When investment executive asked financial advisors last year about the most popular applications on their computers, they put spreadsheets, word processing and presentation packages at the top of the list and named Microsoft Outlook as the most popular contact management system.

According to Mike Bulmer, product manager of Microsoft Office systems at Microsoft Canada in Mississauga, Ont., statistics show that advisors, like most business people, probably only use 20% of the features in the Office software package, which includes Excel, PowerPoint, Word and Outlook.

Because Microsoft Office is designed for a broad audience, it has numerous features.
Users probably aren’t even aware of all of them — but some could be used to increase users’ productivity.

A great resource, “Work essentials for financial advisors,” can be found on the Microsoft Web site at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ FX011409101033.aspx. It contains practice-management strategies to help advisors use Microsoft Office more effectively.

Although advisors might use 20% of the features, Bulmer says, they would not all use the same 20%. Some may use “mail merge” to send letters and flyers to clients, while others may use spreadsheets to do portfolio analysis. The key is to use the software to its best advantage by learning the features that can make individual advisors more productive.

It is generally acknowledged that communication is a key component of strengthening client relationships. It is also important to contact clients routinely through phone calls and have regular client meetings.

With Microsoft Office 2003 templates, you can organize communications more efficiently. Advisors can send out newsletters using one of the templates from Publisher. Each issue could include an article on a topic of recent interest, client success stories and tips on how to get more out of the advisor’s financial planning services.

MarketinG plans

Using templates available in Word and Excel software, advisors can also develop marketing objectives. They can have a database of prospective clients to whom they send targeted messages about available services.

The business planning checklist template helps develop a formal business plan by using the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis framework. Advisors can use this template to create a checklist of the key activities they need to perform to carry out their business plans.

Advisors may have an earlier version of Microsoft Office on their desktops, but the 2003 version has many additional features that are worth the cost of upgrading. For instance, the business contact manager is a light customer relationship management product that links to an advisor’s contacts in Outlook.

Advisors can pull reports on the clients or prospects they haven’t spoken to recently. And they can do a lot more sophisticated marketing and data mining of contacts right inside Outlook.

Microsoft Office 2003 also has XML technology, which provides the ability to search for information using a variety of software applications without having to input data again.

This means advisors can build an Excel spreadsheet that can automatically retrieve information from the Internet. Each time the spreadsheet is opened, the advisor is given an alert and he or she can update the spreadsheet.

Bulmer says the software also has a feature to help manage e-mail. Search folders can be set up to monitor e-mail and look for critical information. A trail can be created to help with regulatory compliance, and e-mail from certain clients or mail containing certain words can be flagged. Advisors no longer have to rely on their memory or spend
time looking for e-mail messages.

To purchase or to upgrade the Microsoft Office software package, check with a computer retailer. Prices range from $400 to $600.

For more information, visit www.office.microsoft.com. IE