In 2008, more and more common business practices will come to be customized. Consumers and professional alike want products especially designed for them. We are living in an age of customization: customized computers, custom-fitted jeans, custom-built cars, pay-per-view and on demand TV that allows viewers to watch what one wants when one wants. The business world is not exempt from this trend.
“In a culture where most everything can be made to order, why should companies expect their business software solutions to be one size fits all?” asks Jason Bishara, Chief Executive Officer of SLM Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: SMHI, http://www.slmbiz.com), a financial software company that develops products and services designed to provide Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools and enhance client support for those working in the financial sector. “In other words, if custom tailoring is good enough for your pinstripe, it should certainly be good enough for your day-to-day communications software.”
SLM Holdings has installed their unique business software on over seventeen thousand desktops at some of America’s leading brokerage firms including: Wachovia, Smith Barney, and Merrill Lynch. The company offers complete on-site training and full data migration and, once their software systems are installed, these tools are accessible by entire teams and trading desks rather than just individual users.
One software tool, ACT! For Financial Professionals (AFFP) records critical financial transactions and tracks important personal client information such as birthdays, anniversaries, hobbies, and gifts given and sent. For example, the software can be programmed to automatically send a client a favorite bottle of wine on his/her birthday.
Particularly noteworthy for those working in the financial sector, SLM software data can provide invaluable protection against arbitration. “If a broker’s primary fiduciary responsibility is to know your client and what you told them, keeping track of client roster information isn’t always as simple as it sounds,” explains Bishara. “In 2006, there were over three thousand cases due to breach of fiduciary duty; nearly three-quarters of those cases involved information directly addressed by SLM’s offered software and services. Knowing the details of your clients’ investment portfolios is crucial. The key to that is more personalized relationships.”
You can learn more about customized business software by visiting www.slmbiz.com.
