Welcome to the latest CMO edition of At the Forefront: Fintech Conversations!
To learn more about this podcast and explore our episode archive, click here.
In today’s episode, Forefront VP and Head of Content Sam Belden sits down with Shelley Magee, CEO of ActiveViam, a provider of advanced analytics and data solutions for the financial services community. The pair discuss Shelley’s new role at ActiveViam, her vision for the company’s future and how its Atoti solution is making a difference for financial firms making data-driven decisions.
To begin, Sam and Shelley talk through ActiveViam’s business model and how it meets the current data challenges the financial services community is facing. Its proprietary technology, Atoti, is an OLAP data cube that provides in-depth analytics across large datasets and runs real-time aggregation, empowering financial services firms to interrogate their data and make informed decisions based off the results.
Shelley cites increasingly stringent regulation as a challenge many industry firms are facing, as well as complex requirements and standards surrounding liquidity. Clients have expressed that the data-driven environment in which they currently operate necessitates a deep level of analyses and logic across use cases. Firms are also looking to be efficient with their technology spend, especially large Tier 1 banks and buy-sides who have complex infrastructure and are looking to extract maximum value from vendors.
Data proliferation is another notable trend – many of today’s leading firms are operating several pricing and risk systems and are looking for tools to help them extract meaningful insights from granular data. Lastly, firms are looking towards providers who have AI implemented into their platforms. ActiveViam is positioned to meet firms where they’re at, Shelley states, thanks to its ability to act upon complex data sets with multiple input sources in real time.
Next, Sam and Shelley discuss how Shelley’s previous career experience has led her taking the helm at ActiveViam. To design good product, she says, you need to have used it in the past, sitting in the seat of the client to gain their perspective. Shelley’s previous experience running product management across various Tier 1 banks in the front-office space – dealing with OMS, EMS and Risk systems – gave her an appreciation for the solutions that were required. Later, as COO of regulatory reporting data provider Regnology, she focused on pivoting the company to a data-driven strategy, pulling 20+ data sources into one centralized data lake. These experiences collectively shaped Shelley’s knowledge and approach to leadership, culminating in her new role as ActiveViam CEO.
The conversation then shifts to Shelley’s tenure thus far, including her experience meeting the ActiveViam team and hearing firsthand feedback from clients. She states that, although she had knowledge of the product ahead of joining, the demos she’s received since joining has proven just how cutting-edge the Atoti product is. Meeting with clients have revealed that they love the versatility of the tool, with many originally onboarding for one use case and, upon recognizing its flexibility, expand their use other sectors. This open dialogue with clients helps to establish long-term, trusted relationships and ultimately produces a low churn rate. She also praises the unmatched expertise of the global ActiveViam team, who are dedicated and enthusiastic about what’s possible for the company.
To conclude, Sam and Shelley discuss where ActiveViam is headed next under Shelley’s leadership. She states that the team is continually assessing next steps from a solution perspective. The front office audience is a key opportunistic area the team is investigating, and FP&A is a new use case for the firm. She also notes that there’s been significant R&D team investment, as well as investment in AI strategy, to best configure platform performance so customers are extracting maximum value. Shelley also hopes to expand the company’s global footprint to take the Atoti and ActiveViam name worldwide.
See below for a breakdown of what was discussed. Happy listening!
Timestamps:
1:02 – ActiveViam’s business model and Shelley’s new role as CEO
3:10 – How ActiveViam’s data and analytics solutions meet the challenges of today’s financial firms
7:05 – Shelley’s past career experience and how it’s shaped her perspective on leadership
12:30 – Key takeaways from Shelley’s tenure thus far
15:55 – What’s up next for ActiveViam
