INVENT enables cloud transformation for wealth management with a custom industry toolkit

In December 2016, after a year of work integrating Finance Logix software that had been sold to Envestnet, Oleg Tishkevich came up with a framework to solve integration challenges in the wealth management industry. Presenting the business plan to investors and validating the concept with key software vendors at the T3 Advisor Conference in February 2017 showed that the idea was viable.

Tishkevich brought the business experience, as the former CEO of Finance Logix, and put this new idea in motion with the first enterprise customer in August 2017. Mike Perlov contributed technology expertise, honed at Nokia and as a Chief Information Security Expert for the Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Friends since the fourth grade, they were now teaming up to deliver cloud transformation for wealth management, a space Tishkevich knew well. Together they sketched out the essential technology solution on a napkin: moving financial advisors away from clunky, disjointed legacy systems and onto agile, integrated modern platforms.

Microsoft was on that napkin. Perlov had a personal connection with the Microsoft Azure product team, thanks to his work on Sochi 2014. Azure was a logical place to start since the cloud platform had the maturity and simplicity that would get INVENT off the ground.

Guiding fintech cloud adoption

The INVENT team intentionally began with consulting, because they wanted to understand the needs of the wealth management industry better. As consultants, it was easy for them to have conversations with clients while building new systems and incorporate those insights as they went. They became well acquainted with the digital challenges that financial advisors were facing.

Frustrating user experience topped the list, for both advisors and the people they serve. “There’s a lot of data reentry among multiple systems,” said Tishkevich, CEO of INVENT. “Individual professionals choose to use different systems, so the state of integration is not the best.” INVENT has taken an approach that facilitates robust integration, even building adapters for legacy tech like mainframes and proprietary applications.

Adaptability to change was a close second. “Every year there are new regulatory changes. You can’t just build a system and let it run, because the compliance rules change constantly,” Tishkevich explained. “INVENT has designed flexible systems that can be easily adjusted to client needs on the fly.”

At the same time that INVENT was engaged in custom consulting projects, the company was also building the core of its SaaS product and developing the features that would deliver the most value. Pivoting from service to product wasn’t easy, but INVENT had experienced staff who had done it before.

Working with Microsoft

“Everyone is realizing that your offering is only as good as your technology stack,” said Perlov, CISO of INVENT. The company has taken direction from Microsoft along the way, originally building its offering on Azure Service Fabric and then shifting to Azure Kubernetes Service. “We are a multicloud provider, so we have the experience to compare Microsoft to other big players in the industry. We love the simplicity and usability of Azure.”

As participants in the Microsoft for Startups program, INVENT has benefited from support with credits toward its cloud spend. “Microsoft for Startups helped us build some of the capabilities we have,” said Tishkevich. “The build is the toughest spend, so we really appreciate that.”

INVENT has already rolled out its toolkit for existing enterprise clients and inbound prospects with great success. The company has published its offering in Microsoft Azure Marketplace and is excited to serve even more clients through that partnership.

Building in security and privacy for a regulated industry

Security is extremely important in fintech, and INVENT has put Perlov in charge of development. “Everything is done from the ground up with security in mind,” Tishkevich said. “Sometimes it takes longer for us to get something done, but it’s built to the highest security standards.”

The same attention is paid to privacy and data governance. “We have adopted best practices and procedures as code within our framework, to enforce safeguards for sensitive information and make sure privacy laws are being followed,” said Tishkevich.

The industry has recognized INVENT’s quality and innovation by awarding the firm the 2019 WealthManagement.com Industry Award in the Technology Disruptor category.

“INVENT is unique in that we’re completely agnostic to any solution in the space,” said Tishkevich. “Our goal is to emphasize their value proposition and give both vendors and financial institutions the ability to create that unicorn experience they want. Many firms treat integration as a necessary evil, but we’ve made a business out of it.”