Firms are investing in desktop technology as a way to boost efficiency and drive client retention and cross-sales.

Celent has released a new report titled The Next Generation Desktop: Reigniting Advice Delivery. The report was written by Will Trout, a Senior Analyst with Celent’s Securities & Investments practice.

The desktop serves as the hub for all advisor-related activity, overseeing the transmission of information from customer touchpoint into the workflow and back. The nearly universal desire, among managers, for advisors to spend more time in front of the client is driving desktop adoption. A data mart can be used to match identifiers across business units and achieve an enterprise view of the customer. Onboarding tools can be used to seed the CRM with customer information in advance.

“Advisors look to their desktops to help them keep pace with an evolving regulatory environment, increasing customer demands, and changing product and process requirements,” commented Trout.

“Far from describing a 1980s era workstation, however, the concept of the modern desktop implies vast power over data, and by extension, the relationship with the customer,” he added.