You have the option to run the software on your own hardware or through the Internet (the ASP) using Plum’s servers - this means that you can access the less-paper office from any location. Plum does not charge extra for data storage. Plum does not charge to export data, in fact Plum does all it can to help you export documents and data to any systems. There is also an option to have a Read Only version of Plum at reduced cost.
Other software houses use a third party for hosting your software and data. With other software houses, you don’t have the flexibility to use your own hardware if you use a pure Internet solution - as the software is not written for PCs. Many Software Houses charge for you to export data and in some instances, you cannot get access to the data in the software.
Using the ASP, you can scan directly to Plum’s servers and store (properly indexed) an unlimited number of documents, voice recordings, data etc. at no extra cost.
Many providers charge extra according to the size of your database. Some providers require the purchase of a separate document management system.
Each tenant has its own set of data that remains logically isolated from data belonging to all other tenants. Stringent database security prevents any tenant from accidentally or maliciously accessing other tenants' data.
There is more risk if you share a database. Customers in fields such as banking or medical records management often have very strong data isolation requirements, and may not even consider an application that does not supply each tenant with its own individual database
Your use of other software may be governed by the speed of your Internet connection.
Plum Software uses the latest in Microsoft tools. This enables users to design their own screen (colour, font, location, etc.) which includes designing the columns to be viewed and specifying which sections are viewed or are available as a side bar. You can have several clients open and functions running simultaneously
Other software houses are still using older technology, so development takes longer. With some packages, you cannot design your own screens or have several clients open at once.
As Plum is a Microsoft-compliant product, it is integrated with Outlook for letters, emailing, etc.
Some software has its own word processing package, which will not be familiar to users, and mass mail-shots and e-shots are often not possible.
Plum is properly designed to link group schemes to members with quick entry screens for inputting and editing member details and all the associated reporting and management. You can also update and create member details from spreadsheets
Often you have to enter a business as a client and the lack of integration between the two means you have to treat them separately.
Other software houses only offer online demonstrations with no site visit and they charge for visits after the sale.
Plum Software supplies, installs and configures any hardware that you need. This expertise ensures we can always give competent and relevant advice to our users.
Other providers do not have the inhouse expertise to manage hardware requirements, and only deal with their software.
Plum software is a Microsoft product. The look and feel of Plum is similar to Outlook and new users feel at ease with the look and style.
This is not the case with some competitors.
The core of Plum Software is the diary that integrates to all parts of the software e.g. the fact find. The diary integrates with....
• To Do lists
• Contact management
• Documents including emails, faxes, scanned documents, voice recordings etc.
• New business register and FSA reporting
• Compliance management
• Management information
• Letter writing
• Tracking for compliance, workflow management etc
• Clock for managing fees with flexible charging.
Diary events, scanned documents etc are often not fully integrated in other providers’ software packages.
The Electronic Commissions and Fees functionality in Plum is easy to use - there is no setup required. The automatic reconciliation makes matching commissions seamless, especially for fund-based renewal. The software calculates the expected fund-based renewal automatically using the Provider Links and % of fund based renewal and then auto-matches against received amounts. Pay-aways for all, including fixed amounts, are automatically managed, payments only on received amounts
Some software houses charge for setup and the software is very complex to use. Plum’s automatic matching in particular for pooling and totalling renewal commission that is unmatched and checking fund-based renewal using actual valuations saves many hours.
Plum’s links to over 30 providers for fund details can be done with a single enquiry for all clients or selected clients, products and/or providers. Plum automatically enters and maintains all the fund details for you. These links are constantly increasing and being enhanced.
With some software houses, you have to enter the fund details manually and you cannot link to all providers in a single enquiry, you can only update a product at a time and then rely on price feeds rather than getting the full contract details every time.
Plum Software handles links to SIPPs, international funds, protected and non-protected rights details properly, as well as Group pensions etc. Plum was the first software house to integrate to SIPPs, as well as the first to respond to the new protected rights details being limited.
If your IFA software cannot handle this, the details are incorrect.
You have a centralised diary for appointments etc plus the option for pop-up reminders for diary events.
The diaries are not both central and individual in some software
With Plum, there are a range of integrated financial planning tools with ‘what if’ options and graphics to illustrate the projections. If full cashflow analysis is required when using Plum, there is extensive exporting of details to Truth.
Many of the software houses rely on third party software for financial planning.
Plum runs regular user meetings and encourages feedback on the use of the software. Most requests are added on the day of request although there may be a slight delay on the release of the new version. Plum guarantees to add functionality at no extra cost provided that there are no time limits imposed and the requests are feasible. There are sometimes daily new releases, depending on the version cycle.
Many software houses do not quickly implement requests, have a limited number of releases and can charge for enhancements.
All data in Plum goes to data viewers where the details can be filtered, selected, grouped and sub grouped, counted, summed, percentaged, averaged, graphed etc plus calculations can be done on columns. Once totalled, data can be sent to a further data viewer with similar analysis features. Any of this data can be exported e.g. to spreadsheets.
Often it is hard to retrieve data in any form required. There is limited access to the data in other software packages. This results in a need for manual totalling etc.
If you use the Internet version of the software, Plum provides website access for your clients and modifies the design for a nominal fee to match your own house-style.
The complete integration to the live database is not provided by other web designers. As a result, your clients may not be able to see the most up-to-date details.
There is a completely integrated clock that can be open and closed for several clients and links to flexible billing for fees to match individual charges.
The clock can be separate from the database.
Plum offers full reporting, including client-facing reports with graphs and user-definable reports.
Often these are static and the software house charges for reporting changes.
The mortgage functionality is completely integrated in Plum.
The mortgage features are often in a separate part of the software.
Plum fully integrates to many products – not just basic fields. These include Truth, Defaqto, Trigold, Exweb, MBL, MTE, Webline, Assureweb, Paymentshield, Select and Protect, GB Group.
Not all software has such deep integration nor to as many products.
The comprehensive tracking options are very flexible. You design your own events to track, dates are relative to the previous item being completed, there are multiple events with different people allocated tasks and you can add/delete/make not applicable events.
Many tracking systems are rigid with predefined events and only sequential events.
You can select from a range of productivity graphs for instant viewing
Some software houses do not store enough data to be able to create such analysis options
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