Habañero Consulting Group today announced that Internet solutions it developed for long-standing client Credential Financial Inc. helped propel its online brokerage offering into second place on Gómez Canada's latest Internet Broker Scorecard, the benchmark of the financial services industry.
Moving up from tenth place to second in just one year, Credential Direct earned eight Gómez Canada honours, including a number one ranking in the customer confidence category. It was also named the top online brokerage for serious investors. The rapid improvement in position is due both to Credential Direct's concentrated focus on redevelopments to its website and Habañero's ability to deliver quality solutions that meet the brokerage's business needs.
Habañero implemented a host of new functionality on the Credential Direct website it helped develop in 2002. The enhancements included online options trading and short selling, personalized home pages for users, commission calculators for equity and mutual fund trades, as well as a number of overall usability and navigation improvements in direct response to user feedback. In addition, the upgraded Credential Direct site was integrated with new research and analysis tools and financial content provided by Stockgroup and Recognia.
"We recognized exactly what online features we needed to add or improve to become an industry leader", says Lothar Fabian, VP Operations for Credential Securities Inc. "And, because of our established partnership with Habañero, we knew we could deliver cutting-edge online services and capabilities to our clients".
Habañero first began working with Credential Direct, a subsidiary of Credential Financial Inc., in 2001 when the online brokerage for credit union members converted its operations to a new carrying broker and needed a fast, reliable, self-serve website built from scratch. Since then, the two companies have maintained a partnership that has resulted in completion of several significant Internet business solutions.
Elliot Fishman, Principal Consultant for Habañero, states, "We place a lot of value on long-term partnerships with clients. Our strong connection with Credential Financial and our thorough knowledge of its business enabled us to complete this large-scale project successfully and on schedule".