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Microsoft has a tablet?
On this week's broadcast, one of the top portfolio management software providers tip-toes its
way into the cloud, creating investment policy statements just got a whole lot easier, how
a new app can create a real-time dossier about your clients, and more.
So get ready, Bits and Bytes begins now.
This week's episode of Bits and Bytes is brought to you by Mimic Technologies, providers of
complete outsourced technology support, security, infrastructure and IT solutions exclusively
for RIAs. To learn how you can keep your data safe from attackers, download a free copy
of their white paper on Data Privacy and Protection by visiting fppad.com/mimic.
Leading off is an update from Advent Software, which recently celebrated its 30th year in
business last week at the company's AdventConnect conference in San Francisco.
The highlight of Advent Connect is the expansion of Advent Direct™, a cloud-based platform
which Mike Golaszewski, Black Diamond’s head of product development, says is an abstraction
layer on top of the company's core product offerings.
While Advent Axys will remain a desktop-based solution for the foreseeable future, it will
not be completely isolated from the cloud due to the online and mobile access available
through Advent Direct.
And while the news of Advent Direct seems hot off the presses, it's not entirely new,
as Advent has offered an app to iPad users since April of this year for mobile access
to client portfolio information.
Advent also unveiled the Advent Direct™ Community, a private online forum that's part
customer service portal and part discussion board, no doubt inspired by collaboration
options found on other social networks. Yes, the Advent Users Group on LinkedIn, I'm talking
about you!
But the one big unknown regarding Advent Direct is pricing. It remains to be seen how much
Advent users will need to pay to route their Axys data into Black Diamond to benefit from
enhanced reports.
To get the full details of Advent's announcements, visit fppad.com/107 for this week's show notes.
Next up is an update from a startup that deserves to be added to your technology radar. The
company is called Riskalyze, based in Sacramento, California, which offers patented Risk Number
technology in an attempt to quantify client risk tolerance and align it with suitable
investment portfolios.
This week, Riskalyze expanded its feature set by offering a single-click option to create
an Investment Policy Statement.
Whether you believe in the validity of Investment Policy Statements or not (and Stark and Stark's
Tom Giachetti comes to mind), it still doesn't get any easier than using a single click to
generate an IPS document.
So if simplifying your client risk assessment process is important to you, you should learn
more about Riskalyze's offering by visiting fppad.com/107 for more information.
Now I bet you've noticed changes in the air, meaning Fall has arrived, complete with shorter
days, football on the weekends, and a deluge of new product announcements.
So on the heels of Apple's new iPhone 5S and 5C announcement two weeks ago, Microsoft announced
updates to its floundering line of Surface tablets to compete with the market-dominating
iPad.
Not to be left out, Amazon also announced a refresh of it's low-cost Kindle tablets,
with a new HDX line of Android-powered tablets starting at just $229.
But the unexpected surprise from all the hardware announcements actually came in the form of
a new feature on the Kindle HDX called Mayday.
Mayday is an icon on the Kindle users can touch to get free technical support anytime
they need it, complete with video conferencing and screen sharing.
While its definitely a cool feature for Kindle users, Mayday actually creates a slippery
slope for you as an advisor, as I think it won't be too long before your clients start
to expect a similar easy, on-demand way to access you as their trusted financial advisor.
So if you're not yet up to speed on using video chat services like Skype, FaceTime,
Google Hangouts and more, now is the time to add these tools to your technology portfolio.
Finally, updates to FPPad have been few and far between this month because of the amount
of time I've been spending on phone calls and meetings. I've been speaking with dozens
of people, and it's unrealistic for me to think that I can keep all the details about
each relationship straight in my head.
That's why I've turned to a new app called Refresh, full disclosure, free T-shirt, but
the app truly helps me keep all the details about my contacts organized in one place.
Refresh connects my contacts, calendar, and social media accounts to create a real-time
dossier about the people I'm going to meet. Refresh automatically connect the dots of
what my contacts are doing and sharing online so I don't have to waste time gathering this
intelligence on my own.
A beta version of the app is available for iPhone, but Android users will need to sign
up to be notified when the app is released to the Google Play store.
For the link to download Refresh, as well as all of this week's Bits and Bytes stories,
visit fppad.com/107
Remember, Bits and Bytes wouldn't exist without the support of our partners, so visit Mimic
Technology to learn more about their outsourced technology and IT solutions for RIAs. Download
their free white paper on Data Privacy and Protection by visiting fppad.com/mimic.
I'm going on vacation next week, so Bits and Bytes will take another, but be sure to sign
up at fppad.com/subscribe right now to get the next broadcast delivered to your email
inbox in two weeks.
Have something to say? Contact me on Twitter @billwinterberg or search for me on Google+
For FPPad.com, I'm Bill Winterberg, see you next time.