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WINTERBERG: Hi there, I’m Bill Winterberg, Technology Editor for Morningstar Advisor,
and I’m here today with Chris Valleley,
Senior Manager of Technology Product Management for TD Ameritrade Institutional. Chris, as
I recall, it’s been about a year since the initiative of Veo® Open Access
was rolled out for live production. Tell me about the evolution over the last year
of how vendors have come on board and really acclimated to the platform. VALLELEY: Sure.
You know, when we launched Veo® Open Access,
we really were looking to work with the vendor community and use their ingenuity
to help power the products that they have. We knew that we just needed to, you know,
give them the data and let them, with their entrepreneurial spirit,
build the products and then strengthen the products that they have with our mutual clients.
And we’re now seeing that happen. We launched the API around a year ago,
we’re onboarding vendors, you know, on a monthly basis, and as such,
we’re seeing new and inventive ideas coming just because of the power of Veo® Open Access. WINTERBERG:
So speaking of some new and inventive ideas, what one comes to mind
of a great vendor contribution that you’ve really embraced across your organization? VALLELEY:
I think one – you know, one great – you know, initial step was
Orion is now taking the alerts from Veo®’s Open Access and presenting them to our mutual
users
in the Orion platform. This allows the advisor to know that they need to take action
on an account here at TD Ameritrade, and they can do that, you know, in Orion,
be alerted, and then make the appropriate steps. Upcoming, I think,
some of the things that we are seeing is one of our partners is iRebal,
and iRebal would be processing trades real-time through the Veo® Open Access API,
and the user will never have to leave iRebal to initiate and execute those trades,
those trades will come from iRebal, they’ll be executed on the TD Ameritrade side,
and we’ll report order status back to iRebal, and it’s going to save the advisor a lot
of time in having to,
you know, export a rebalance file into Veo®, they simply can just click a button and push
those trades to TD Ameritrade. WINTERBERG: Very impressive. So looking ahead on the evolution
of the platform,
how important is it to have that coordination and cooperation
between TD Ameritrade and the vendors in pushing the platform forward? VALLELEY: We trained
our staff to teach them how to be, you know, consultants with the integration providers
and, you know, use best practices, get them through the security review process,
get them through – you know, help them decipher what the specs,
let them understand what the functionality is available, you know,
show them best practices of other integrations that we have seen, and then, you know,
really partner in idea creation, and then deliver new product out to our mutual clients. WINTERBERG:
Great. So, Chris, when you get your team assembled together for Veo® Open Access,
what’s that one goal, that one mission that you have when you assemble together to really
open up – open up the platform? VALLELEY: You know, the one thing that’s great is
working with all the – all the vendors
is coming up with new ideas, and each vendor is a little bit different,
and again, we can help assist, and with best practices, but using their entrepreneurial
spirit,
letting them – you know, giving them the specs, showing them what we’re capable of,
and then letting them really come up with new ideas and then partnering with them
to deliver those ideas for mutual clients, so a lot of times vendors as well as advisors
are coming to us and telling us, wouldn’t it be cool if, and just knowing that we can,
you know,
provide them the data and some of the functionality in their applications, and they can deliver
on that really cool idea. WINTERBERG: Well, that’s great. I’ve been very impressed
with what I’ve seen,
and I think you’ve assembled a great team to move the entire industry forward.
So Chris, thank you very much for spending some time today sharing your thoughts and
ideas
about Open Access and where it’s going. VALLELEY: Thank you, Bill.