Leveraging Advicent learning material

November 08, 2017 by Alex Noonan

An advisors uses learning materials to increase her efficiency.

About the author

Alex Noonan

Technical writer

Joining Advicent as a partner support specialist in 2013, Alex provided high-quality support for partners within NaviPlan and Profiles. In 2015, he took that product knowledge to the learning development team as a technical writer, creating detailed documentation for partners with a practical focus on what they need to know. Alex received a BSBA from Drake University in Marketing/Advertising Creative in 2013.

The software solutions offered by Advicent provide you with various sources of information — in addition to their unparalleled functionality — to answer any question you may have in the application. Our customer support team and help centers can assist you with questions you may have about functional processes.

These sources, however, rarely go into the details of how something works. The Learning Centers in our applications provide you with a diverse assortment of documentation that include basic step-by-step processes, detailed breakdowns of internal calculation processes, video guides, and more. Here are a few materials you can access that will improve how you utilize Advicent technology.

Quick reference guides

The most basic document type are the quick reference guides (QRGs). QRGs are guides that go over the function process on how to do certain things within the program, such as integrations, in-app workflow processes, and connection processes with NaviPlan® client portal. QRGs are efficient reads that simplify potentially overwhelming multistep processes.

Functional documents

Functional documents take a different direction from QRGs, as their main purpose is to explain the detailed functionality of various behind-the-scene concepts in succinct, digestible reads. Explanations about concepts such as Monte Carlo, asset allocation, and tax calculations are found within this type of document.

Videos

For those who prefer an audio-visual approach to learning, videos are the ideal source of information. These videos are 3-6 minute explanations of how various functions work in an app. Videos provide a similar level of complexity as a QRG but with visual ques, a direct presentation of what is needed to be done on the screen, and easy-to-understand instruction.

User manuals

For a holistic approach to learning, user manuals are also available. Each chapter of these large documents are broken down by topic and go over a swath of material, from data entry to report generation. While potentially overwhelming for isolated questions, these documents can give you a complete grasp of the entire application.

Other material

Other learning opportunities include our tax documents and assorted webinar series. The tax documents go over all values used behind the scenes in tax calculations; these documents are only available in applications that use a dynamic tax calculation system.

Webinars give you the opportunity to attend free live seminars on specific topics. Take Action Webinars are on various topics, while What’s New Webinars exclusively cover upcoming features coming to the application. If you ever miss signing up or attending a webinar, recordings are available for viewing at any time.

In addition to learning materials, the Learning Centers provide other helpful resources such as release notes and data-gathering tools. Release notes gives insight into what has been added to the application recently, and gives directions and visuals to where you can find them. Data gathering tools are various paper fact finders to help you gather a consistent standard of information from your client.

The Learning Center is one of the best resources within each of our applications that can give you the answers you need. Familiarity with its contents can provide with the details you need, any time of the day.

To learn how Advicent personnel can also help technology adoption at your firm, click here.