Technology and software for service delivery.

Service delivery: In current economic scenario, the service sector is considered as the ever growing sector amongst all. A quick look at the below table showing the GDP figures at current prices of its three components viz., Manufacturing, Services and Financing, insurance, real estate & business services will enlighten us more.
(Rs. In Crores)

Year 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 P 2005-06 QE 2006-07 RE

Manufacturing 300392 315314 346029 388549 453603 519746 609596

Services 1083531 1202457 1329322 1506670 1720630 1979667 2302539

Financing, insurance, real estate & business services 254772 293035 332115 375606 413129 464493 540160
(Source: RBI / CSO)

P : Provisional. / QE : Quick Estimates. / RE : Revised Estimates

In percentage terms, the 2006-07 revised estimates show an increase of 102.93% for Manufacturing, 112.50% for Service and 112.02% for Finance, Insurance, real estate & business as compared to the figures of 2000-01. The service industry, particularly the BFSI space has seen a considerable growth and is still seen as a sector with tremendous growth potential. At the crux of the service industry is the customer. The industry in general directly caters to the end customers thus giving rise to the need for not only a quality service but also for a value based one. This is ensured only with a prompt and apt service delivery. Just like material goods are packaged in attractive and informative manner, service delivery means how one packages the service provided, in a value based and attractive way for the customer. This however should be within the limits and the scope of the service provided to the customer thereby enhancing its value. A good service delivery ensures the confidence and the trust of the customer in the provider which is very essential in a service based sector. Thus finding avenues to explore such possibilities in the financial planning services is also essential. One area that helps this cause is that of technology. With the continuous development in technology and advent of softwares which help in maintaining portfolios and modeling it, financial planning service can be very well enriched. Use of technology and software: MS Excel has proved to be very efficient and is almost essential while catering to financial planning or advisory services. Excel as its generally called is an application bundled in the Microsoft Office package. It is structured as a spreadsheet where one can create tables

and put in figures. The important feature that proves it helpful is the various functions available within the application. The functions are nothing but formulae incorporated in the application in a simpler way to use. Common examples are Sum, Average, Minimum, Maximum, etc. The list of such functions is quiet exhaustive, however, from the finance point of one can find functions that are very handy. Functions of Excel (Financial): -----

Software packages: In addition to the functions and features of MS Excel, nowadays, there are also many software programs available in the market, which cater specifically to the Financial Planning area with the requisite tools. An advantage to such software packages is that they can be customized also by furnishing ones requirement to the developer. Available in different kinds of versons, the base programs helps one to maintain the client details and his financial exposure with the advanced packages having the options of portfolio modeling, building client portfolios, taking out charts, graphs, etc. comparing model portfolio with the clients portfolio, etc. In addition, these can also be shared with the customer by way of printing out such information or also by mailing out periodically with the current value of the portfolio. Servicing the client by way of computers is very cost effective and also favourable from the clients point of view. Computers and internet have penetrated into the common mans home and is no longer a luxury but more of a necessity.