CIO Marvin Clark on Transferring Financial Services Expertise to Facilities Management

Accruent CIO Marvin Clark discusses how his background in the highly regulated financial services industry has informed his approach to IT and business strategy in the facilities management sector.

Marvin Clark, CIO of workplace and asset management solutions provider Accruent, has found success by leveraging his deep understanding of the business domain. Clark’s career began in financial services, where he learned the importance of high system availability and regulatory compliance. He transitioned to Accruent seeking a new challenge,believing his skills could benefit the company.

Clark’s journey began after earning a B.S. in Business Management and Management from the University of Northern Colorado. He joined Fiserv, a financial services institution, where he gained invaluable experience in ensuring 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 whent from an individual contributor to supervisor to manager.”

He then moved to Techfi Solutions (later acquired by Advent Corporation), a startup focused on partnering with wealth services firms.As director, professional services, he helped Techfi expand its capabilities.

“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.”

His experience in financial services also exposed him to the intricacies of 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 pleasant 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.”

Clark continued his career progression, holding positions at ameriprise, Woodbury Financial Services, and Wells Fargo. Before Accruent, he was at LPL Financial as SVP, chief details officer, wealth management growth and later SVP, CIO, digital operating platform.

Upon arriving at LPL Financial in 2016, Clark spearheaded the advancement of a new technology stack for financial advisors, which improved back-office capabilities and contributed to the company’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 accomplished.”

Financial services Requirements Raise the Bar in Other industries

The stringent IT requirements of the financial services industry, such as multiple active infrastructures to prevent outages, have influenced Clark’s approach at Accruent. While the facilities industry doesn’t have the same regulatory burden, Clark aims for 99.99% availability while optimizing costs and ensuring secure infrastructure.

“I wanted to try something new, and I knew that I had the tools, capabilities and experience that could perhaps 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.”

Clark encourages others in his network to consider applying their skills in new industries.

“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 emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and adaptation in the ever-evolving technology landscape.

“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 definitely help customers faster — within minutes versus maybe days or weeks.”

At Accruent, Clark’s team can innovate more freely due to the less stringent regulatory environment compared to financial services.

“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.”

Clark believes that a CIO’s success hinges on having the right infrastructure and strategy to drive 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 viewpoint are transferable to other industries.If you’re not consistently learning,you will likely have a very short career.”