A look at the Grendel interface

The latest version of Grendel was announced recently with little fanfare by founder Aaron Guidotti (he is chief executive of Big Brain Works LLC and began developing what later became Grendel about 15 years ago).

Like most of his releases over the years Aaron tends to avoid trying to make a big media production out of them.

Instead he prefers to share what is new with the advisers using it and proceed to fix what needs fixing and moves on with life.

I wrote a column on the latest features (see ”A small CRM system that offers many extras”, InvestmentNews, November 14) a few weeks ago.

Unfortunately, I just noticed that I failed to hit the “publish” button on a post with interface screenshots that I had prepared a few days later, so here without furhter ado is that post.
One of the things I did not have the space to touch on in the column is, well, the new “Touch” system.

It might seem like a no-brainer but the system allows you to set up rules based primarily on the “grade” you have given a client (which is based on how much work you have to devote to the client).

Once these rules are set up Grendel will let you know how long it has been since you called the client or interracted with them.

As Mr. Guidotti and others that work with advisers like to point out, the #1 reason why clients leave their advisers is a lack of client communication.

Clients are parsed into some pre-defined buckets along the left hand side of the screen and the defaults are “Immediate opportunities, ”Immediate Touch Needed”
“Last 5 Entities.”

In a nutshell, you will see that “Workflow,” which is the is topmost center, basically the MAIN SECTION (as I pointed it out in my notes) you want to be paying attention on a given day, in other words your future activities.

Below that is the “Journal” section, which is basically your immediate past (the bottom center window). Everything from the Workflow section next turns up down there once a task is done.