AdvisorTechSolutions Blog

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The advantages of a virtual office

The advantages of a virtual office are many to a financial advisor

Eliminate Desktop Clutter Easily

Do you have a lot of icons sitting on your desktop that you don't use? Maybe you downloaded a financial advisor program such as a calculator or tax program and it made a new icon for you, but you don't really need it there. This happens to me lots of time.

Then someone suggested I have a folder on my desktop that is used just for the icons that I hardly or never use. Would you like to do the same? It's very easy to do this. Just right click anywhere on your desktop and click New, then Folder.

This will pop up a new folder right next to your other icons. Find that and then type in what you want to call it. I named mine"Unused Icons," but you can name it whatever you want. Just make sure you call it something that will remind you of what it is.

Once you have the folder named, you can just < >drag and drop the other icons that you don't use into that folder. For example, if you havean icon for Internet Explorer sitting on your desktop, but you also have one in your quick launch area, you don't need both of them.

Put the one from your desktop in your new folder. It's as easy as that!

You may also want to consider doing the same thing with all the financial planning software programs that you use often in your practice.

If you ever need to access any of those icons, you can just double click on your new folder and all of them will be waiting for you.

They're not deleted from your computer, they're just put on hold. It just makes your life a little bit easier.

How To avoid data loss safely

Recently Dell computers has had a re-call of its Laptops due to their batteries may catch fire. While this is alarming, recently it has been revealed that computers break down less often.

Computers have become more reliable in recent years as manufacturers have improved designs, but one in every six new notebooks still needs to be repaired within a year after purchase, a recent survey revealed.

Failure rates of both desktop and portable notebook computers have improved in the 2005-2006 period compared with 2003-2004, market research group Gartner found.

Five percent of desktop computers need to have a component replaced within the first year, compared with 7 percent two years ago.

Four years after purchase the chance that a desktop computer needs to be repaired is 12 percent, compared with 15 percent in 2003-2004.

For notebooks the first year failure rate was 15 percent, compared with 20 percent two years earlier.

A failure is defined as a repair incident in which a component needs to be replaced, ranging from something as trivial as a notebook latch or as significant as a motherboard.

For notebooks, screen breakage used to be the single-largest source of failure.

Notebook manufacturers have improved design significantly to reduce screen breakage by adding structural rigidity to the notebook casing and screen bezel, as well as by providing a greater clearance between the screen and the keyboard when the system is closed.

Currently, the main problem with notebooks are motherboards and hard drives which together make up nearly 50 percent of all failures.

So while computers whether they are desktop or laptops are a vital part of our business each day and are safe, it is very important that you have some soft of data recovery and backup process in place just in case.

When we asked advisors back in 2005 (Advisor and Technology Survey) if they were aware what their back up process was, only 35% could say they knew how their data was backed up.

Survey Shows You How To improve client and prospect communications

Here are some of the findings from a survey conducted by AC Neilson recently..

I find it interesting to note that the population as a whole continue to use the Internet in a big way.

But what is interesting to note for financial advisors is what the population is looking for online.

One of the key insights from this year’s survey is the continued increase in the number of consumers accessing the Internet to use financial services.

More than half (59%) of all Internet users currently access online financial services.

This is up two points from 2004, and represents a steady increase since 2002. Growth in the use of online financial services since 2002 has been fuelled by an increase from both female and male Internet users.

In fact, female Internet users have been steadily closing the gap with their male counterparts since 2002. The growth in online financial services use by females over the past four years has outpaced the growth shown by male Internet users (+12 points and +5 points respectively since 2002).

“We know that increasing numbers of people are using the Internet on a regular basis but the continuing rise in the use of online financial services is an interesting development,” said Pam Wood, Marketing Director, Consumer Measurement Services, ACNielsen Canada.

“Despite their obvious willingness to embrace the web in many other areas, consumers have appeared somewhat more hesitant about online use in the area of financial services, so the increase seen in this year’s Internet Planner suggests that this barrier is steadily decreasing.”

Checking their account balances was the top reported online service, used by 53% of all Internet users. However, the strongest gains compared to last year’s study came in the areas of paying bills (44%) and checking credit card balances (36%), both of which increased four points over 2004.

But what does this mean to you as an advisor?

Think about increasing your online presence with an effective website or keep a blog which can updated regularly. In any case it is obvious that for you to keep your business in step with the growing demands of your clients and prospects, look to use technology as a way to increase your bottomline.

New Research Reveals Advisors Continue To Struggle with Technology

For the second year in a row advisors from around the country reveal how they handle technology.

Reduce Your Office Costs and Run Your Business from Anywhere

For the longest time I have looking at ways to be able to run my business from anywhere.

I came across Tech Platforms' eWorkAnywhere and think it is one of the best solutions out on the market.

Not sure how a virtual office works, visit my page dedicated to this subject.

The virtual office solution Tech Platforms' eWorkAnywhere

How Tech Platforms eWorkAnywhere saves you money and time

Tips and Tricks with Microsoft Office

We asked financial advisors about their most popular applications on their computers, spreadsheets, word processing and presentation packages was at the top of the list. They also named Microsoft Outlook as the most popular contact management system.

When I spoke with Mike Bulmer, product manager of Microsoft Office systems at Microsoft Canada in Mississauga, Ont., he said, 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 Site It contains practice-management strategies to help advisors use Microsoft Office more effectively. Check it out, I was surprised at the amount of great information there. Stuff you can put to use right away.