Everyone has their own interpretation of what a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system can do and what the benefits are for their business. The real question for advisers is what do you need and what are the real advantages of using a CRM system which should be completely integrated as part of your Client Management software?

With the RDR rapidly approaching, record-keeping is moving up the agenda for IFAs of all shapes and sizes. As such, it is essential that you check that your firm’s records and the process you currently have for recording information are in order.

Key documents and facts about clients should be uploaded onto a proper database so that your business can work more efficiently, says Ann Dempster of Plum.

The message from the FSA and all the compliance experts is to keep up-to-date and ongoing records.

Today most organisations embrace email as their primary method of communication. Despite this, the majority of businesses still fail to realise that it is important to manage emails in the same way you would a paper document. Most people overlook the fact that email content contains evidence of business decisions, actions and transactions and therefore become documents and records with the same legal requirements, restrictions and standards as any other record produced.

The fact that email is so easy to send makes it both a problem and an opportunity for all of us. Your clients and prospects are experiencing exactly the same problems with junk email that you experience and may have all manner of filters in place to try to reduce the volume. Unfortunately filters are not perfect and may even be deleting some of your mail, interpreting it as junk.

The idea of a paperless office has been a bit of an impossible dream for as long as I can remember. Time after time each new technology development promises to dramatically reduce paper, yet the filing cabinets continue to grow as do the piles of post arriving every morning.

Electronic mail brings with it a huge range of advantages and disadvantages. On the up side, email is far quicker and easier to deal with. On the down side, it is easier to create junk email so there is more of it. Fortunately there are some electronic tools to help manage incoming email more effectively.