How investify TECH makes endless IT projects superfluous

investify TECH has developed into the leading wealth management platform in recent years. The focus is not only on technology, but also on regulation and speed of implementation. In addition to major and private banks, asset managers and insurance companies also benefit from the platform.

When it comes to digitalisation, the biggest concern of banks and asset managers is that they will start an endless project, have to invest a lot of their own manpower and not even know whether it will work in the end. “We often heard these concerns at the beginning,” says Harald Brock, Managing Director of investify TECH. “We incorporated these reservations into our corporate strategy.” The result: a white label platform approach that offers fast and secure implementation and utilisation, while also taking into account the unique selling points of the respective B2B partner.

Put simply, a company consists of numerous individual processes. Today, these should be optimised and digitalised as much as possible. If you use individual solutions, i.e. individual programmes or self-developed processes, things quickly become complex. Prerequisites: Suitable interfaces and different solutions that communicate with each other correctly. Companies also need to find key employees to operate the systems and processes. It also becomes difficult when changes need to be made to individual components, for example because regulatory requirements are changing ever faster. Then such a patchwork quickly becomes a failure.

“It is important that everyone in wealth management today does exactly what they can do,” says Andreas Falger, Head of Private Banking at Internationales Bankhaus Bodensee, a Würth Group company. This is one of the maxims of Investify Tech: The bank or asset manager is responsible for asset management, advice and sales, while a specialised service provider such as investify TECH takes on the regulatory and technical issues, thus permanently relieving the burden on the asset manager.

Leading wealth management platform

investify TECH has created a platform approach that has developed into the leading wealth management platform in German-speaking countries over the last few years. “Only a platform approach makes it possible for banks and asset managers to achieve digitalised wealth management in a manageable period of time with a high level of execution security and with a small project team,” says Brock. “A time horizon of three months is the rule rather than the exception.” This is also confirmed by Christian Jasperneite, CIO of private bank M.M. Warburg, which switched to investify TECH in 2023: “From the first day to the last, we were always 100 per cent on schedule – and it was pretty tight. I’ve rarely experienced that before.”

Tobias Gabriel, Project Manager at Hamburg-based asset manager HAC Asset Management, also confirms this: “The project was completely atypical of any IT-related project we have ever had. This was reflected in the fact that we were able to complete the ‘machine’ ahead of schedule. The close cooperation and open dialogue with investify TECH were crucial to this great success. We have succeeded in developing an asset management solution that is not only technically advanced, but also closely linked to our DNA and values as an asset manager.”

“The aim must be to get away from the endless IT projects that everyone in the financial sector is familiar with,” says Brock. “Nobody wants that – neither the client nor us as a service provider.” The use of a platform benefits everyone. Not least when it comes to legal or regulatory innovations or changing industry standards. Such further developments are automatically incorporated into the platform without the financial services provider having to worry about them or pay extra. Brock continues: “This approach is comparable to the automotive industry, where an identical platform is used at Porsche just as it is at VW or Audi – without any negative impact on the image, pricing or brand.”

Users must experience the DNA of the asset manager

As one of the largest independent asset managers, close collaboration, the flexibility of the platform and the wealth of experience gained from numerous projects are important to DJE. CEO Thorsten Schrieber on the collaboration with investify TECH: “Both companies stand for innovation. With our joint expertise, we will deliver efficient and forward-looking solutions for our sales partners”.

“We believe it is important that both investors and advisors experience the DNA of the asset manager. Our platform therefore works invisibly in the background,” explains Brock. Depending on the client’s wishes, it then takes on various tasks from onboarding and legitimisation via advisor and client portals including app, back office and regulation, wealth engine including portfolio management system, custodian bank connection and smart automated client reporting.

“It is always an exciting process to enrich our technology and regulatory platform with the DNA of a cooperation partner. Our partners and therefore also the design of the portfolios, the look and feel of the asset management and the values are unique every time – and this is exactly what needs to be taken into account in a digitalised world,” Brock is convinced. He can demonstrate that over a dozen well-known banks, asset managers and insurance companies have opted for investify TECH in the last few months alone, making the platform the leading application in the German-speaking asset management market.

For investify TECH, however, it is not only the pure platform basis that is crucial to the success of the so-called “Smooth TECH” approach, but also the unique ownership structure. “Our owners give us the opportunity not to have to experiment with our B2B customers. We have been given the financial and time space to create something unique that also works in practice straight away. In addition, our owners want to stay involved with us in the long term. With a purely venture capital-financed company, such aspects are usually much more difficult.” The main owners of investify TECH include two pension funds, an archdiocese, one of Germany’s largest family offices and well-known entrepreneurial families.

Read article at Finance Forward