Financial Firm Aligns Analytics With Customers
Interview with Isaac Sacolick, Global CIO of Greenwich Associates
Greenwich Associates’ Global CIO reveals how the financial advisory firm has expanded its offerings to include subscription-based analytical products and services.
Originally published at www.cioinsight.com on 8/10/2016
Greenwich Associates is the leading global provider of market intelligence and advisory services to the financial services industry. The company specializes in providing fact-based insights and practical recommendations to improve business results, and the insights and advice provided is based on the company’s business expertise and research that the team conducts with influential buyers of financial services. The buyers include fund managers, hedge funds, pension funds, endowments, large corporations, small and midsize businesses, and consumers.
Isaac Sacolick joined the company as Global CIO in January 2015 to lead Greenwich Associates’ Business Transformation Initiative, develop its data technology capabilities and to establish its product management practices. To accomplish this, the Digital Business Group (the rebranded IT department) rolled out business intelligence tools, a content management system, new market research tools and upgraded CRM and sales management capabilities. CIO Insight contributor Peter High discusses with Sacolick some of the nuts and bolts that were required to make the initiative ready for action.
Peter High: Part of your focus has been on developing subscription-based revenue for your firm. Please describe the service and the value it has derived.
Issac Sacolick: Greenwich’s core business has historically been delivering consulting, advisory services and market research to banking executives. Much of the insight delivered to clients has been through proprietary data that we source on service quality, market share and other benchmarks as well as research on topics including customer experience, payments, fraud, e-trading, blockchain, and other technology innovations in financial services.
Greenwich is extending its consulting practices to include subscription-based analytical products and services. In some cases, this includes tools that provide customers access to the underlying data visualizations and benchmarks. Using these tools, clients can perform their own analysis on how their products are performing, determine what accounts are at risk, research new opportunities, or develop strategic plans to grow market share. We are also integrating with our customers’ analytical tools, data warehouses, CRM systems, and research tools to help enable the use of our own analytics and research in their workflows.
Peter High: Can you describe how you partner with Greenwich Associates’ Chief Data Officer and CEO to establish the firm’s product strategy?
Issac Sacolick: The three of us along with our SVP of Product Management form a steering meeting that sets strategy, develops plans on transforming existing product offerings, reviews business plans for new investments, and considers partnership opportunities. We bring different knowledge, skills and experiences to the table and have different roles working the details of our product strategy. For example, our CDO may propose a repackaging of our data into a workflow that matches customer needs. Our SVP of Product will then test the concept with customers, and I will review the technology as well as sourcing requirements, while ensuring the product planning is executed efficiently. When we have concepts that resonate in the market, our CEO will consider how we communicate internally and align business leaders to revenue targets or operational changes.
As a team, we’re all focused on developing product pipelines, transforming how we sell, and growing, our analytical capabilities aligned with customer needs.
Peter High: Please describe JavelinStrategy.com and Market Structure and how your team has worked to get these off the ground.
Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. His latest book is Implementing World Class IT Strategy. He is also the author of World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs. Peter moderates the Forum on World Class IT podcast series. He speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.
