back to you. Now there are asset management tools that allow two-way communication. Many spreadsheets must be used for storing diverse asset records, because
there
is
no
one-size-fits-all
solution.
Most
people
have
documents stored in diverse locations and it is difficult for asset managers to consolidate all their asset documents and records into one comprehensive, accurate database. Asset management tools serve two main types of target audiences, namely, wealth managers and their clients. These tools should be able to communicate complex financial data to clients in simple terms. The tech platform a wealth management professional uses must be able to accommodate any number of portfolios through interfaces that are simple and intuitive. These portfolios must be sortable and searchable as well – alphabetically, chronologically and so on. In the present scenario, asset managers need tools that are more sophisticated than Excel. While Excel format is great for many tasks it is being slowly ousted by more innovative wealth management applications. A considerable increase in digital evolution for wealth management is expected in 2018 and the coming years, and stakeholders expect major innovations in asset management software as well.
www.managedoutsource.com