This document discusses the importance of user experience (UX) in asset management software. It argues that UX is often neglected in business-to-business software, but that a good UX can increase productivity and reduce errors. It provides examples of how most asset management solutions fail at UX by not properly considering the needs of different user types or keeping interfaces intuitive over the long lifespan of the software. The document also provides questions organizations can ask to assess the UX of their current asset management solution.

1. ASSET MANAGEMENT | WHITE PAPER FINANCIAL SERVICES | NOVABASE.COM
UX IN ASSET
MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER AN ASSET
MANAGEMENT SOLUTION WITH GREAT UX
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• Why it is important to consider User Experience in Asset Management Software?
• How can User Experience increase productivity?
• How to assess if your current asset management solution is failing at providing a
great User Experience?
• Chief Asset Management Officers;
• Asset Group Managers;
• Chief Technology Officers.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
WHO SHOULD READ THIS DOCUMENT

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PROPRIETARY NOTE

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CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
CONCLUSION
WHY ASSET MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FAILS
AT PROVIDING A GOOD UX?
ASSESSING UX IN ASSET MANAGEMENT:
ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
HOW UX AFFECTS PRODUCTIVITY
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User Experience (UX) is typically associated with digital design discipline principles
as being part of a process which intentionally designs the website, application or
software to provide users a positive and rewarding experience. It combines principles
of psychology, engineering, marketing, and web design.
A good UX is accomplished when the software meets the user needs with
a straightforward and great user interface, allowing their experience to be
simultaneously productive and pleasant. UX is a standard when creating interfaces
for final customers (smartphone apps, e-commerce, etc.) but often neglected in B2B
software.
At financial institutions, where employees work with large data sets, complex reports
and any mistake can represent huge losses, it is of paramount importance to provide
an intuitive, streamlined experience that allows teams to focus on results, rather than
spend time trying to figure out how to work around the software. This paper aims to
provide a vision of how UX is crucial to improving productivity, increase results and
reduce human errors in asset management platforms.
ABSTRACT
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Asset management systems have multiple types of users, with specific
needs and different information access levels. A significant
percentage are everyday-users who perform on-going
operations on the system. Sometimes, there will be less
experienced users or those who use it occasionally, and they
should be considered as well. What most asset management
solutions lack is a smart-authentication capability, that
hides/shows the relevant information depending on the
user’s profile, and addresses this problem directly.
Additionally, B2B software have long lifecycles. However,
in 2 years, the design elements of the system will probably be
outdated and old-fashioned. To tackle this problem, the design
should be timeless and as simple as possible – that is another thing
in which most asset management platforms fail big. Most software is deployed with
trend-setting templates that will become obsolete and will need future paid releases
to keep up.
Leisure websites and applications, like Google and Amazon, have set high standards
in what relates to User Experience. Given end users of B2B systems also use this kind
of interfaces, they usually feel frustrated when the systems are not as natural and
intuitive as the websites where they spend their free time on.
Although B2B systems design is intrinsically different from B2C websites and
applications, since it requires a business and industry understanding, the primary
purpose of UX is to make end-user experiences as seamless as they would be if they
were buying a book from Amazon.
That is why it is so important to have UX designers working closely with end-users,
programmers and product specialists. UX experts will work with users to get their
mental models and workflow. With this, the best solution possible will be designed.
It’s a symbiosis between users, workflow and technology.
02
WHY ASSET MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FAILS
AT PROVIDING A GOOD UX?
If the importance of UX in B2B software is
highly recognized, why are users faced with poor
interfaces in asset management systems?

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Everyone agrees that a great website or application design is a strong driver to attract
and retain customers. Business planners put a lot of effort in developing digital
designs for consumers but often fail to consider the business impacts of poor design
on internal applications. Internal technology environment is usually far from what is
presented to customers.
Forrester’s report The Digital Employee Experience Drives Engagement And Productivity
(April, 2017) argues that executives have to step up their internal technology
investments torwards an improved Digital Employee Experience.
• Forrester defines the typical digital employee experience as being;
• Static and transactional, discouraging return visits;
• Lack of engagement and dynamic content to entice exploration.
In addition, Forrester consumer-grade employee experiences as a way of retaining
and advancing talent and increasing productivity.
A poor user interface will make people come up with “workarounds” to have their
work done, like having a cheat sheet for the most common command sequences or
avoiding certain Internet browsers because they are incompatible with the software.
New employees will need more time to be trained, people will lose time with support
lines, and productivity will decrease. This proves in what extension design is crucial.
According to McKinsey’s report The Business Value of Design
(McKinsey Quarterly, October 2018), the companies that
perform best financially take design as a top-management issue,
measuring the software design performance as they assess
revenues and costs. In this study, McKinsey found out that the
companies which were not committed to create design-centric
products or services would perform poorer than the others.
In the age of customer relationship and data-driven customer
feedback, it is surprising that some companies do not use metric
tools to assess their design and how it affects customers and/
or end-users. The way that the customer experiences a product
or service is deeply related in how it is presented, therefore
the importance of design. UX Designers should be taken in the
process of software development and the software design should
be under constant improvement, using design metrics to assess
its effectiveness.
Design should be consistently assessed from both perspectives:
consumer and employee experiences.
Eventually, the interface problems will lead to an even bigger
problem: lack of commitment, motivation, and talent loss.
HOW UX AFFECTS PRODUCTIVITY
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A poor interface in asset management software results in:
• Low productivity;
• Frustration (for portfolio manager and customer);
• More time for new employees to learn how to deal with the software;
• Decrease in revenue;
• More human errors.
Therefore, it is urgent that companies start taking care of another kind of customer
– their own staff. In its report “Future Experience: A Gartner Theme Insight
Report” (May, 2017), Garner states that, by 2022, enterprises that make sustained
investments in employee experience will achieve a 10% improvement in employee
engagement scores.
Employees, specially the youngest ones, expect the software to be as easy to use as
Google, while maintaining all the power they require to search, organize and manage
their assets.
The most common error on B2B software design is that it is not tailored to the
user, since he is not the buyer. Purchasing decisions are usually handled by IT and
Procurement Department, which are not familiar with typical end-user problems.
Also, most companies cannot execute a UX review as they lack the required internal
expertise to do so.
However, a basic inquiry can be done to assess if your current asset management
software is affecting the portfolio management teams’ productivity.

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After recognizing how poor UX harms businesses and staff productivity, software
selection becomes a critical issue.
The critical factor is addressing end-user needs. To address the challenges the
software may present to end-users, you need to gather a group of skilled individuals
who regularly perform portfolio management tasks. It is also important to consider
insights from people who do not perform asset management tasks every day, but still
need access to the software.
To assess UX with your current software, you should ask the following questions:
• Do they find it difficult to find obvious commands for common
action?
• Do employees feel frustrated when performing specific
tasks within the software?
• How long does it take for a new user to be proficient at
software usage?
• Is it necessary to look at the manual to perform
non-usual tasks?
• How many tasks require “workarounds” to be completed?
• Does the software help in preventive problem detection?
• Does the entire team know how to work with the software or is the
knowledge restricted to a few users?
• Can the less frequent users perform tasks autonomously or do they need help?
If the answer to one, or more, of these questions is affirmative: your software is failing
at providing a great UX.
Asset management platforms must support large data volumes and information
processing, while providing users with the required insights. The perfect UX for
a portfolio manager happens when he can intuitively perform his regular tasks
with minimal training needs. Users should be able to perform complex financial
management and analysis easily, without focusing on how to operate the software.
The perfect UX for a portfolio manager happens
when he can intuitively perform his regular tasks
with minimal training needs.
ASSESSING UX IN ASSET MANAGEMENT:
ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
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A best in class asset management solution is the one which proves to be simple to
work with, while providing optimal productivity and, ultimately, revenue increase.
For that, the solution should:
• Be simple to use, but not simply stupid, allowing trained users to perform everyday
tasks with little effort;
• Be easy and intuitive as B2C apps that people use everyday;
• Have a workflow management component that facilitates a vision on the different
lifecycle stages for assets;
• Be intuitive when collecting, organizing and presenting information;
• Be easily integrated with larger technology systems.
Asset management solutions
that include UX in their software
development lifecycle improve
your teams’ happiness and
productivity. When choosing
a new software for asset
management, make sure that
good UX is one of the key-points
being assessed.
CONCLUSION
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