There is an often-overlooked aspect to the recent tech bubble: all the money investors “lost” in the 1990s paid for the fibre-optic cable and software development that made the Internet what it is today, a publicly accessible utility used by millions of people around the world.
Sure that’s bad for Nortel Networks Corp. shareholders, but it’s the deal of a century for anyone who wants to use the Internet for a technology platform. Just ask several of Canada’s independent financial planners: companies that lack institutional-sized resources can find all they need for an enterprise-wide computing solution is a cheap PC, a half-decent connection and a free downloadable browser.
“There’s no better way to bring a company together than through the Web,” says Paul Habert, vice president of Toronto-based Dundee Wealth Management Inc., the parent of fund distributer Dundee Private Investors Inc. and investment dealer Dundee Securities Corp. In the Planners’ Report Card, Dundee advisors gave above-average ratings for their company’s Internet and intranet sites.
When Dundee launched a retail distribution network three years ago, it needed a way to tie the advisors to both clients and the firm. Rather than build a large proprietary communications system, it turned to a system ready and waiting, the Internet.
The first version of the site offered templates for seminars, compliance manuals and a market commentary that’s online by 8:30 each morning, eliminating an expensive conference call. A new phase of the site, to be launched June 1, boasts client account access, online scheduling for the advisors, the ability to track continuing education credits and a campaign manager. “Our site Internet strategy is an ongoing work in progress,” says Habert.
The campaign manager is an interesting application. Because the Web interface is tied to the back office, planners can query their client database to draw up lists of clients who share certain traits. Those lists can then be used in marketing campaigns.
“For example, you could find out which of your clients are interested in sailing and build a marketing campaign around that by targeting e-mails to just that list,” says Habert.
Another feature is the ability to create “pre-populated” forms. “This feature will go into the back office, grab the appropriate information and apply it to the necessary form so the advisor can have it ready when the client comes in,” says Habert. It’s no surprise that management loves the tool. “From a management perspective, the efficiency and time saved is great,” he says.
Dundee hired developers to build the system, so the company may have experienced more headaches than it would have had it bought an off-the-shelf product. “It’s a drawn-out, complicated process but we found the final product to be far more powerful by maintaining control and building in the applications we needed,” says Habert. “I think we’re out ahead of the competition.”
Perhaps, but there are others wise to the Web. As Assante Capital Management Ltd. has merged several smaller companies into the parent company, the Web has provided a key tool for managing the new relationships. “We can offer messages from executives over the intranet site,” says Adam Dooley, communications specialist for Assante, whose employees also ranked their company Web sites above the industry average. “The Web is becoming one of our major channels of company-wide communication. It’s extremely useful.”
Toronto-based GP Capital Management Group is a pioneer in Web advisory services. GP’s CEO, George Aguiar, built a Web site for his practice six years ago and expanded it into a platform for the other 74 advisors under the GP umbrella.
The GP site boasts financial planning software, research and ratings of all of a client’s funds. One idea that makes immediate sense is a tool that calculates clients’ top 10 individual stock holdings across their entire mutual fund portfolios. That way, clients know how much BCE Inc., for example, they hold in total. Aguiar says clients are often surprised by the overlap; the tool then becomes a great help with individual stock picks.
There is also an e-newsletter service and “smart” home pages for all GP advisors. (Advisors have a personalized Web site that comes up when their clients log on.) The content on each home page can be easily customized to “push” different subjects at different times of the year, such as tax matters in April, mortgage and real estate messages in the summer and education savings information in the fall.
While many worried that the Web may make advisors irrelevant, the reality is completely different.
“Technology is actually a way of keeping clients,” says Aguiar. “A Web site is now the first impression for many people. I’ve often said it’s not technology that will replace the advisor but the advisor with technology that will replace the advisor.” IE