Version 6.0 seeks to improve usability, increase functionality integration. NorthStar Systems International (NSI) is out with a new software release. The front-office wealth-management technology maker's NorthStar 6.0 is intended to make the advisor desktop a hub that aligns the individual advisor's responsibilities and preferences through intuitive social-network and Google -like "usability paradigms."

The search engine Google and social-networking websites like Facebook have found favor with users for their visual simplicity, high functionality and ease of use over old-style, choice-heavy interfaces.

Sticky

"Our goal with this release was to solidify user adoption, making NorthStar a must-have application for the advisor, and [making] the advisor in turn indispensable to their clients," says NSI's president Bob Skea. "In our testing with beta users, the term we were hearing in the feedback was 'sticky'-- which is right where we want to be: for advisors to use NorthStar as the central point of communication and interaction with their clients."

In addition to the usability improvements, NorthStar 6.0 helps advisors initiate client interaction through integrated workflows for generating proposals, providing investment policy updates, and consolidating client reports, according to NSI.

By integrating financial planning, plan implementation and workflow monitoring, NorthStar 6.0 also facilitates a a broadly applicable client-service model, says NSI's head of product management and engineering Juergen Dittgen. "The significant technology enhancements surrounding the user experience makes NorthStar 6.0 a platform that can be leveraged across a broad spectrum of users ranging from large and small banks, broker-dealers, asset managers, RIA-servicing firms, [turnkey asset-management providers] and related service providers," he adds.

San Francisco-based front-office technology maker NorthStar has been in business since 2001. -FWR

Purchase reproduction rights to this article