@Joe Moss I should have included Cybersecurity in that list as well as compliance/archiving tools. Thanks for sharing!

@Joe Moss thanks! For the account aggregation are you focused solely on their investment accounts or also interested in debt, checking/savings, and other non-brokerage accounts?

This is great since so many organizations use Zoom. Thanks for sharing. This makes me think I should give a shout-out to my favorite calendar and scheduling tool. I won't say it is the "best fit" for most advisory firms, but it works for me since I have more unique needs. As a consultant, I am typically added as a member in Active Directory to my clients' organizations, which means when scheduling, the tool I use needs to account for my company calendar(s), my client's calendars, and my personal calendars. Fantastical allows me to do just that and quickly switch between views (calendar sets) that show me my work, personal, clients, or any grouping of calendars I wish to see. When using their scheduling tool I can tell it what calendars it should reference to determine my availability. It's also a decent task manager. You probably won't find me giving this as a recommendation for advisors to use with their clients, but this may be a great tool to manage your personal life, family events, etc., alongside your work schedule. It doesn't offer branding, which is one of the main reasons I wouldn't suggest it for most business use cases. Still, it does have polls, direct scheduling links, and openings (see attachment) where you can configure different meeting lengths (customize Zoom, Teams, Phone, etc.). It will enable the other person to select the most appropriate and enable you to gather some information from them. Zapier integration is also available. Anyway, it's a cool tool I geek out over and might be helpful for some others here.

@Joe Moss @Marcella Toronto I think Airtable can be a great tool for this, but it won't have the functionality you would get from a proper research management platform, things like auto-tagging, email integration, etc. Not to say an advanced user couldn't build that out with some automation in Airtable or with a low-cost service like Make.com which is a less expensive (in most circumstances) and more user friendly Zapier. Depending on how you structure your research you could easily setup tables with different companies, managers, analysts, etc. and then add your research, meeting notes, fund summaries, attachments, etc. and tag the various entities. Plenty of other built-in tools to add forms which can be shared on the web to add new research. There are more advanced functions with automation that might be able to auto-tagging, can check if a record/entity already exists, and other features that will make your workflow smoother and keep your data clean. I think you can do most of what you want in there including building scorecards and views that present the data in a user friendly and visual way. If you go the self-build route or buying a product, I'd suggest you try the product (there is a free version that lets you do quite a bit, but you will end up wanting the paid version eventually), learn it a little, and build out some examples, and then engage with an Airtable consultant to help you design it, and implement some automation. You could 100% build this yourself and have something pretty good, but a consultant will take it to the next level. I'd be happy to piggyback on a call with Timothy or chat separately.

@Timothy Bickmore, I'm relatively new to Airtable, but if you built out some stuff already and wouldn't mind showing it to me or providing some tips, I'd love to chat sometime. I am happy to share a little about how I've been using Airtable and some things I'm exploring.

Hi there, what a fantastic question! I'm a FinTech consultant who helps firms identify and implement new tech and workflows, so I know how challenging it can be to keep up with the fast-paced changes in the industry. I'd love to share some tips I use with my clients to help them stay on top of their tech tools. First, I always emphasize that tech adoption is not a one-time event but a continuous process. You want to evolve with your tech, not just react to it. That means you need to have a system to monitor and evaluate the new features and functionality your vendors offer and how they can impact or improve your workflows and service model. Here's what I suggest you do: 1. Form a tech committee with some of the core team members involved in your tech implementations. This committee should meet periodically, depending on the frequency of your vendors' releases, to review the new features and functionality. 2. Use a process map, like the one that @Justin Bolmgren shared, to visualize your current workflows and data flow and identify any gaps or inefficiencies the new features can address. 3. Prioritize the features that align with your goals and add value to your firm, and decide how to implement them into your service model. You may need to adjust your processes, train your staff, or communicate with your clients about the changes. 4. Track and measure the outcomes of your tech adoption and solicit feedback from your team and clients. Based on the results and feedback, you may need to tweak or refine your implementation. By following these steps, you can create a proactive and systematic approach to tech adoption that will help you leverage the best features and functionality for your firm. Of course, you don't have to adopt every new feature that comes your way; some may not be relevant or useful for your needs. The key is to be selective and strategic and to align your tech with your vision and values. I hope this helps, and I'd love to hear your thoughts or questions on this topic. Feel free to contact me to chat more about tech adoption or anything FinTech-related. Cheers!

@Stephanie Reilly I second Airtable as a useful tool. I have a CRM and I use an API with 2-way sync that enables me to store data in Airtable and then enrich that data with various links/relationships, automation, input forms, etc. Using Airtable I can create different views, groupings, relationships, forms, etc. that let me see data how I wish to see it. I also use some products that integrate with Airtable to build out forms that can add data to Airtable that, in turn, sync with my CRM. For your use, this could be a client onboarding form or an "I'd like more information" submission. I agree with @Timothy Bickmore that you want to think through your usage and build the foundation correctly. I'll add that the good news is there is a free version, that is fairly robust and you can start there to play around and get familiar, and then start to think about how this could be leveraged to add value to your firm.