Bell Direct

Further Reading

• Tape Reading and Market Tactics
• No Bull
• The Art of Speculation
• Pit Bull
• Practical Speculation
• The Volatility Course
• Forty-Five Years in Wall Street
• Confessions of a Street Addict
• The Taylor Trading Technique

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Bell Direct is Australia’s newest online stock broker. Founded in 2006, the company has made stock share trading and investing better, easier, and more affordable for Australian consumers by adding a mobile component. As a new challenger in the online stock broker market, Bell Direct has invested heavily in technology to save on operational costs—a strategy that results in lower trading prices and more convenience for its customers. Among Bell Directs 22 staff¬ members are some of Australia’s most experienced developers in online financial services, who developed the company’s Web 2.0 online trading platform. While the Web platform was taking shape, Bell Direct started exploring additional channels for customer interaction.” Everybody has a mobile phone today, so mobile trading was the logical extension of our strategy to service our customers better and more flexibly,” says Lee Muco, Chief Operational Officer at Bell Direct. Mr. Muco continues, “We all know these situations: You’re in a meeting or at a wedding, and can’t talk on the phone or access the Internet. With mobile trading, investors no longer have to miss out on attractive deals because of other commitments.”

Bell Direct chose Sybase 365 mobile services to power its mobile broking service. With an unrivalled global footprint reaching more than 700 mobile operators and 2.4 billion mobile subscribers, Sybase 365 mobile messaging gateways solved the complexities of interoperability management, and enable enterprises to reach out to almost 100 percent of their customers. “Sybase 365 was our first choice because we wanted the most reliable partner on board to make our mobile trading program a success from the beginning,” said Muco. After a short and painless six-week implementation period, the Sybase 365-powered mobile service went live. A logical extension of Bell Direct's online trading platform, investors submit their order by SMS and receives a confirmation by return SMS. To identify themselves, they enter a PIN before trading their shares. The service is free, with customers paying only for a standard SMS. The text based order becomes a registered trading process in the corporate order management system. SMS trading, online platform, and call center systems synchronize in real-time

“Sybase 365’s reputation as the number one mobile messaging provider is unchallenged, and projects in Asian countries—such as China and Malaysia—have proven that the technology works very well for the finance sector.” Another selling point was the simple integration with Bell Directs’ online trading platform and call center technology. Muco goes on to say, “We expect to see a healthy adoption rate for our mobile service, due to the popularity of text messaging in Australia.” Over the next several months, Bell Direct plans to expand its portfolio of mobile services even further. Customers will be able to request information on share prices, trading information, and available funds—all by sending a text message. “We might even issue a daily newsletter to keep our customers better informed, using the same reliable platform provided by Sybase 365,” Muco points out.

Through successful integration of Sybase 365 Mobile Services, in its business operation, Bell Direct is armed with the cutting edge technology required in today’s financial service industry. Bell Direct has gained in simplifying trading procedures for its customers and optimizing on resources. The next step for Bell is to integrate its customer queries and all other facts of customer interaction through mobile devices, which would further increase customer engagement.