Several established ICRM vendors are penetrating the buy side, but none with more success than Art Technology Group (ATG), a small firm with several buy side clients. ATG's Dynamo product has been installed in several retail and institutional investment management firms, providing dynamic personalization capabilities to enhance the customer online experience.

The ability to capture an online customer's preferences and inquiries allows mutual fund firms to more effectively present products that the customer would not have otherwise been exposed to. As customers become more comfortable providing more information over the Internet-and firms get better at obtaining information without customers' knowledge or understanding-the opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell are becoming enormous.

As the industry continues to consolidate and fund shareholders become part of a larger and larger pool of customers, firms will need ways of distinguishing, segmenting, and marketing to smaller and smaller subsegments of customers. This trend will ultimately lead to individualized segmenting, where the individual becomes a market unto itself.

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