Tag Archives: Amazon

Qapital raises $30 million: Flash briefing for April 20, 2018

Posted on April 20, 2018 by in Flash Briefing, Technology

Qapital Secures $30M in New Financing via PRNewswire

Create personal Alexa skills in minutes via Amazon

Win gear to boost your content creation via YouTube

Welcome to a new FPPad fintech briefing, Here are the top fintech stories you need to know today.

Qapital Raises $30 Million

The savings and goal-setting app Qapital announced it raised $30 million dollars in new capital this week, bringing its total fundraising to just over $47 million, according to data from Crunchbase. Qapital launched in the US in 2015 and helps users automate their savings using rules like automatic transaction round-ups, forced savings when shopping at specific stores, perhaps for your frequent coffee splurges, and also integrates with If This Then That to trigger savings for almost any event you can think of.

While its unfortunate that Qapital does not pay interest on savings held in customer accounts, the app does encourage its users to refer their friends to Qapital by paying a $5 referral fee for each new sign up.

Amazon Publishes Skill Blueprints for Alexa Skills

Do you want to try your hand at making personal skills for Amazon Alexa, but don’t know how? This week, Amazon released a new feature called Skill Blueprints, which allows Amazon Echo owners to choose from twenty pre-built skill templates to customize your own voice experience. Select from Blueprints like frequently asked questions for your houseguests, custom flash card quizzes, adventure stories for your kids, and more. The Skill Blueprints are a quick and easy way Echo owners can get more utility out of the voice command devices, which I believe is the next frontier in the client experience between financial advisers and their clients.

Win Gear for Video and Podcast Production

And finally, would you like to win some free gear to boost the production quality of your videos and podcasts? Then head over to the FPPad YouTube channel to see our videos from the 2018 NAB Show, where I’m giving away a Joby GripTight Action Kit for your mobile phone, a Grip Gear Movie Maker Kit, and a free one-year subscription to the Soundstripe music licensing service.

All you have to do is give each video a thumbs up, subscribe to the FPPad YouTube channel, and leave a comment on each video to be eligible to win.

Head over to fppad.com/flashbriefing to find the links to my videos from the NAB Show as well as the other links to today’s top stories.

I’m Bill Winterberg, and those are your fintech headlines for today from FPPad.com. Check back in with me later for more fintech news.

Enable the FPPad Fintech Update skill on your Amazon Echo device

Posted on December 26, 2017 by in Podcast

Enable the FPPad Fintech Update skill on your Amazon Echo device

Enable the FPPad Fintech Update skill on your Amazon Echo device

Did you receive an Amazon Echo device for Christmas? Then you need to install the new FPPad Fintech Update skill!

Simply speak the command, “Alexa, enable FPPad” to your Echo and confirm that you want to enable the FPPad Fintech Update.

If you’re using your Amazon Alexa app, simply visit fppad.com/alexa to follow the prompts, or click the enable button below:

Enable FPPad Fintech Update

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 29

Posted on August 29, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Google ups the ante among office mobile app providers. Will the enhancements be enough for you to leave Office 365? Dropbox and Amazon want your cloud file storage business. Find out who has the features and pricing that are right for your firm. And, creating time-lapse videos just became a whole lot easier. Learn how you can use a new iPhone app for an interesting twist on your website’s contact page.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now!

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by the 2014 T3 Enterprise Conference, exclusively designed for the technology needs of broker-dealers and financial enterprises.

T3EClogo600

If you’re looking for the best place to monitor trends in broker-dealer technology, you need to come to Atlanta November 11th through 13th. Reserve your spot today by visiting t3enterpriseconference.com

Here are this week’s stories of interest: Google bolsters iOS productivity suite with Slides, updates to Docs and Sheets from Apple Insider

[This week’s top story comes from Google, as the Internet search giant released a new app for iOS devices called Slides. Originally contained inside the Google Drive app, Slides is now the latest stand-alone app from Google to round out its mobile office productivity suite, which includes the previously-released Google Docs and Google Sheets apps.

This now rounds out Google’s mobile office toolkit, matching, at least in basic functionality, the Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps from Apple, and the Office 365 apps of Word, Excel and PowerPoint most advisors know, and may or may not love.

The apps are free to use if you have a Google account and are included in Google Apps for Business subscriptions, priced at $50 per year per user. So if you don’t need any of the complex features in the Microsoft Office apps, the Google office apps may be everything you need to manage your business on the go at an affordable price.] Google on Monday released presentation app Slides alongside updates to existing iOS apps Docs and Sheets, offering a free Web-connected alternative to similar productivity suites from Microsoft and Apple.

Introducing a more powerful Dropbox Pro from Dropbox, Amazon Opens Up Its Enterprise Cloud Storage Service Zocalo To All from Techcrunch, and Cloud Storage Showdown: Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud and More Compared from Gizmodo

[Next up is news on two cloud file storage services, Dropbox and Amazon Zocalo. First up is Dropbox, which announced this week that the company is upgrading it’s Pro plan to offer better security controls when sharing files and folders with others. Also new is an improved remote wipe feature. Before this update, any files synchronized to a device that later became unlinked from a Dropbox account would still stay on the device. Now with the updated remote wipe feature, that’s no longer the case.

And the storage space of the Dropbox Pro plan was increased to one terabyte with pricing remaining at $9.99 per month.

But a new service competing directly against Dropbox Pro users is Amazon’s Zocalo, which is now available for the general public after being in a limited preview for a few months. Designed with enterprise users in mind, Zocalo can integrate with Microsoft’s Active Directory services for user permissions and administration. Pricing for Zocalo starts at $5 per month per user for 200 gigabytes of data, and with all these options now for cloud file storage, it’s hard even for me to keep everything straight. But if you head over to fppad.com/138, I’ve linked to a handy chart from Gizmodo with the details of many of the top cloud file storage providers.] We first launched Dropbox to help you simplify your life. Since then, you’ve told us that Dropbox does more than just that — it enables anyone with an idea, project, or passion to create amazing things.

Hyperlapse: Instagram’s First Standalone App You’ll Actually Want to Use from Mashable

Download Hyperlapse from Instagram from iTunes

[And finally, my last story will give you something to do to add some creativity to your weekend. Earlier this week, Instagram released a new app for iOS called Hyperlapse. The Hyperlapse app allows you to record several minutes of video on your iPhone and condense down to a quick time-lapse video with some added video stabilization. So why is this relevant to you as an advisor?

Here’s one idea on how you can use the Hyperlapse app in your business. The next time you drive to your office, mount your phone to your dashboard and record the route you take to get there. The hold your phone while you walk into your building and go to your office, and then create a Hyperlapse video from that footage. Post that Hyperlapse video next to your address on your website’s contact page. That way, anyone who is going to visit your office for the very first time can actually see where they should park and what door to enter, all in cool Hyperlapse video.] Instagram’s latest standalone, Hyperlapse, is simple, elegant and actually really useful. The app, which rolled out Tuesday, allows users to quickly and easily create on-the-go time-lapse videos— something that hasn’t been easily and effectively accomplished on mobile, until now.

Here are stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:

The Freewheeling Life of the Virtual Advisor from ThinkAdvisor

Financial planner Alan Moore is at the forefront of a trend that is extending the reach of traditional advisors onto digital platforms.

Every Time You Buy Something, This App Invests a Few Pennies on Wall Street from WIRED

Now, a startup called Acorns wants to solve these problems with a new smartphone app, hoping it can help millennials outgrow the piggy bank. 

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 29, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 29, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 11

Posted on July 11, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, Junxure Cloud has officially arrived after several years of delays. Will the features in version one make it worth the wait? Wealth Access continues its growth as a personal financial dashboard for high net worth clients. Does it have what it takes to get advisors to stop using Mint.com? And consulting firm QuonWarrene announces a new technology audit service. Find out how their service can help move your firm’s technology in the right direction.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by ITEGRIA, providers of complete outsourced technology support, security, infrastructure and IT solutions exclusively for RIAs.

itegria - providing a 360-degree, comprehensive approach to financial advisor IT needs

To learn how you can keep your data safe from attackers, download a free copy of their latest white paper on social engineering attacks by visiting fppad.com/itegria.

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

Junxure Announces Wide Release of Junxure Cloud CRM for Financial Advisors from PRNewswire

[This week’s top story covers two CRM providers in financial services. First up is Junxure, which issued a press release announcing the general release of its long-awaited Junxure Cloud product after what seems like an eternity in development.

The Junxure Desktop product has always been a top contender among CRMs for advisors, but as firms became more comfortable with software in the cloud, Junxure lacked a completely web-based version of its CRM. With Junxure Cloud, the company finally has an answer.] Junxure CRM, an industry-leading practice improvement firm for financial advisors that integrates CRM technology, consulting, and training, today announced the general release of Junxure Cloud™, its comprehensive, cloud-based CRM/office management solution for financial advisors.

ProTracker pulls cloud-based CRM back into beta from InvestmentNews

[But another CRM provider with a web-based solution has actually pulled its software out of general release and put it back into beta testing.

The CRM is ProTracker Cloud, which is built on top of open-source software called SugarCRM. Warren Mackensen, president of ProTracker Software, said he suspended product sales earlier this year, citing dissatisfaction with its look and feel and feedback from customers. Mackenson did not offer insight as to when ProTracker Cloud will once again be available for purchase, but as soon as I know, I’ll be sure to share the update with you.] Eight months after announcing the launch of a cloud-based customer relationship management product for advisers, ProTracker Software Inc. has stopped selling its ProTracker Cloud CRM while the company fixes some kinks in the product.

Wealth Access Experiencing Rapid Growth and Momentum in Wealth Management Industry from PRWeb

[Next is an update from Wealth Access, a high net worth personal financial management platform I originally covered for Morningstar Advisor back in September 2012. The company has come a long way in two years, as it now aggregates $7 billion in assets and has a grown from a team of two people to over 17 today.

Wealth Access works a lot like Mint.com and eMoney Advisor, but caters to high net worth clients that typically own real estate, hard assets, and collectibles that can’t be updated with simple account aggregation.

In addition, clients have granular control over who can see their account information. For example, CPAs might be able to view just the accounts that generate taxable income, while wealth managers have permission to see all of the client’s investable assets. So if you want to offer something like Mint.com to your clients, but with more sophisticated account management, then Wealth Access may be worth exploring for your business.] Wealth Access, an innovative high net worth personal financial management platform for advisors, announced today several milestones that represent fast growth and adoption of its industry leading technology. In only its third year, Wealth Access now reports on $7 billion, adding an additional $600 million per month, up from $250 million per month in 2013.

QuonWarrene Announces Spot-Audit Service from QuonWarrene.com

[And finally, many of you come away with great technology ideas from my Bits and Bytes broadcasts, but you’re still looking for some guidance on where you should focus your efforts. In addition to the consulting services I provide to advisors, there’s a new service available from Quon Warrene, an advisor consulting firm, called the Spot Audit™.

The QuonWarrene Spot Audit is an efficient way to address the technology challenges you face in your business. Start by completing a questionnaire about your existing technology, then participate on a collaborative conference call, and then receive an assessment report score card with recommendations on what you should tackle first. So if I don’t have immediate availability for technology consulting, QuonWarrene now gives you another option to identify where you can make improvements in technology.] QuonWarrene today announced an expansion to its services tailored for financial advisors and institutions, introducing the Spot-Audit.

Here are the stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:

Amazon Zocalo from Amazon.com

Amazon Zocalo is a fully managed, secure enterprise storage and sharing service with strong administrative controls and feedback capabilities that improve user productivity. 

Pershing Announces the Next Generation of its Block Trading and Rebalancing Tool for Advisor-Directed Programs from MarketWatch.com

Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon company, today announced the next generation of its block trading and rebalancing tool—delivered through its technology platform NetX360®—which offers a series of new capabilities for advisors.

Be a robo-adviser, the human way from InvestmentNews

It’s not hard to see why robo-advisers are generating so much buzz: They purport to use powerful technology to deliver what they call tailored investment recommendations at a fraction of the cost of traditional investment managers. That’s a pretty compelling proposition, especially for newbie investors.

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 11, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for July 11, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 28

Posted on March 28, 2014 by in Bits & Bytes

On today’s broadcast, cybersecurity takes center stage at FINRA and the SEC, what you need to do to protect your business from attacks. Amazon launches its cloud desktop service to the public. Does this mark the end of plain old desktop in your business? And two growing providers form a new joint venture to take your portfolio management efficiency to the next level.

So get ready, FPPad Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes on YouTube)

Today’s episode is brought to you by Orion Advisor Services, the nation’s largest privately held portfolio accounting service bureau.

Orion Advisor Services

Providing full-service data reconciliation, advisory fee billing, Salesforce integration, mobile apps and more, Orion believes it’s time for you to enjoy your business again. Visit fppad.com/orion for more information.

Here are the links to this week’s top stories:

Top Cybersecurity Threats for BDs, Advisors from ThinkAdvisor, and

SEC Cybersecurity Roundtable Webcast from SEC.gov

[Leading off today’s broadcast is an update from FINRA and the SEC highlighting cybersecurity threats faced by advisors and broker-dealers. In a roundtable event held in Washington DC this week, regulators and industry representatives acknowledged that the number one cybersecurity threat to firms of all sizes is the unauthorized account takeover.

This happens when a hacker compromises an investor’s username and password credentials, or manages to take control of an investor’s email account. The hacker then proceeds to liquidate holdings and transfer money to outside accounts, or even poses as a client with a convincing story to get advisors to transfer funds to an outside account, a clever tactic known as spoofing.

Both FINRA and the SEC acknowledge they must play a role in this area, but neither provided details on what exactly that role should be, and if any advisor exams are to include cybersecurity audits, they are likely to start in the fall of 2014 at best.

Until then, here’s what I recommend you do: First, update your compliance manual with policies for what you do when faced with a cybersecurity attack.

Second, train everyone in your organization so they’re familiar with the common tactics from hackers, including phishing, spoofing, and reverse social engineering. And finally, invest in technology to boost your security, like activating multi-factor authentication, deploying firewalls, and even using phishing simulation software that I highlighted in episode number 115.] The top risks broker-dealers face in dealing with cybersecurity threats are operational risk, “insider” risks posed by rogue employees and hackers penetrating BD systems, Daniel Sibears of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said Wednesday at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s cybersecurity roundtable.

Amazon WorkSpaces, Amazon’s Cloud Desktop Service, Launches To Public Along With New Sync Client from TechCrunch, and

Amazon WorkSpaces from Amazon

[Next up is news from Amazon, as the company announced the general release of its virtual desktop solution to the public called WorkSpaces.

WorkSpaces is squarely aimed to take on other virtual desktop providers like Citrix, VMWare, and Microsoft, and with pricing ranging from $35 to $75 per month for each user, WorkSpaces is roughly half the price of the competition. If you’re looking to get rid of your aging server and move all of your core software to the cloud, Amazon WorkSpaces just became a very compelling option.

Plus, with the introduction of a new WorkSpace Sync application, you can backup and synchronize up to 10GB of documents between your WorkSpaces, the Amazon Simple Storage Service, and even your local desktop computer. This gives you a secure and reliable document storage alternative to consumer services like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive that you might be using today.] Amazon WorkSpaces, the company’s virtual desktop computing environment introduced last fall at the AWS re:Invent conference, is today available to the public.

Orion Advisor Services, LLC and Total Rebalance Expert (TRX) Form Joint Venture; Announce Technology Integration from PRNewswire.com

[And finally, two popular providers in portfolio management and rebalancing software, Orion Advisor Services and Total Rebalance Expert, announced a new joint venture this week called the “Total Technology Platform.”

The two companies first integrated their solutions back in October of 2012, enabling the import of account, transaction, and tax lot data from Orion directly into TRX with a single click.

But this latest venture goes beyond bidirectional integration, as users of Orion will now be able to access TRX directly from within the Orion platform. At the same time, both companies said they are committed to maintaining open-architecture platforms rather than hold advisors captive to one bundled solution.

Orion users can still take advantage of integrations with Blaze Portfolio, iRebal from TD Ameritrade Institutional, and Rebalance Express from RedBlack Software, and TRX users can continue to import data from Morningstar Office, Portfolio Center from Schwab Performance Technologies®, Advent’s Black Diamond Performance Reporting and more.] Total Rebalance Expert (TRX) and Orion Advisor Services, LLC (Orion) announced today a joint venture between the two companies to provide a “Total Technology Platform” designed to simplify and streamline the portfolio management process.

Here are stories that didn’t make this week’s broadcast:

Box Unveils First Standalone Product And New API Pricing At Inaugural Dev Conference from TechCrunch

New Kitces Network to Target Planners for Gen X & Y from Financial Planning

Office 2 HD for iPad is now Citrix ShareFile QuickEdit, drops $7.99 price to become free via iTunes

 

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 28, 2014

Watch FPPad Bits and Bytes for March 28, 2014

FPPad Bits and Bytes for September 27

Posted on September 27, 2013 by in Bits & Bytes

On this week’s broadcast, one of the top portfolio management software providers tip-toes its way into the cloud, creating investment policy statements just got a whole lot easier, how a new app can create a real-time dossier about your clients, and more. So get ready, Bits and Bytes begins now.

(Watch on YouTube)

This week’s episode of Bits and Bytes is brought to you by Mimic Technologies, providers of complete outsourced technology support, security, infrastructure and IT solutions exclusively for RIAs.

Mimic Technologies

To learn how you can keep your data safe from attackers, download a free copy of their white paper on Data Privacy and Protection by visiting fppad.com/mimic.

Advent unveils Advent Direct™ — An Innovative Cloud Platform — At AdventConnect from Advent Software

[Leading off is an update from Advent Software, which recently celebrated its 30th year in business last week at the company’s AdventConnect conference in San Francisco. The highlight of Advent Connect is the expansion of Advent Direct™, a cloud-based platform which Mike Golaszewski, Black Diamond’s head of product development, says is an abstraction layer on top of the company’s core product offerings.

While Advent Axys will remain a desktop-based solution for the foreseeable future, it will not be completely isolated from the cloud due to the online and mobile access available through Advent Direct.

And while the news of Advent Direct seems hot off the presses, it’s not entirely new, as Advent has offered an app to iPad users since April of this year for mobile access to client portfolio information.

Advent also unveiled the Advent Direct™ Community, a private online forum that’s part customer service portal and part discussion board, no doubt inspired by collaboration options found on other social networks. Yes, the Advent Users Group on LinkedIn, I’m talking about you!

But the one big unknown regarding Advent Direct is pricing. It remains to be seen how much Advent users will need to pay to route their Axys data into Black Diamond to benefit from enhanced reports.] Advent Software, Inc., a leading provider of software and services for the global investment management industry, today commenced its annual AdventConnect conference taking place September 18 – 20, 2013 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.

A One-Click Roadmap for Your Clients from Riskalyze

[Next up is an update from a startup that deserves to be added to your technology radar. The company is called Riskalyze, based in Sacramento, California, which offers patented Risk Number technology in an attempt to quantify client risk tolerance and align it with suitable investment portfolios. This week, Riskalyze expanded its feature set by offering a single-click option to create an Investment Policy Statement.

Whether you believe in the validity of Investment Policy Statements or not (and Stark and Stark’s Tom Giachetti comes to mind), it still doesn’t get any easier than using a single click to generate an IPS document.

So if simplifying your client risk assessment process is important to you, you should learn more about Riskalyze’s offering.] Today, we’re excited to announce that Riskalyze now makes it possible to create this roadmap for your clients with a single click.

Surface Pro 2: hands-on with Microsoft’s new tablet powerhouse and Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX: Power, With A Helping Hand, both from The Verge

[Now I bet you’ve noticed changes in the air, meaning Fall has arrived, complete with shorter days, football on the weekends, and a deluge of new product announcements. So on the heels of Apple’s new iPhone 5S and 5C announcement two weeks ago, Microsoft announced updates to its floundering line of Surface tablets to compete with the market-dominating iPad. Not to be left out, Amazon also announced a refresh of it’s low-cost Kindle tablets, with a new HDX line of Android-powered tablets starting at just $229.

But the unexpected surprise from all the hardware announcements actually came in the form of a new feature on the Kindle HDX called Mayday. Mayday is an icon on the Kindle users can touch to get free technical support anytime they need it, complete with video conferencing and screen sharing.

While its definitely a cool feature for Kindle users, Mayday actually creates a slippery slope for you as an advisor, as I think it won’t be too long before your clients start to expect a similar easy, on-demand way to access you as their trusted financial advisor.

So if you’re not yet up to speed on using video chat services like Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts and more, now is the time to add these tools to your technology portfolio.]

Refresh – The Instant Dossier from Refresh

[Finally, updates to FPPad have been few and far between this month because of the amount of time I’ve been spending on phone calls and meetings. I’ve been speaking with dozens of people, and it’s unrealistic for me to think that I can keep all the details about each relationship straight in my head.

That’s why I’ve turned to a new app called Refresh, (full disclosure, they gave me a free T-shirt), but the app truly helps me keep all the details about my contacts organized in one place.

Refresh connects my contacts, calendar, and social media accounts to create a real-time dossier about the people I’m going to meet. Refresh automatically connect the dots of what my contacts are doing and sharing online so I don’t have to waste time gathering this intelligence on my own.

A beta version of the app is available for iPhone, but Android users will need to sign up to be notified when the app is released to the Google Play store.]

Watch Bits and Bytes for September 27, 2013

Watch Bits and Bytes for September 27, 2013