Crm For Wealth Management : Approaching Total Practice Management Part -2

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

All vendors allow advisors to create letter/email templates and automatically merge client information to send out personalized emails and letters. Where vendors differ, however, is in the fulfillment and tracking of campaigns. Redtail, for example, leaves the marketing fulfillment role to third-party vendors such as Sendoutcards.com or Marketinglibrary.net. Redtail and Junxure both allow advisors to send out HTML email marketing messages, but these messages would need to be developed using Microsoft Word. By comparison, Pivotal CRM and Salesforce.com would allow advisors to create emails using prebuilt HTML templates.

Pivotal CRM integrates with Pivotal eMarketing for advanced marketing capabilities to develop, schedule, execute, and track campaigns. In addition, Pivotal eMarketing supports Web registrations for live events. Salesforce for Wealth Management comes with the ability to send up to 1,000 HTML emails based on a small number of templates. Users will be able to track when and how many times emails are opened.

WORKFLOW TOOLS

All of the vendors provide end users with the ability to build multi-stage and multi-step workflows, or action sequences that can automatically generate tasks when workflows are triggered. The tools will track when tasks are completed and automatically send out the subsequent task in accordance with the defined process.

Solutions from Microsoft, Salesforce.com, NexJ, and, Pivotal CRM can go beyond task management capabilities to true workflow automation. For example, these solutions include approval workflow, which allows advisors to automatically send a task or an email to a supervisor requesting their review and approval. The supervisor could log into the CRM solution and approve a document or a client view in the solution directly. Workflow capabilities that are more project-management-oriented (or activity-management-oriented), such as Redtails and Junxures, would send a task to a designated individual to remind them to request and obtain an approval. Customers will often integrate Redtail or Junxure with content management vendors such as Documentum, FileNet, and Laserfiche to manage a document-approval workflow process.

ADOPTION OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

CRM ON MOBILE DEVICES

Vendors provide mobile versions of their CRM application to allow advisors to access and update client information while traveling or meeting with clients. With the advent of larger-screen tablet devices such as the iPad, advisors will have an easier time accessing or updating client data while on the road or in client meetings. Table F provides more details on vendors mobile capabilities.

SOCIAL MEDIA ADOPTION

Advisors can glean important information about their clients and their relationships through social media networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Table G shows which CRM solutions integrate with clients social media sites. The table also shows which ones help advisors build a presence on social networks. Advisor involvement with social media is still in its infancy due to compliance restrictions and regulatory uncertainty over this form of communication. Over time, however, wealth management firms will find ways to leverage social technology to help advisors share valuable content with clients and generate prospects.

VENDOR SELECTION

One of the most important decisions that wealth management firms should make when selecting a CRM solution is whether they are looking for a solution that can be molded to fit their needs or whether they are more interested in an out-of-the-box solution. The reality is that solutions do not necessarily fall squarely in one camp versus another; Salesforce.com, for example, is a highly malleable solution, but contains some wealth management capabilities as well as integrations with leading wealth management platforms (e.g., Schwab). Pivotal CRM includes strong wealth management functionality and is highly flexible, but the solution does not currently integrate out-of-the-box with non-CRM wealth-management applications.

Other factors that wealth management firms should consider prior to diving into a detailed feature/function comparison include the following:

Hosted vs. on-premise solutions: Firms must determine whether they want to own and manage the application, server(s) and database(s) in-house, whether they want to purchase the application but have it hosted on third-party infrastructure, or whether they want to access the application via the Web on a subscription basis (SaaS). Firms that seek to leverage SaaS solutions must ensure that they have access to high-bandwidth internet connections in order to maximize the solutions performance.

Scalability: Large and growing firms need to ensure that the solutions can handle large numbers of concurrent users .

Ability to meet the needs of multiple groups within the same organization: Particularly for midsize and large organizations, solution should include administrative capabilities that allow firms to tailor screens and access functionality and fields based on user role or group.

Small firms that are looking for a practical and easy-to-use wealth management CRM solution at a low price point should consider Redtail. This solution requires no hardware investments and provides the most straightforward user interface and functionality of all solutions reviewed. Junxure is also a strong solution in this space, but the firm does not currently offer a SaaS deployment (expected in 2012), which is increasingly the deployment option of choice for small firms that lack the technology budget or resources to manage an application in-house.

CDC SOFTWARE

SOLUTION BACKGROUND

CDC software owns more than 20 front- and back-office enterprise software firms that were acquired over the last 10 years and which continue to operate as independent companies. CDC softwares Pivotal CRM acquisition in 2004 was the firms first in the front-office space. Since the acquisition of Pivotal CRM, CDC Software has acquired several additional front-office solutions, including C360, an independent software vendor focused on building applications for Microsoft Dynamics.

permissions can easily identify duplicate records, as well as merge records and unmerge them if they were, for example, merged in error.

Referrals management: For larger firms looking to generate cross-selling across lines of business, Pivotal CRM has the ability to route referrals to other associates based on geography, product, or client/prospect type. Associates can receive referrals on their dashboard.

Workflow Automation: Pivotal CRM enables the creation of workflow templates that trigger sequential activities. Tasks can be sent to individuals or departments once preceding tasks have been completed. One of Pivotals clients integrates with FileNet to automate the application process, from form-filling through electronic signature and document management.

Integration with Social Media Sites: Pivotal CRM for wealth management enables advisors to develop a social media presence to share ideas with clients and attract prospects. The solution allows advisors to enter their comments directly in Pivotal CRM without having to visit social media sites. Comments can also be routed to compliance officers for their review prior to posting. In addition, advisors can integrate their clients social media presence into the client record. The solution integrates Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, InsideView, and Google Blogsearch.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

Pivotal 6 will continue to be enhanced with new capabilities that will focus on the following features:

Enhanced data visualizations tools with multi-level drill-down capabilities

More tools to allow non-coders to customize complex workflow in the system through configurations and visual tools

Choice of smart and thin clients (due in 2011) based on ASP.NET

Choice of code-based workflow and visual workflow (due in 2011) based on Workflow Foundation

CONCLUSIONS

A confluence of factors is driving strong growth in CRM investments from wealth management firms. Financial advisors need CRM technology today more than ever before to help them compete against online brokerage firms and full-service firms and deliver a superior client experience while optimizing the time they spend with each client. At the same time, CRM solutions are more attractive and cost-effective today than they were 10 years ago. Functionality is easier to change today, and new workflow capabilities provide firms with significant value, as they can manage and monitor all client-related processes from one application.

In addition to improvements in technology, vendors and wealth management firms have realized that technology implementations must be supported by process and technical training to ensure advisors understand the best practices that their new tools are intended to enable.

Wealth management firms that can implement process and technology changes simultaneously through a tool that advisors find easy to use are well positioned to generate significant value from their CRM investments.

by: CDC Pivotal CRM

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