STRONG MOVE: WEB SITE TO SNARE ADVISERS — PASSWORD-PROTECTED SITE HAS ‘REAL VIDEO’ FOR LIVE PORTFOLIO CHATS

Strong Capital Management Inc. has become the latest mutual fund company to introduce a web site for financial advisers.

The Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based firm, which has more than $30 billion in mutual fund assets under management, has developed a password-protected site for the 4,000-some advisers that sell its mutual funds. The new site allows advisers to download forms, prospectuses and other information on the Strong Funds and their performance.

The site also features technology making it possible for advisers to have live “real video” conversations with any of Strong’s 45 portfolio managers and analysts.

“Advisers need customized and detailed information in a timely fashion, and the Internet is the vehicle to help us better serve them,” says Donald G. Tyler, a senior vice president at Strong.

ADVISER OUTREACH

Strong’s move is part of a relatively new development in the financial web site arena: reaching out to investment advisers. Other mutual fund companies that have recently launched, or upgraded, web sites aimed at advisers include Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments and the Vanguard Group. Boston-based Colonial Group Inc. is also in the midst of developing a site for advisers.

“It’s all about increasing bandwidth and branding,” says Chris Musto, a senior consultant at Gomez Associates, a research firm in Boston. “But it remains to be seen whether any of these mutual fund families will be successful in getting their sites into the regular routines of investment advisers. It’s not going to be easy.”

Greg Vanslyke, a financial planner at Ballentine & Co. Inc. in Wolfeboro, N.H., is a living testament to the difficulty mutual fund companies face in trying to lure advisers to their web sites. “I’m just not that familiar with such sites,” he says. “I can’t say they are something I’ve gone looking for, either.”

But Strong remains undaunted. “We intend to be very proactive about educating advisers about the site,” says Jayne Rodenkirk, a marketing manager at Strong Intermediary Services, the unit of the fund firm that caters to financial advisers.

Ms. Rodenkirk says Strong recently sent letters to more than 2,000 advisers nationwide to inform them about the site. The remaining advisers will be introduced to the system over the next three to six months.

“We really view it as more of a marketing tool than anything else at this point,” Ms. Rodenkirk. “It will allow us to provide up-to-the-minute information to our advisers without having to worry about print or mailing time.”

Strong is also considering upgrades to its site. Among features that may be added, says Ms. Rodenkirk, is one that would give advisers direct online access to customer accounts — a service Putnam already provides.

“We’re still examining how we would go about doing it,” she says.

Meanwhile, Putnam is also adding more bells and whistles to its adviser site. The Boston-based fund family is currently testing a feature that allows advisers and customer service representatives to exchange client documents, such a transaction statements, over the Internet.

QUICKER ANSWERS

The upgrade, which isn’t expected to be fully rolled out for about a year, is intended to reduce the amount of time it takes advisers to get answers to questions about their clients’ accounts.

Currently, only about 7,000 of the more than 100,000 advisers registered to sell Putnam products access clients’ accounts via the Internet.

While usage remains relatively low, Gomez Associates’ Mr. Musto says companies such as Putnam and Strong that are investing in sites aimed at advisers are probably making a worthwhile investment.

“Nobody is really betting the farm on this,” he says. “It’s a fairly risk-free proposition from the fund families’ standpoint.”