Introduction
A company’s choice of an operating model has a dramatic influence on its competitive ability in the market. The principle determinants of the operating model adopted are standardization and integration. The rate of application (rated as low or high) determines the operating model to be adopted in the company.
The operating model is significant in determining how IT infrastructure and business processes can be implemented on a digital platform.
This paper explores the operating model quadrant for the digital platform adopted at Merrill Lynch’s Global Private Client (GPC) and suggests an alternative model that could have better results.
Merrill Lynch’s GPC
Merrill Lynch’s GPC group provides advisory services through the provision of wealth management services and products to private businesses and individuals. GPC’s business model links more than 15, 930 financial advisors situated in about 680 offices distributed around the world.
The company provides the financial advisors with support in five central functional areas: investment management, wealth management, marketing, global banking and direct services (“About Us” par. 4).
The company utilizes technology in the provision of an open architecture digital platform for the financial advisors enabling them acquire comprehensive scope of products and services which enable them to deliver best-in-class solutions.
Integration
GPC’s business provides many investment products for its wealthy clients by using different channels. For instance, the products are provided either by direct interaction with the client, online access, and telephone access.
In order to efficiently deliver it services, GPC has developed an integrated product data on its Total Merrill platform. The company deals with different clients each with particular needs.
The clients need to connect with each other especially those seeking the provision of services and products regarding the marketing functionality (Ross 3).
Specifically, Investment management advice depends on the success of other businesses and the ability to create demand or fill an existing gap in the market. This follows, GPC’s financial advisors offer the same products to its customers who are located in different regions around the world.
Due to the nature of the products, its digital platform is highly integrated (Ross 3). The system allows for sharing of information between advisors located in different areas.
Standardization
The clients served had a specific requirement that calls for a unique approach to solving them which means that the system cannot be standardized. However, GPC has been able to standardize its customer interface to make it easy to use from anywhere.
However, as mentioned earlier, GPC cannot be standardized mainly because the GPC’s business processes that form the fundamental part of the company’s operations are not standardized across all its business units.
Instead, it takes the advantage of its digital platform to create a new platform through which new products can be launched in the market (Ross 4). In addition, it may also create another channel through which the products are made available.
Coordination Operating Model
The digital platform at Merrill Lynch’s GPC falls in the coordination quadrant. The digital platform is characterized by an integrated product data and a customer interface that is standardized.
Although, the customer interface is standardized, the business process that forms the crucial part of the company operations is not standardized (Rose 47).
When launching a new product in the market, a new way of doing it has to be developed. GPC’s digital platform belongs to the coordination quadrant because the business processes specialization is low while the product data integration is high.
Alternative Operating Model Quadrant
Although the coordination operating model quadrant seems to work well for Merrill Lynch’s GPC, diversification could work even better for the company.
GPC deals with clients from all over the world each with a specific requirement regarding investment and wealth management in their specific regions.
Secondly, the customers are rarely common though the products offered by all the offices are the same. Moreover, only a few services are shared amongst the different business units.
As such the need for a standardized model is not necessary. Secondly, though the products are similar, matters concerning marketing, investment and wealth management are unique for each area. In this sense, product data is applicable in a few cases only.
For the reasons mentioned above, it is better to concentrate on a small region that is manageable than integrating product data.
Conclusion
The operating model quadrant used in Merrill Lynch’s GPC has enabled it create a standard technology platform that allows to share business data. As a consequence, the company has realized the impressive revenue and earnings.
However, the company stands to gain more with the adoption of the diversification as the preferred operating quadrant. Diversification creates a digital platform that allows each business unit to work independently and satisfy specific customer needs.
It allows each unit to use the digital platform to create a solution best suited for a particular area and consequently improve quality.
By adopting a suitable operating model, the company stands to benefit in many ways. It is, therefore, important for companies to carry out experiments to determine the best operating method.
Works Cited
“About Us.” Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. N.p., 2015. Web.
Rose, Jeanne. Enterprise Architecture as Strategy. 2nd ed. Peter Weill and David Robertson, 2007. Print.
Ross, Jeanne. “Forget Strategy: Focus on Your Operating Model.” Sloan School of Management. N.p., Dec. 2005. Web.