April 5, 2013
Cutter Associates, LLC, the leading provider of operations and technology expertise to the investment management industry, has announced that Cindy Shields, CFA, is leading a new Client Facing Consulting Practice for the company. For more than 24 years, Ms Shields has helped investment management firms with their client facing activities, including client reporting and mobile technologies.
Ms. Shields says, “Clients are increasing their demands on investment management firms. They want clearer reports, delivered faster, and they want the investment manager’s Web portal to be easier to navigate. They want to access more highly sophisticated data, such as performance attribution and risk data. And they want more value-added engagement, and better inquiry management from their client service representatives.” A recent CutterResearch report showed that 60% of CutterResearch consortia members are planning to increase spending on client services by at least 20%. “Investment managers are already spending these dollars just to keep pace with these new client demands. If they spend that money wisely, they can really differentiate themselves to attract and retain new customers.”
Shields says, “I’m excited about leading this new practice, because Cutter’s clients have been clamoring for help with client-facing issues for some time, and the new practice will leverage data gleaned from all of Cutter’s previous work with client-facing issues,” including research on client reporting and client-facing strategies, consulting projects for designing client reports and on-boarding workflows; and benchmarking surveys on sales management and client management.
Some consulting firms in the investment management space have focused on helping customers with issues such as sales techniques and market evaluation. In contrast, Shields says, “The new practice will focus on the business aspects of sales and client servicing, helping our customers to create scalable, efficient processes that enhance the client and employee experience.”
This month and next month, Ms. Shields is delivering presentations on client-facing issues to members of the CutterResearch consortia at meetings in New York, Boston, and London.
About Cutter Associates, LLC
Cutter Associates, LLC provides truly independent investment process expertise for the investment management community. Through three interrelated services, Cutter Associates provides investment management firms the knowledge and tools to ensure that their business technologies and processes are competitive. CutterResearch offers member firms detailed, actionable research to reduce risk, lower costs and keep up-to-date on systems and operational processes. CutterBenchmarking provides bespoke reports measuring firms’ investment processes by capabilities, risk and effectiveness through comparisons based on tried and tested capability models. CutterConsulting partners with firms to evaluate, select, and implement systems and to develop leading technology and operational strategies. Cutter Associates is headquartered in Rockland, MA and has subsidiaries in Canada and the UK.