For their part, how do vendors who service such virtual office clients juggle so many balls in the air? How do they manage multiple clients, multiple deadlines, and at the same time protect their clients-and their clients' data-in a society rife with identity theft concerns?
The way they do it, says Szebo, is by "keeping things as uniform as possible so they don't have to go in and tweak and do extra pieces for you. They also work on volume a lot."
    eTelligent Consulting, for example, has made outsourcing portfolio management services easy for advisors like Kirchenbauer, a client of the firm. It can define a process once and spread its application out through 50 or more clients, says Jim Starcev, managing principal. "We do that with corporate actions and downloads. We process work throughout the quarter. A lot of people [who do it] in-house may put that off and do it once or twice a quarter, for example. We do it daily."
    Security is always a concern with the Overland Park, Kan., firm. The accounts and reports that clients access are controlled by a password. Clients have their own databases, and can customize them for billings, specific asset classes, report settings and other functions. Employees are fully screened. There are backup sites for redundancies. All data is stored in a single location and controlled by passwords. "By contract we guarantee that the client owns their data and guarantee privacy of that data, as well," says Starcev. "It's their data, not ours."
    Total Office Inc. of Akron, Ohio, handles some of Greenhill's account administrative and paperwork, mails his birthday and holiday cards and helps maintain his database. The firm, which juggles such duties for about 50 clients, also checks e-mails and phone messages. It has the capability to confirm trades, transfers and make client withdrawals. It can set up appointments for meetings and seminars, and design Web sites and PowerPoint presentations.
    "It's really a balancing act," says Sherry Carnahan, Total Point's ebullient president, "because we never know what's going to come in and how long each task is going to take, except for the recurring tasks. Those are easy to plan and schedule and are done regularly."
Sometimes the transition from doing everything yourself to working virtually can be a bit rough. "We try to give them as much instruction on how to transition as possible," says Carnahan. "Sometimes we have to hold their hand at the beginning because they're new. A lot of advisors have a hard time letting go and giving work to us."

Bruce W. Fraser, a freelance financial writer in New York, can be reached at [email protected]. Visit him at www.bwfraser.com.

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