Client Reporting Tools Update 2012: An Overview of the European Market

Despite tightening IT budgets among wealth managers across Europe, Celent expects spending on client reporting tools to increase between 5% and 8% over the next year.

Over the past 18 months, European wealth managers have increased their budgets for client reporting tools, exceeding overall IT spending among wealth managers. As market volatility increases and investors remain nervous about their investment performance, demands for ad hoc report generation will increase. This puts increased time management pressure on advisors and reporting staff. As such, wealth managers are likely to seek tools that will automate ad hoc report generation and create sleek, visually appealing reports.

In the second of two reports looking at the client reporting tools market, Client Reporting Tools Update 2012: An Overview of the European Market, Celent focuses on the major business and technology trends and developments in the client reporting tools space across Europe. Celent also identifies prominent vendors and describes major strategic initiatives and functionality enhancements.

“Right now, demand for client reporting tools seems somewhat countercyclical,” says Alexander Camargo, Analyst with Celent’s Securities and Investment Group and author of the report. “The weaker the market looks, the more retail investors will demand frequent reporting from their wealth managers. This will put pressure on firms with manual processes, driving demand for tools to automate reporting and provide informative reports.”

This report begins with a definition of client reporting and also looks at extended areas of development. The study provides a market update of client reporting from both a business and technology perspective, focusing on European developments in the past 18-24 months. The report summarizes the similarities and differences between North American and European markets as they relate to client reporting.

The report identifies major client reporting tools vendors in the European market. Additionally, Celent provides a basic product description of these major vendors. The providers covered in this report are: Actuate, Advent, BI-SAM Technologies, Comarch, DST Technologies, Equipos, Expersoft Systems AG, Factbook, New Access, SS&C Technologies, Vermilion, VistaOne Solutions, and WealthTouch. The report concludes with Celent’s considerations of where the client reporting tools market is headed.

This 38-page report contains three figures and 14 tables.