Some companies have more success in a vertical when their CIO understands the business domain well. Such has been the experience of Marvin Clark, CIO of workplace and asset management solutions provider Accruent, who grew from an IT manager to a CIO in the financial services industry. Eventually, he decided to seek an opportunity outside the financial services industry because he wanted another kind of challenge and believed his knowledge and skills could benefit Accruent.
After earning a B.S. in Business Administration and Management at the University of Northern Colorado, Clark worked at financial services institution Fiserv where he learned the value and necessity of ultra-high system availability.
“Fiserv was the largest clearing firm in the US, so that’s where I started to learn about how financial services and banking and wealth firms operate,” says Clark. “I was there for nine years, working my way up the chain of command. I went from an individual contributor to supervisor to manager.”
After that, he joined startup Techfi Solutions (which was acquired by Advent Corporation) because most wealth services firms were looking at ways to partner with startup firms that were building things quickly. As director, professional services, he was part of the team looking for other startup firms to partner with, so Techfi could deliver more capabilities and functionality to its customers.
“Working for a startup taught me how to build technology at a very fast pace and I learned how to run a company at a very young age,” says Clark. “All of us at Techfi were under 30 years old, so there wasn’t a whole lot of experience within the company. But we were working really hard, and we’re all learning as we went. That included the CEO and the leadership team. I ran their back-office systems and customer support.”
Given that financial services entities are highly regulated, he also learned how to deal with regulatory agencies.
“I knew how the industry worked, I knew how the companies worked, I knew how the systems worked. I knew how to kind of connect the dots, and so I was very comfortable in that role,” says Clark. “I had to build things to make sure that they were highly stable and secure. I was always looking at ways to streamline and to create a more efficient way of doing business.”
After that, he continued working his way up the career ladder, rising to director, online advisor services at Ameriprise (an American Express spin off) before becoming chief technology officer at Woodbury Financial Services. From there he joined Wells Fargo as senior vice president, divisional information officer where he learned how a very large company operates and how to take advantage of the central, shared services that Wells Fargo offered. Before joining his present company, Accruent, Clark worked at LPL Financial as SVP, chief information officer, wealth management growth and later SVP, CIO, digital operating platform.
When he arrived at LPL Financial in 2016, Clark discovered the technology stack hadn’t been updated in a very long time, so working in tandem with executives and individual contributors, he built a new technology stack for financial advisors. Back-office capabilities also improved. These efforts helped fuel LPL Financial’s growth.
“All the things I’d learned and experienced in financial services transferred over really well when I first started at Accruent because we came together as a set of acquisitions. So, I took my learnings of how we connected systems in financial services and started to do the same thing here,” says Clark. “We now have a very efficient back office, and it’s a back office that helps our employees and customers be successful.”
Financial Services Reqs Raise the Bar in Other Industries
Financial services IT stacks involve four or five active infrastructures at any given time to prevent outages. While the facilities industry in which Accruent operates isn’t burdened with the same requirements, Clark and his team ensure Accruent achieves 99.99% availability in a way that bends the company’s the cost curve, while providing secure infrastructure for its customers.
“I wanted to try something new, and I knew that I had the tools, capabilities and experience that could potentially work somewhere else. Even the interview process at Accruent felt different. It was just a different culture, which was really cool. It was not as fast paced, but still very efficient. I knew I wouldn’t be the expert, and that I wouldn’t know how things work right away, but it was similar enough that I was able to provide value immediately. That said, I’m still learning,” says Clark. “I’m three years in, and I’m still learning about the industry, capabilities and functionality that we should be offering to our customers, how we can integrate our products to deliver even a better experience to our existing customers.”
Based on his experience, he’s now telling friends and those in his professional network that they’d be surprised how much value they can offer to a new industry. (Most of his contacts are in the financial services industry to this day.)
“One thing I always say that probably drives people crazy is, ‘Every time we touch a keyboard, it’s always directly in line with the company mission, goals and strategy.’ We never do technology for technology’s sake,” says Clark. “We’re always focused on delivering something cool for the business or business need, and I would say that that’s been true throughout my career. We have delivered value-add technology that’s helped the company grow and become better every day.”
Upskilling Is a Constant
Clark has learned a lot working for different companies in increasingly responsible roles that involve both business and tech strategy.
“I loved every minute I worked in the financial services industry, but I do love waking up and not knowing everything. I love that I need to consistently and constantly learn every single day,” says Clark. “Financial services firms spend a lot of time optimizing workflows utilizing really cool technologies, such as RPA and AI. I saw a real opportunity to utilize some of the things that we’d done in financial services to optimize workflows and minimize the time it takes to go from point A to point B. We also spent a lot of time implementing technologies like chatbots and providing end users with self-service capabilities that Accruent lacked when I joined. In addition, we’re giving our customer service reps the tools they need to be successful so they can help customers faster — within minutes versus maybe days or weeks.”
At Accruent, Clark and his team are not weighed down by heavy regulation, unlike the financial services industry, which allows them to spend more time innovating and delivering value.
“You can be a little more innovative and a little bit faster getting an innovation out to the end customer, because you don’t have to make sure that it’s running throughout the world on four different servers and all the other stuff that you have to do with financial services,” says Clark. “However, you have to be thoughtful about the way that you deliver new technologies and capabilities, so you don’t overload the end customer or end user with a bunch of new stuff all the time. While it’s tempting to roll out new capabilities and show new technologies, you need to take a step back and think about how it will impact the end user experience.”
A lot of a CIO’s success depends on having the right infrastructure and strategy in place to move the business forward.
“What I’ve learned is that the IT and business skills you have in one industry are more transferable than one may think. What you’ve learned over the course of your career can and should be used in other industries,” says Clark. “When I came to Accruent, I had a different opinion, a different way of solving complex problems that helped us move forward in a different way. And I think that’s what CIOs should be thinking about: Your history, skills and all the things that you learn from a leadership perspective are transferable to other industries. If you’re not consistently learning, you will likely have a very short career.”
