| 09 July 2010

The advisor services team at Charles Schwab (SCHW) has been busy. They're working on a sweeping new technology platform designed to support their advisor teams. More than 6,000 firms rely on Schwab for clearing and account services and advisor services is fast becoming a large part of Schwab's revenue and overall business focus.

The somewhat secretive project, formerly referred to as "Project C," has been given an official name: "Schwab Intelligent Integration," and a website at SchwabAdvisorCenter.com. “Schwab Intelligent Integration is designed to help advisors increase efficiency by enabling different systems to ‘talk’ with each other more effectively,” said Neesha Hathi, vice president of technology solutions for Charles Schwab Advisor Services.

We suspect that part of the reason for this leak is the somewhat slow pace of development and the need to let advisors know they're close to completing the project. But to be fair, Schwab is also using this opportunity as a form of beta launch to solicit early feedback from advisor teams. A smart move.

While details of the platform are still murky, Schwab did tease us with four "key principles" they're striving to achieve. The key principles are, 1) Create a CRM system built around client data, 2) integrate data from multiple sources into a single view, and 3) give choice and customization for advisors, and 4) ongoing support from Schwab personnel.

The race to provide services for advisors is heating up. Not only are major players like TD Ameritrade (AMTD) fighting for attention, new, smaller players are creeping up. We reported at the end of April, for example, that kaChing rolled a new platform (kaChing Pro) designed to attract advisors and support their back-office functions.

A new technology platform, especially if it's designed to the specifications required by advisors, is likely to help Schwab maintain a leading role and, ultimately, attract new advisors. Moreover, the firm needs to be careful to support existing clients.

We reported in mid-June that Schwab lost a huge clearing services client, a move that cost the firm over $40 billion in revenue. The move was related to a mutual fund client that decided to transfer their assets "to an internal platform."