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| A Letter from
the President |
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Some of today’s challenges include
the increasing regulatory and due diligence
needs, staying on top of the latest strategic
changes on the part of your competitors,
the need for additional creative sales,
marketing, product development and asset
gathering strategies, and efforts to streamline
internal business monitoring and communication
across departments. In order to ensure that
our services remain valuable and consistent
with the needs of the current and future
fund environments, we are once again evolving
our Simfund Plus system.
Our latest version, Simfund 3.0, includes
new data content, automated, time-saving
analytics, and enhanced capability improvements
that many of you have been requesting of
us to satisfy the needs of today’s
more challenging environment.
In addition, Simfund 3.0 facilitates new
frontiers in integrated data analysis. This
version has been prepared so that you will
be able to add additional data from other
leading vendors, perhaps even your own data,
into our system and expand your capabilities
to employ multi-dimensional analysis and
business decision-making.
For me, Simfund 3.0 is a catalyst to mobilize
additional data and analytical capabilities
to substantively enhance our assistance
for each client. Thus, the capabilities
of the system will be further enhanced
within the context of Simfund 3.0 over time
as we continue to respond to client suggestions
and conceive of further improvements.
We believe that this new version and subsequent modules will benefit many more individuals within your organization than we have previously serviced. The attached Simfund 3.0 fact sheet describes the new features, the increased costs associated with the new product, and our training plans.
My staff and I look forward to the process
of the next several months as we work with
you to successfully deploy this new system
to assist your progress.
Sincerely,
Joel Rosenthal
President
Simfund 3.0 Rollout
Details
Continuing our ongoing mission
of assisting clients each year in meaningful
ways, all of us at Strategic Insight are
pleased to announce the release of Simfund 3.0.
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“You can do that!—in
Simfund?”--
The Chairman of one of the largest
fund companies upon seeing the analytics
from Simfund 3.0 |
- Previously time consuming actionable
graphic presentations, now automated
- New, effective analytics directly
supporting your sales and distribution
teams
- Revealing, automated performance
analytics including multiple-period, risk-return
profiles
- QuickLink to all recently S.E.C.
filed changes for any fund
- In addition to the latest,
now, five fiscal years of advisory fees
and operational expenses
- For those with SI fee&expense,
automated analytics for sub-advisory and
N-SAR data
- Incorporation of data modules
from other vendors
And more to come…
Simfund 3.0 is both an event and a process
to assist the progress of our clients. Adding
to the power of Simfund 3.0, additional
features will be incorporated throughout
the coming year.
Simfund 3.0 will be your passport to add-on
modules of other data providers, so your
reports based on such integrated data can
take advantage of Simfund’s aggregation
tools and new graphic capabilities. We are
currently in discussions with several major
providers to make the integration of their
data into Simfund 3.0 possible.
Beyond the significant benefits to your
in-house Simfund use, Simfund 3.0 will deepen
our customized research team’s ability
to help our research clients with innovative
analytics and quicker response.
Our client service team can provide you with illustrations and examples of Simfund 3.0, as well as demonstrate its features, through WebEx or in client meetings. To learn more, call
our customer service team leaders: Rita
Leytush rita@sionline.com 212-944-4466 or
Jennifer Jank jj@sionline.com 212-217-6941.
Budget Planning Details
You will find the use of Simfund 3.0 expanding
within your company, especially in the areas
of sales and distribution, investment analytics,
and senior executive and Board presentations.
While Simfund’s standard contract
permits up to 10 User stations, you can
contractually arrange for additional Users
at a relatively nominal added fee.
To develop and continuously add
to Simfund 3.0, and especially to support
its expanded use, SI is investing in significant
technological and personnel resources, necessitating
higher annual licensing fees. This price
increase will go into effect November 1st
and will be incorporated in our subsequent
billings.
In order to provide Simfund 3.0 to all
of our clients at the same time, the associated
costs need to be equitably distributed among
all of our client companies. Subscribers
with a renewal date in January 2004 or later,
should plan for a pro-rata subscription
price increase from November 1st until the
point of their annual Simfund contract renewal.
For the average subscriber with six months
remaining on their existing contract period,
such costs will be no more than an additional
$1,500 to $4,500, depending upon a client’s
subscription. Our goal is to have each of
our 150 Simfund client companies and 1,300
individual Users benefit from Simfund 3.0
as soon as possible. We will be as accommodating
as possible of our clients’ budgeting
process. Should you have questions or concerns,
call Strategic Insight’s COO, Todd
Hiller at 212-944-4457.
Training Process: Analyst
Round Tables with Strategic Insight
Simfund 3.0 training seminars begin
October 6th. Because of the many
additional features of Simfund 3.0, as well
as its expanded use, SI will be conducting
a series of one-day Users’ training
seminars in our N.Y. offices (and subject
to demand, elsewhere) during the Fall. Each
day we will be training a small group of
Simfund Users. We will run these, for a
full day for each group, each day of the
week of October 6th to October 10th, as
well as each day during the week of October
20th through October 24th. Further dates
will be announced. We will group seminar
participants based on the nature of their
company responsibility and Simfund experience.
Simfund training classes will include an
introduction to version 3.0 features, one-on-one
support from SI analysts, individuated assignments
based on the experience and needs of each
User, time-savings tips, advanced graphics,
reviews of lessons learned, “Analyst
Round Tables – Discussions with Your
Peers”, and more. Our intention is
to offer as much individualized attention
as possible and to accommodate specific
interests.
We also plan to have days devoted to client
users and Simfund beneficiaries with very
specific responsibilities, including:
- For Sales and Distribution Executives:
planning for 2004 sales opportunities
with Avi
- For fee and Board report analysts:
advanced and automated fee benchmarking
for product development, regulatory response,
and Board reporting
- For due diligence and monitoring: quick,
advanced S.E.C. filing research
- Depending on our clients’ request:
Variable Annuity opportunities, use of
our global customized research, or other
requested topics.
These Simfund seminars are free of charge.
Because training works best in smaller groups,
and there are only so many spaces available
in the first few weeks, we have to limit the
number of initial attendees from each client
firm. Following the training of your key Simfund
User, we will then work with that User to
be a center for Simfund 3.0 within your organization
and facilitate additional company training.
Because of likely, high demand for our early
training spaces, please call as soon as possible,
Francesca Loo, floo@sionline.com,
212-944-4460 to inform us of your training
and seminar attendance preferences.
Strategic Insight looks forward to the
integration of Simfund 3.0 in your growth
initiatives for the coming years.
What can you tell me about the
changes to Simfund?
Strategic Insight has been working for the
past year to improve the Simfund system
to meet and exceed the needs of our clients.
Simfund 3.0 will make your job easier and
will provide you with greatly expanded data
and analytical capabilities. Many of the
features added to the Simfund platform were
at the request of our clients, and include:
- Automated graphics capabilities
that allow you to quickly and easily create
your own bubbles, scatters and snails with
the click of a button.
- Expanded fee and expense data and
analytics, including advisory fee and operational
expenses data going back 5 years, and automated
analytics for sub-advisory and N-SAR data
(for fee and expense subscribers).
- Incorporation of data modules from
other leading vendors to facilitate multi-dimensional
analysis and reporting.
- New analytics to support sales and
distribution.
- QuickLink to all recent SEC filed
changes for any fund with even greater capability
for FundFiling subscribers.
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