Welcome to anxiety.com

The Internet is causing a growing sense of anxiety amongst advisers and it's not just that online broking, banking and even managed investment sites are spring-ing up and investors are flocking to them. It's a sense that the Internet oppor-tunity is passing them by and more advisers are saying "I want in".

The Internet is causing a growing sense of anxiety amongst advisers and it's not just that online broking, banking and even managed investment sites are spring-ing up and investors are flocking to them. It's a sense that the Internet oppor-tunity is passing them by and more advisers are saying "I want in".

Internet fever is running rampant as ever and while many commentators are dis-missive of the exuberance that seems to have overrun share market investors, no one can afford to ignore the likely consequences that the Internet will have in our lives.

Advisers are also taking more interest in the Internet, and so they should. Ad-visers' trading stock is information and the Internet is all about the efficient dissemination and access to information. Some advisers are now taking the next step and developing their own web site.

Let's have a look at what an adviser should seek to achieve from a web site and some practical tips to avoid the pitfalls.

When determining what your objective is in developing a web site, it is worth bearing in mind that the online market has some big players with very deep pock-ets to attract and retain traffic or users. On the top of the list are the large portal web sites that aim to be the ultimate on-ramp to all manner of products and services. Companies like Telstra, Yahoo!, Fairfax and NineMSN are spending tens of millions of dollars in developing and marketing their web sites. Large corporations and institutional sites also have million dollar budgets aimed at servicing and increasing their large customer bases. Advisers will have a formi-dable job in vying for traffic against these players.

Because of this many advisers will use their web site to focus on service to ex-isting clients rather than pursuing new clients.

An adviser can use their web site effectively to increase the level of service to existing clients. Access to account and educational information anywhere at any time, represents a significant step forward with potential to reduced serv-icing costs.

However clients want more than just to view their statement online, they want personalised servicing of their queries. The web is an effective way to channel and respond to client queries. You can make the most of the data captured through publishing relevant generic Q&A's. Additionally online interactive cal-culators and simulation tools can be value added devices that educate the client by providing potential solutions to their investment.

One exciting possibility for the adviser is to use the web site to qualify pro-spective clients. By redirecting the prospect to an initial questionnaire lo-cated on the web site, the adviser can prepare more effectively for an initial face-to-face meeting. Or alternatively, to redirect the client to a more suit-able source.

Emerging Opportunities

The bulk of financial services offerings on the Internet are aimed at the DIY market (online broking, banking, lending etc). This is the result of three in-fluences:

The commercialisation of the Internet has only really commenced in the last few years.

Previously the Internet has been used by predominantly "early adopters" inde-pendent by nature.

The DIY transactional sites are relatively straightforward to develop. Much harder are sites that cater for "advice-seekers". These require an indepth knowledge of the user and sophisticated algorithms and matching processes.

Advisers should stay alert and utilise software developments and large scale web sites that aim to put advice-seekers in contact with the right adviser. Addi-tionally, the text books talk about the rise of the "infomediary". This is an online information agent for users. Through their indepth knowledge of the user's spending patterns, attitudes and situation the infomediary is able to ne-gotiate and broker purchases of products and services on the users behalf. Per-haps advisers are well to act as the infomediary.

Planning Your Website Development

Web sites can cost anything from a few hundred dollars to millions to develop, it depends on the level of functionality, volume, timeliness and customisation of informational content. Integration with sophisticated databases and internal systems further push the cost of development skyward. Most adviser sites are "brochure ware" style, providing basic company profile information.

The absolute fundamental, before you shell out any cents, is an Internet busi-ness strategy. A proper strategy can save a fortune in the long run. Secondly a competent e-commerce consultant will definitely save an enormous amount of valuable time in background research about the technologies and applications in-volved.

Research

Spend time using the search engines like www.anzwers.com.au to bookmark adviser web sites and other professional sites that you like. List the functional and informational components that you may require in your own site. Contact the web site owners and asked them for pointers and make a note of who developed the site.

Content & Functionality

Prepare your own flowcharts or "storyboards" mapping out major content areas and navigation within the site. This will help firm up your own ideas and ensure better communication with the web site developer.

Budget & Benchmarks

Determine how much you are prepared to spend on your site and set the benchmarks for what you expect to achieve from the site over a 6 to 12 month period. Bench-marks could be hits to the site, numbers of people joining the site if there is a membership area or numbers of e-mail feedback received.

Appoint a Developer

Large scale web sites require a number of specialists including;

Strategic Consultant who assists in developing the online business and marketing plans and acts as project director.

Production Manager who coordinates activity and manages the project.

Creative Director who is responsible for the visual interface and ultimately the user experience.

Software Engineer who is responsible for database and application development.

Underneath the Creative Director and Software Engineer will be Designers and De-velopers who design and program.

Additionally these sites often require Copywriters, Specialist Animators and Il-lustrators and Web Editors.

Smaller sites thankfully can be built with one to two man teams. There are many developers in Australia however no uniform accreditation system exists. Check out www.consultco.com.au for a directory of developers or look for the develop-ers behind Australia's best sites at www.webawards.com.au.

When you appoint a developer insist on a Term of Engagement spelling out their obligations to you. Make sure that you specify that all intellectual property rights such as copyright in the site and its contents belong to you. Also ensure that your developer provides you a full copy of the site in addition to original digital graphics and images on CD. This could come in very handy if you ever fall out with your developer.

Start Small and Build Up

It is safer to develop a simple web site designed to handle future growth rather than going for all the bells and whistles upon launch. The site can always be-come more sophisticated once traffic and usage picks up. Remember in the early days it is important to generate interest in the site and to gear up your cus-tomer service staff to quickly respond to e-mail and online enquiries from your site. Many sites have failed because an e-mail request has gone unanswered, web users' confidence can quickly drop off.

Plan a strategy and watch the growth of other adviser sites around you. One of the most important things is to only launch into the venture when you are good and ready. More and more cost effective solutions will come to fruition and you can choose to watch from the edge of the table. Only so many people can be win-ners and you have to take the initiative to reap any rewards.

Stephen Langford is Internet Consultant to Mercantile Mutual and direct