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Dain Rauscher Retools Brokers to Manage Data
Leveraging its existing back office, in January, Minneapolis-based Dain Rauscher Corporation said it would provide the firms more than 2,000 brokers with a central portal to access enterprise customer information by signing an agreement with Toronto-based Janna Systems. Dain Rauscher is integrating the Windows-based version of Jannas Contact Enterprise software with the firms Thomson Financial BETA brokerage processing platform along with partner Vignette Corporations StoryServer customer preferences software.
Dain Rauscher, the nations tenth largest full-service brokerage, bought Thomsons BETA system code a few years ago and customized it, integrating the BETALink GUI with Dains back-office systems. Says Dains managing director of information systems Paul Miller, Brokers already had access to basic data through BETALink, including account information, portfolio management data and order entry. With Janna, weve added another building block by allowing them to access new customer relationship or CRM data such as family information, ticklers and notes about prior communications.
Dain Rauscher is planning another broker platform upgrade to include Vignettes StoryServer to integrate with the Web-based client interface, Dain Rauscher Connect. Were integrating these products not only to leverage the brokers productivity, but to extend their capabilities over the Internet. This will enable our brokers to have a stronger relationship with their clients, adds Miller.
Miller said the firm will not have to do a major forklift upgrade to integrate the new software within its existing broker platform. Instead, the products will sit on top of the firms existing network infrastructure, accessing data from various repositories throughout the firm.
Elaborating on the benefits of the new system, Janna president and CEO Bill Tatham, said, With one click, brokers will be able to see all information related to their clients, including historical interactions such as e-mails and phone calls, as well as transaction data like portfolio balances and stock trades. The Web is part of this multi-channel capability, and Vignettes StoryServer integrates the Web channel, said Tatham.