CheckFree Investment Services is in the process of introducing its APL Browser vl.0, Hilary Fiorella, vice president at the firm, told the MutualFundWire.com. The new tech tool is designed to assist financial advisors who have discretionary management over clients' accounts with their money management duties. RBC Dain Rauscher and First Union are currently testing the service.

"This is an upgrade over our old service," Fiorella reported. "A number of our users complained about its front-end functionality. They found it hard to learn and, frankly, ugly. We think the new system answers those concerns. It offers a point-and-click approach. It also has a far more dynamic look-and-feel. These changes should put those concerns to bed." The executive noted that the old system was command-based.

"Let us say you are an advisor who wants to move clients' portfolios from Equity X to Equity Y. If you are successful at what you do, you may have thousands or even tens of thousands of accounts. You can make that change relatively easily -- three clicks -- with APL for all of those clients. Instead of working on each account separately, you can do them as a block. The advisor, therefore, can manage a model," the executive contended.

In terms of marketing, CheckFree executives have had a road show and demonstrated the service in four cities: Boston, New York City, Chicago, and San Diego.

The executive further stated that there is no cost to clients for switching over to the new system.

CheckFree is preparing to launch APL Browser vl.0. This enhancement will be ready on May 15, 2002. It is intended to address more global restrictions and workflow issues. A third version will be out by the end of the calendar year.

Fiorella stated that the browser could be used for a number of different product lines including separate accounts and mutual fund wrap programs.

The APL system is UNIX based. 

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