Will Orion's Acquisition of Redtail Transform the Industry by Creating a Seamless All-In-One Platform?
Abstract
The acquisition of Redtail by Orion positions Orion as one of the most comprehensive all-in-one platform providers serving both RIAs and enterprise firms. The recent news rocked the wealth management industry and set in motion speculation about Orion’s future plans and their potential impact on the broader industry. Here are the key takeaways based on conversations with RIAs, enterprise firms and platform providers.
At first blush, the acquisition of Redtail can be seen as simply rounding out Orion’s suite of all-in-one capabilities and acquiring more customers for its broader platform. While this is true, Celent believes there is a deeper more thoughtful strategy driving this transaction.
The Redtail acquisition:
1.Strengthens Orion’s positioning within RIA and broker-dealer channels. Orion gains access to a host of new prospects that are well-suited for additional platform services. There is an estimated 30% overlap in users between Redtail and Orion leaving 70% of users suitable for cross-selling additional platform services.
2.Plugs the final hole in Orion’s all-in-one platform offering. With the addition of a CRM system, Orion is able to offer a complete suite of wealth management capabilities to RIAs and enterprise firms. In addition, Orion enhances its data integration, orchestration, and management capabilities.
3.Bets on Orion’s ability to deliver a more frictionless experience to advisors through tighter end-to-end integrations, streamlined workflows, and access to more robust data.
4.Builds on the idea that advisors want choice by providing a more robust suite of wealth management offerings that can be unbundled to appeal to a broader target market; including one that is looking for more off-the-shelf, best-of-breed, modular components.
5.Forces industry players to rethink or expedite current strategies regarding their own platform solutions.
Orion has the opportunity to leverage its newly acquired CRM to deliver enhanced solutions (such as frictionless advisor workflows, tighter integrations, data sharing across the platform and best-of-breed componentized offerings) that have the potential to transform the industry.