Please provide us with an introduction to the business in terms of who you are, when you were founded and what you do.
Since 1990, when Profile Software was founded, the focus has been on developing innovative systems for the investment management domain. Over the past 30 years, the company has developed its international presence, now active in 40 countries across 4 continents, its workforce, which now stands at 190 employees, and, of course, its product range. It has also focused on developing strong partnerships in order to holistically and competitively cover the needs of organisations in the financial services industry.
Nowadays, Profile has a wide range of solutions pertinent to the needs of different investment management and banking institutions that include wealth/asset/fund management, core and digital banking, loans management, collections, custody, treasury, risk management and family office.
For the wealth management domain, specifically, the company and its solutions have a long and established presence in the market, often receiving distinctions due to their technology and functionality. Axia is the next generation system in wealth management and the next evolution of IMSplus, Profile’s leading platform for the sector for more than two decades.
Profile is a dynamically growing software vendor that invests continuously in R&D, incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, machine learning and more into its platforms. Each of the firm’s solutions address the requirements of the financial services sector so that institutions can select the platform that is most suitable to their needs.
What can you tell us about the evolution of the firm over its history and what major milestones has it achieved over that time?
The firm has evolved to an international financial solutions provider with implementations across multiple markets, while its specialisation in wealth management platforms has been recognised by leading research and advisory firms internationally. As it has developed, the company has also launched a range of new products that add value to the operations of an investment firm ranging from solutions for mobile wealth management to a cloud-based, end-to-end investment management platform.
Some of the key milestones to point out include:
- 2001: Ranked as Europe’s fastest growing company
- 2002: Launched IMSplus
- 2003: Listed in ATHEX
- 2006: International presence commences with 6 international offices
- 2009: Launched FMS.next
- 2014: Launched Mobius wealth
- 2015: Launched Axia
- 2017: Login SA acquisition
- 2018: Launched Axia Robo Advisory
All the above demonstrate the firm’s continuous focus on delivering innovative platforms for the wealth management industry and solutions that ease the modern professionals’ daily routine, turning online tools and automation to regular practice.
Where is the firm now in terms of its size, client base, geographic focus, solution offering and the main market issues that are shaping the business?
Profile Software is now present in 40 countries delivering a range of financial services platforms to the needs of a diverse set of financial institutions. The firm has demonstrated an excellent financial standing with stock price rising year-on-year.
The firm’s range of solutions include:
- Axia – the advanced and flexible omni-channel, web-based solution to manage all aspects of the investment management operations, covering asset/fund/wealth management and robo advisory as well as custody and family office operations, delivering a competitive user experience.
- FMS.next – a specialised universal banking system including digital and core banking, financing, leasing, payments and marketplace lending.
- Acumennet – the comprehensive front-to-back office treasury platform, covering all financial instruments including very complex structures.
- RiskAvert – the complete, modern and efficient risk management, capital management and regulatory reporting platform for credit, market, operational and liquidity risk according to the international frameworks (Basel ΙΙΙ, IFRS9), supporting XBRL validation and conversion functions.
The main market requirements driving software evolution are automation, AI and customer satisfaction. In fact, these can usually be linked together. Further, the evolution of high-net worth investors becoming more tech savvy has led wealth managers to also evolve their services and their means of customer interaction with digitalization and the ability to offer instant communications.
In terms of the wealth management sector, how did the firm’s focus on this sector come about and what can you tell us about your evolution in serving this part of the financial services landscape?
The company started its journey by developing software for the wealth management industry. The platform found immediate success in the market, enabling process optimisation, while combining innovative characteristics with ease of use. To this day, the company stands by its commitment to delivering flexible systems.
In recent years, the company pioneered with the introduction of a mobile-first wealth management app, as well as its omni-channel, cloud-based investment management platform. It has also expanded the functionality of its solutions to meet specific industry needs. As a result, a uniquely designed solution offering has been developed that can easily support complex workflows through process automation.
Axia is a cloud-based, omni-channel platform supporting the front-to-back operations of wealth managers. The platform is continuously enhanced with industry-specific requirements that address current and future needs, to deliver a ready to use and flexible system. Some of Axia’s competitive characteristics include: modularity, flexibility, ready to use integration with other platforms, custodian bank and market data provider connectivity, a customisable dashboard with numerous widgets, drag and drop functionality, powerful and configurable reporting, automated workflows, robo advisory capabilities and comprehensive portfolio management tools with risk metrics.
The clients receive a flexible and easy to customise system that allows them to automate and perform their operations end-to-end in a secure environment.
Specifically in terms of the wealth management sector, what is the focus for your business, what are you hearing in the market, what topics do you think are of most relevance to wealth managers and what are you as business doing now to meet the needs of wealth managers?
Following the Covid-19 outbreak, it is important for wealth managers to focus on utilising and delivering remote and online tools for both managing portfolios as well as client reporting. The solutions we develop enable wealth managers and their clients to experience just that, which means that the digital transformation trend is natively supported in Axia. The solution can support all of the investment management industry’s digital requirements, while its open and modular architecture makes it easy to incorporate any future changes and market requirements.
In our product roadmap, there are tools utilising AI, chatbot and Virtual Reality. These tools will potentially be adopted from the industry to enhance managers’ decision-making process, automate workflows and expand user experience.
These are trends that will soon affect the wealth management domain and offer a new way of investment operations, promoting faster response times, quicker decision making and better forecasting, equipping wealth managers with powerful tools to better serve their clients.
