Below are all the sessions being offered over the three days between Monday, May 3 to Wednesday, May 5.  This registration will remain open through the 5th.  You may register for any one or all the sessions you like as there is an all-inclusive fee for access.  While you may select several sessions, we will provide you with calendar appointments for all the sessions in case you decide to join one you did not initially select. 
 
If you are an employee of a Member Firm (see list at www.thesmeforum.net), a Speaker, or a Guest, you should have received a discount code to use when checking out.  The non-discounted fee is $89 for any one or all the sessions.
 
Please note that the Monday evening Mix It Up! social being hosted by Huron Consulting has a separate registration link and closes on April 19.

Sessions


All times are Eastern Time Printable Schedule || Times, presenters and sessions are subject to change.

5/3/2021

10:00 AM
-to-
11:00 AM


   
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Insights on How We Are Forever Changed Through Business Innovation


Bill  Hortz

 

Best For: Exec Management; Sales Management; Marketing Management; Technology Leadership; Enablement; Open to All

Bill Hortz, Founder & Dean of The Institute for Innovation Development will discuss and illustrate how business innovation is changing the dynamics of how we work and interact with one another. He will be bringing in 2 member firms that are actively innovating the financial services industry through technology and business model innovation. Mark Spina, President & COO from FLX Distribution will discuss their work on restructuring the traditional investment products distribution ecosystem and Ian Martin, Chief Administrative Officer of Ultimus Fund Solutions will share the thinking behind their innovative technology strategy on their uSuite technology platform for their fund administration clients.


5/3/2021

11:30 AM
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12:30 PM


   
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Where are the Assets and Where are They Going?


Tim  Kresl

 

Best For: Marketing Management; Sales Management; Investment Product Management; Enablement Open to All


What are the key industry trends that we’re tracking, viewed through the lens of industry assets and flows? In this session, we’ll share unique data and insights from Broadridge’s unparalleled distribution dataset on AUM and flows by channel, product category, and strategy.


5/3/2021

1:00 PM
-to-
2:00 PM


   
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Journey to 360: Building the Business Case for an Integrated Client View


Brian  Donnelly

 

Best For: Marketing Leadership; Sales Leadership; Enablement Leadership Open to All

As MarTech stacks continue to grow in importance, so does their ultimate value: delivering a 360 view of the client. Yet getting alignment and sponsorship for these 360 view initiatives present their own challenges. How do we frame the value proposition in a way that avoids it sounding like “just another platform”? In this session we’ll explore the lessons learned on the journey.


5/3/2021

2:30 PM
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3:30 PM


   
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Distribution Enablement 2021 – The Shared Imperative for Sales and Marketing


Bill  Sheldon

 

Best For: Exec Management; Business Leaders; Enablement Open to All

Last year, distribution enablement changed overnight as the industry went virtual. A recent McKinsey study found that asset managers with the strongest digital and remote capabilities pre-Covid saw, on average, a 12% increase in gross sales in 2020, while their more traditional, field-centric counterparts saw a decline of 2%. Moving forward, MarketBridge has found the #1 enablement priority of market leaders is to better leverage their existing technology tools and data and analytics investments to drive the digital enablement of their go-to-market model. We believe this starts with the radical alignment of sales and marketing to create shared objectives around revenue growth, seller productivity and data-driven engagement. In this session, we will present our recent survey results as Financial Advisors navigate the post-COVID landscape, face new needs and expectations, and engage with Asset Management firms differently than before. We will connect these insights to strategic distribution imperatives that sales and marketing teams need to make in the coming year. In addition, we will share our Maturity Model for Distribution Enablement allowing you to benchmark your maturity level and identify potential gaps (from technology, messaging, content and channel alignment). 

Attend the session for: 

1. Insights from Financial Advisor on their expectations from Asset Management providers (based on 2021 survey results)
2. Our Maturity Model for Distribution Enablement
3. A Strategic approach to drive a superior advisor experience, improve seller productivity, and ultimately to gain competitive advantage in a challenging market environment.
 
 


5/3/2021

4:00 PM
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5:00 PM


   
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Are Externals Now Just Internals?


Steve  Richards

 

Best For: Internal Sales Desk Leadership; Field Sales Leadership; Enablement; Training and User Adoption Open to All

The pandemic has highlighted what was already beginning to surface before. Internal Sales personnel are amongst the most effective sales personnel. A combination of technology, information, and business processes are being combined to deliver improved results that hybrids and external field sales personnel should already be using as well. It’s become cliché to say your external sellers are now just internal sellers. But is it true? And will the end of the pandemic mean that field sales will return to their old status quo? In this fast moving session Steve will explore what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and what you need to do about it using a framework approach that is proving to be powerful.


5/3/2021

5:30 PM
-to-
7:30 PM


   
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Mix It Up! Time for a Change


Ed  Garry

 

Open to all SME Forum Members and Guests

Join Huron for some CRM insights and whole lot of fun at the SME Forum conference social. Register by April 19th to receive your custom drink kit to shake, stir and enjoy a cocktail during happy hour.
Bring your appetite for innovation and we will bring the cocktails and mixologist.
 


5/4/2021

10:00 AM
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11:00 AM


   
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No Travel? No Problem!


Dave  Kriz

 

Best For: Sales and Distribution Management; Sales Ops; Distribution Enablement; All levels of Reporting & Analytics; Training and User Adoption Open to All

The role and importance of the inside sales professional has changed exponentially over the last 12 months. Companies who drive more, higher quality engagements by following up with the right advisor, with the right message at the right time, will come out on top. Join us for a panel discussion with sales managers from three financial firms to hear how they adapted to drive more engagement from the inside sales teams and externals turned internal.


5/4/2021

11:30 AM
-to-
12:30 PM


   
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Flipping the Switch in the Sales and Marketing Alignment


Elaine  Villas-Obusan

 

Best For: Marketing Leadership; Sales Leadership; Enablement Leadership Open to All

In today’s ever-changing world, ineffective communication and siloed teams will not cut it. Especially during these unprecedented times, the strength of the marketing and sales relationship and the efficacy with which they work together, can make a difference in reaching business objectives and lost opportunities. 
Join us as we discuss creating and maintaining marketing and sales alignment, how the use of technology to streamline, automate and amplify; relationship-building as a strong foundation for success and the future state of the post-pandemic sales and marketing relationship. 
 


5/4/2021

1:00 PM
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2:00 PM


   
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Will it Stick?


Scot  Hawthorne

 

Best For: Training and User Adoption; Product Managers; Sales Leadership; Marketing Leadership Open to All

Over the past year, behaviors toward and expectations of technology have changed. In many cases, the consumerization of workplace technology has advanced significantly. Has the pandemic experience driven improved user adoption of workplace tools? Have we reached a tipping point? Join us as we explore new and perhaps not so new techniques that have been used to help onboard and drive learning and adoption of tools for the sales organization.


5/4/2021

2:30 PM
-to-
3:30 PM


   
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Institutional Survey


Loren  Fox

 

Best For: Institutional Management; Sales Management; Marketing Management; Technology Leadership; Enablement Open to All


The SME Forum and Ignites Research have partnered numerous times over the years on surveys of the member companies to inform our collective intelligence and spark meaningful discussions. This is the latest such survey: it aims to better understand efforts at using data-driven approaches to sales and marketing on the Institutional side of the asset management business, with some comparisons to the Retail (or advisor-sold) side of the business. Much of this survey updates and continues the SME Forum/Ignites Research done in 2017 on the same subject.


5/4/2021

4:00 PM
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5:00 PM


   
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Leveraging ETF Data to Inform Sales & Marketing Strategy


Beverly  Dube

 

Best For: Data Managers; Reporting & Analytics; Product Management; Sales Management; Marketing Management; Technology Leadership; Enablement Open to All

ETFs continue to gain in popularity as a passive, low-cost, high-performance investment vehicle. While being traded on the secondary market delivers accessibility to investors, it can result in loss of transparency with distribution data that is available with other products. In a climate where data is so important to your strategy, guess work is not acceptable. Learn from your peers on challenges and opportunities with using ETF data to inform their sales, marketing, and client service efforts.


5/5/2021

10:00 AM
-to-
11:00 AM


   
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How the Pandemic Prioritized Collaboration, and Defined 4U's Role in Distribution.


Denise  Wypiszenski

 

Best For: Marketing Management; Sales Management; Investment Product Management; Enablement Open to All
 
As the financial services industry adapted to meet the virtual-demands introduced by the pandemic, a sea change occurred where predominantly sales-driven organizations now had to rely more on their marketing efforts. Luckily, the 4U Platform had anticipated this. With 200 clients and growing since its launch in the summer of 2020, 4U Platform's many-to-many financial ecosystem has transformed multiple partner work streams into an innovative, real-time, online management platform that streamlines the marketing review processes of important content and how investment companies engage with advisors. The result? A direct connection between partners, efficient marketing reviews, and improved delivery of content to advisors with the ability to measure engagement. Join Co-CEO's Denise Wypiszenski and Arin Epstein as they share 4U's vision for the future, the importance of collaboration, and how these fintech efficiencies are transforming the industry. 


5/5/2021

11:30 AM
-to-
12:30 PM


   
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Effective Integration of CRM into Email


Gal  Steinberg

 

Best For: Sales and Distribution Management; Sales Ops; Distribution Enablement; All levels of Reporting & Analytics; Training and User Adoption Open to All

While many firms have some level of integration of their CRM systems into the Email platforms, deep integration that drives significant user adoption has eluded most. Join Gal Steinberg has he shares success stories of how RevenueGrid has successfully helped firms dramatically improve the user experience of their CRM systems within the Email platforms where these same users are spending most of their time and attention by default. Even Salesforce.com has turned to RevenueGrid to help their clients achieve the levels of user satisfaction from their Email integrations that they can only dream of. 


5/5/2021

1:00 PM
-to-
2:00 PM


   
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To Fire or Not to Fire: How to Decide if Your Current Sales Enablement Technology is Right for You


Andy  Ziegler

 

Best For: Technology Leadership; Enablement Open to All

You have gotten to the point where you have become frustrated with your current vendor. You are not getting what you need from them, and your implementation has not delivered what was promised. Is it time to fire them, or would that be a big mistake? Investing in any major technology solution requires substantial collaboration across your organization and with the vendor to maximize its effectiveness. Many asset management firms never fully optimize their technology implementations, which comes with hidden costs. These implementations stall and fail for a variety of reasons, such as project fatigue, poor feature utilization, and poor adoption by your end-users.


5/5/2021

2:30 PM
-to-
3:30 PM


   
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Digital Acceleration 2021: How the Pandemic Lit Up the Connected Experience 


Nathan   Stevenson

 

Best For: Exec Management; Sales Management; Marketing Management; Technology Leadership; Enablement Open to All

Moving to an all virtual client engagement model during the pandemic has narrowed the gap between how marketing, sales and technology rely on data to interact with clients. Previously sales relied on face to face meetings as a differentiator, when that went away, it forced them to take a look at digital tools that shared a similar backbone to marketing. This shift to digital accelerated the process of extending more digital connections with clients, and thereby gathering more data.  Now that sales teams are more comfortable with digital engagement, the door has opened to the “Connected Experience”.  In this fireside chat with Craig Lieb, Director CRM and Distribution Enablement at Invesco and Nathan Stevenson, CEO of ForwardLane, we will explore what the Connected Experience is, the value it brings to sales and marketing teams and how it delivers a superior personalized, client experience.
 


5/5/2021

4:00 PM
-to-
5:00 PM


   
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Emerging Digital Distribution: Early Results


Chris  McIntyre

 

Best For: Marketing Management; Sales Management; Investment Product Management; Enablement Open to All

Recent market conditions have accelerated moves to embrace digital distribution more readily. In a recent BCG survey, US Asset Management Distribution Leaders said they plan to double both the number of clients and sales using primarily digital capabilities- from 25% on average to 50%, some as high as 75%. For the majority of those distribution leaders, improving digital distribution capabilities is now a ‘top of house priority’. Borrowing from more advanced industries like media, technology and consumer goods, BCG has also been working with Asset Management clients using advanced data and analytics with high ROI results. For example, predicting redemptions with 90% accuracy and increasing internal teams gross sales volume by more than 40%. NextGen Digital Distribution is real, it's achievable and it’s more timely than ever. Join us to learn more about their journeys, how they are navigating these tectonic changes and what their early results are heralding for the future of the industry.


Sponsors




In addition to member participants from a broad spectrum of Retail and Institutional Asset Management firms, a curated selection of a few Vendor Partners recommended by members actively participate in the community.   These Vendor Partners are invited because of their deep understanding and dedication to this space in the financial services industry and in particular to Sales, Marketing, Client Servicing and the tools, technologies, and practices that enable them. 




Broadridge, a global Fintech leader with $4.5 billion in revenue, provides communications, technology, data and intelligence. We help drive business transformation with solutions for enriching client engagement, navigating risk, optimizing efficiency and generating revenue growth. Our integrated, front-to-back solutions translate data into actionable insights and streamline the investment lifecycle. Touching 90 percent of the world’s mutual fund and ETF flows, we are uniquely positioned to help asset managers get ahead of today’s challenges and capitalize on what’s next.




EXL is a 20-year old, NASDAQ-listed, analytics and operations management firm with 43K+ employees supporting 850+ clients across 60 geographies. We serve 8 of top 10 US banks, 3 of top 5 UK banks, 3 of top 4 payment networks, 8 of top 10 global insurers, 6 of top 10 US payers, and some of the leading US FinTech firms and global retailers.

EXL Data and EXL Analytics are two of our key divisions, offering state-of-art solutions and end-to-end capabilities in enterprise data management, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation. Our focused approach to data science and data management helps our clients minimize risk, boost operational efficiency, simplify supply chains, and identify new channels for growth and profitability.

We bring deep experience in asset management space, having worked from very large to boutique asset managers. Our offerings include enhancing distribution effectiveness, automating investment operations, building master data management platforms, and scaling up digital marketing efforts. We have demonstrated experience and impact in providing solutions on data strategy, infrastructure, enterprise data management, business intelligence, and predictive modeling products and services across all major business functions.




ForwardLane is an applied artificial intelligence company that accelerates digital advisory and distribution in wealth management, asset management and commercial banking.

We do this by synthesizing vast quantities of collective firm intelligence and market data, dramatically accelerating the productivity of financial services professionals.




Serving 5,000+ wholesalers in the asset management industry from firms with over $7.6 trillion in total market capitalization, Hey DAN (formerly Dial-A-Note) is the premiere voice to CRM solution.  Salespeople simply dictate and Hey DAN deposits the information directly into your CRM. Drop-down menus, check boxes and other unique fields are quickly filled out, without the salesperson’s help. Hey DAN is the first voice to CRM solution that combines technology and intelligence, ensuring meeting note entry is fast, accurate, and complete.

Hey DAN is also the only voice to CRM solution that passes all security requirements within the asset management industry.
Beyond CRM entry, Hey DAN has built a sterling reputation for low-cost, high quality data management solutions.  From expense entry to data scrubbing, list building and data mining, Hey DAN does the work behind the scenes so your sales team and support staff can work on high value tasks resulting in a phenomenal ROI.

Hey DAN was founded in 2006 specifically to support the asset management industry.  It has since launched its own nonprofit foundation helping deliver relief to the poorest of the poor around the globe.  To learn more visit http://www.feathersproject.org/




AKA Enterprise Solutions is an HSO company, a global systems integrator and Gold Microsoft Partner focused on helping our customers realize transformative results. As the hub of HSO operations in North America, we are part of a global powerhouse with more than 1,200 professionals, recognized by Microsoft for the highest customer satisfaction rating of ALL Dynamics Partners worldwide and as their 2020 Partner of the Year for Modernizing Finance (Finance & Operations/ERP). HSO specializes in implementing, integrating, optimizing, and maintaining ERP, CRM, and other key business applications based on the Microsoft platform—Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Azure, and Cloud Services.
 
Our Financial Services team—each with decades of experience—has worked closely with more than 125 clients in asset management, wealth management, hedge funds, private equity, insurance, and more to digitally transform their businesses. Every solution we deliver is designed to help our customers realize their vision by breaking down barriers and delivering fast time to value in a fast-moving world. Looking for real results? Let’s talk..




Huron is a global professional services firm committed to achieving sustainable results in partnership with its clients. The company brings depth of expertise in strategy, technology, operations, advisory services and analytics to drive lasting and measurable results. Through focus, passion and collaboration, Huron provides guidance to support organizations as they contend with the change transforming their industries and businesses.  Our full service, strategy through execution approach allows our customers to take advantage of collaborative services and comprehensive offerings include organizational improvements and software consulting.  Huron is a Gold level partner of the Salesforce.com partner network.  Huron helps clients in the financial services industries to connect to their customers in entirely new ways by developing solutions that extend Salesforce’s value enterprise-wide. Our deep industry, business process, and technology expertise ensures successful Salesforce implementations that drive real business value.




ISS Market Intelligence (MI), a division of Institutional Shareholder Services, provides critical data, insight, and workflow solutions to global asset managers, insurance companies and distributors. Through its combination of proprietary integrated datasets, in-depth global research and trusted executive engagement, ISS MI delivers solutions that drive strategy and data-driven decision making across a wide range of financial products.
 
ISS MI includes the industry-leading data platforms BrightScope, Financial Clarity, Flowspring, Local Market Share, Mortgage Clarity and Simfund, as well as an extensive set of global research and analytic services including 529 & ABLE Solutions, Investor Economics, Market Metrics and Plan For Life.
 




Meritus focuses on large, enterprise-sized, complex engagements with strategic customers in Financial Services, Healthcare, and Manufacturing.  Co-Founders, Barney Holmes and Bill Zarbock have more than 40 combined years of CRM and business process experience.  We were Infor CRM Partner of the year in 2016, 2017 and 2020 and are a top-tier Creatio partner (formerly bpm’online). 
 
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Bedminster, New Jersey, Meritus has built a reputation for time-to-value delivery and high levels of customer satisfaction.  End users are at the heart of our delivery and service processes.
 
We have the largest and most tenured team of certified Infor and Creatio employees, hire skilled Software Engineers then train them on supported CRM product suites and our unique service methodologies.  Each consultant is degreed with at least five years of applicable business experience.   

For large customers, consultant teams cross-train to learn their implementations, organizational and business processes. Our focused service offerings include; Customer Relationship Management (Infor CRM and Creatio), Mobile Solutions, Business Process Management and Workflow Automation, Service Integration, Big Data/Data-Driven processes, Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence

Meritus blends elements from Agile and Waterfall methodologies. We have found that this approach lowers overall delivery costs, reduces future rework and provides insight into end-state delivery budgets as Sprints take into consideration broader views of workflows and future anticipated integrations.  Our highly experienced analysts’ partner with you to understand and utilize the most appropriate process to meet your needs.




Olmstead is a leading specialized data centric consulting firm, with exclusive focus on being the go-to consultancy for Asset Manager operational transformation. Olmstead provides consulting expertise to help asset managers plan for, select, and implement solutions, including sales and marketing enablement, client reporting and communications, CRM, distribution & customer intelligence and digital/web projects, across the client lifecycle. Our Operations, Technology, and Data experts, along with proven methodologies and leading-edge tools help inform our clients to make better decisions and lower project risk.




Revenue Grid offers the most secure and customizable Integration of Salesforce and Outlook/Gmail on the market, designed specifically for the needs of the Financial enterprises.

For over 15 years, Revenue Grid has been leading the market of data integration, where we have earned global recognition from Gartner and Forrester as well as from Fortune 500 companies.
Revenue Grid is also the first player in the sales tech arena to introduce Guided Selling that provides better visibility into the pipeline, more controllability over the sales process, and deal guidance for everyone on the sales team.

With Revenue Grid, Enterprises can:

  •  
  • Ensure complete data security as Revenue Grid does not store your customers’ PII data and offers on-prem or private cloud deployment
  • Auto-capture data to Salesforce
  • Avoid conflicting scheduling with Lightning scheduler adapter
  • Schedule easier using availability sharing and clickable timeslots
  • Access and edit complete Salesforce data directly from Inbox
  • Customize the integration according to your specific use cases and needs
 




SalesFocus Solutions helps asset management firms overcome challenges related to growing and retaining AUM.   The MARS platform provides the tools to significantly improve data access, distribution, analysis, visualizations and reporting throughout the firm.  SalesFocus Solutions is the asset management industry’s all-in-one sales and marketing solution for actionable intelligence.  They support a diverse, global client base of leading and boutique asset management firms totaling more than $3 trillion in assets under management.




We help asset managers use data to connect investment products to the clients who will benefit from them most. SalesPage solutions function within each client's data architecture, providing data management, sales operations, and reporting-all while integrating with their CRM, BI platforms, and other systems. The SalesPage family of products includes SalesPage Enterprise distribution data platform solutions, SalesStation outsourced data management, Advisor Atlas team data, LumaSuite data service, and Clarity Compliance for 22c-2. SalesPage's total value combines our industry-specific solutions, a staff with deep industry knowledge, and a close-knit client community who help guide our product development.




SS&C is a global provider of services and software for the financial services and healthcare industries. Some 18,000 financial services and healthcare organizations, from the world's largest companies to small and mid-market firms, rely on SS&C for expertise, scale and technology.
 
SS&C Distribution Solutions
SS&C’s clients include most of the Asset Management firms both in the US and Global marketplace. We leverage this broad experience to help clients optimize their sales data management and data intelligence capabilities.
 
Data Management: SalesConnect

  • Core aggregation, normalization & governance capabilities that ensure high-quality data with industry-leading transparency & alignment
  • Powered by SS&C’s decades-long expertise as an Investor & distributor recordkeeping leader
  • Servicing & curating data across intermediary, retirement & model data models
 
Data Intelligence: WalletShare
  • Powerful analytics-focused product suite that partners with Asset Manager’s internal teams
  • Driven by a combination of data governance & science capabilities and enhanced by a market-leading consortium