The Advantages LA Investment Advisors Gain By Moving To Office 365

As a busy Investment Advisor your days are no doubt filled with all sorts of portfolio management, trading, and operational activities. And being responsive and keeping up with your communications is usually on top of your productivity list. Regardless of how your firm’s running its core office and communications system, do you ever wonder if there’s something out there that could offer more?

Office 365, Microsoft’s answer to how you serve up the core applications your firm depends on. Could it revolutionize the way you run your office? Doubtful. But, it could make things so much easier and more cost effective from a strategic perspective. Imagine being able to focus on your clients and their needs more clearly while Office 365 does the technical work for you and you’ll begin to see why so many other LA Investment Advisors are making the switch.

Office 365: An introduction

A compilation of the core office applications including the most current versions of Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint, as well as Windows and OS X apps, social media platforms, email, and cloud storage, Microsoft Office 365 is a one-stop solution for anyone who uses their computer on a daily basis and would benefit from a virtual PA. Available to users via a monthly subscription service, Office 365 is a comprehensive business package, which is capable of managing your day-to-day activities for you. If this sounds too good to be true, check out some of its other benefits…

Cost: As an Investment Advisor and business owner your first concern will no doubt be the cost of Office 365. It’s going to be expensive, right? Well, no. A subscription to Office 365 costs from as little as $4 per month, although that price will fluctuate based on the features you need and level of package you select.

Security and reliability: Security is a big one, least of all because you handle large amounts of sensitive data every day; compromised data just isn’t an option. Luckily for users of Office 365 Microsoft has made security its number one priority and you can rest assured that data controlled by the software is in safe hands. Robust security, and unprecedented access for only authorized users are guaranteed while the programs’ efficiency means that you can focus on looking after your clients rather than searching for missing paperwork.

Continuity and productivity: Don’t be concerned that a subscription to Office 365 will see you having to start again in terms of office management; the operating system allows you to continue with your existing software packages and services, and will even take over the maintenance of your software. Handy if you’re not as technically savvy as you’d like to be! Not only is continuity guaranteed, but you’ll also save an incredible amount of time that would otherwise be spent training staff on the uses of your new software packages. Productivity levels won’t be affected, while everything in your office gets an upgrade.

Frequent updates and maintenance assistance: The impact from upgrades and updates can have such a negative impact on investment advisors that all too often these upgrades are constantly pushed back to the point of being behind the times with old versions. With Microsoft’s Office 365 you’ll gain access to a virtual IT department, which will immediately negate the need to splurge extra cash. What’s more, all of the software’s upgrades take place automatically, so you won’t be expected to implement any updates yourself.

Compliance: Forget about the headaches of the past with all that’s needed to stay compliant with Microsoft Office licensing. No need to track what versions are on which computer for which user and when they were purchased and what the license actually is. Also, their hosted email program comes with the additional feature of journaling and email archiving so that you can sleep at night knowing that you’re meeting your fiduciary responsibility when it comes to tracking your email communications. Office 365 immediately keeps you in compliance.

Anti-Spam: Office 365 comes with various options to protect you from spam built-in. You can change what actions to take on messages identified as spam, and choose whether to filter messages written in specific languages, or sent from specific countries or regions. You can also turn on advanced spam filtering options if you want to pursue an aggressive approach to spam filtering. Additionally, you can configure end-user spam notifications to inform users when messages intended for them were sent to the quarantine instead

Accessibility: Hosted within the cloud, Office 365 ensures that your programs and documents are accessible wherever there is an Internet connection. Regardless of whether you’re working from home, away on business, out on lunch, or in the office, Office 365 will keep you up to date and provide the files you need within seconds. Remote working is now more popular than ever and allows you to keep up with the demands of the investment industry. Not many software packages can boast that now, can they?

To follow-through on the concepts introduced here, be sure to download your free guide, Investing in High Net Worth Clients: The LA Investment Advisor's Guide to Using Technology to Manage and Grow Your Firm.