Version 7.0 of Junxure, the office management and work flow automation software created by and for financial advisers, will be released in the next few weeks, and it is getting some positive early reviews.
The product, from CRM Software Inc. of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., was in beta testing with advisers for much of last year.
"Hands down, the best thing about this new version are the triggering events," said Greg Gardner, an adviser and the owner of The Gardner Group, a Dallas registered investment advisory firm with $50 million in assets under management.
Triggering events can be likened to automated checklists for work flow and processes within a registered investment adviser firm. Default versions of the triggering events are included with the software but are meant to be used more as templates.
The triggering events allow a firm to create an automated work flow involving multiple staff members for a single process — say, taking on a new client.
"The flexibility of creating your own tailored events to match the way you already do things in your firm is phenomenal. It has eliminated a lot of confusion over job duties, responsibilities and accountability. It's already allowed us to become much more efficient," Mr. Gardner said.
The Gardner Group, which participated in beta testing of Junxure's new version, has used the software for about four years, after switching from GoldMine, a customer relationship management package from FrontRange Solutions USA Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif., Mr. Gardner said.
About 1,100 firms and 6,000 advisers use Version 6.0 of Junxure, according to Greg Friedman, president of CRM Software. He is also a certified financial planner and president of Friedman & Associates, an advisory firm in Novato, Calif.
All current users with an up-to-date license will eventually be transferred over to the new version, Mr. Friedman said.
But converting the company's entire customer base will likely take several months, according to CRM Vice President Ken Golding.
"We had hoped to have Version 7 out before the end of last year, but we hit three major snags along the way," he said.
Since its creation in 1994, the software has run on Microsoft Access, which had to be installed on all user workstations and which posed increasingly complex development problems over the years.
REWRITING THE SOFTWARE
With the new version, the company bit the bullet and fully rewrote the software using the Microsoft.Net development framework, a significant undertaking but one that adds a great deal of flexibility and allows for greater customization by the end user.
The new version also addresses one of the two primary complaints from advisers about the product: It is now much faster.
The other major criticism of Junxure has been that it is too complex and offers too many features that will go unused and not be understood by most advisers. Both Mr. Friedman and Mr. Golding argued that while this might be true for small firms, larger and growing firms will end up using much of what Junxure offers.
Mr. Golding said that the major hurdles that were overcome included making the software fully compatible with the new Microsoft Vista operating system and keeping it backward-compatible with XP, Windows 2000 and several versions of the Microsoft SQL Server, as well as enhancing security and integration with Microsoft Outlook.
In addition to the triggering-event feature in the new version of Junxure, advisers also like the ability for individual users to customize their own dashboard view of the product with as many of the 247 fields tracked by the software as they wish. Another favorite feature is the far deeper integration with Microsoft Outlook — a result of the company's creation of an entire Outlook add-on that runs behind the scenes.
A host of minor adviser irritants have been addressed in the new version, including moving alert notifications to a less intrusive position in the lower-right-hand corner of the user's desktop and locking down the ability for advisers to erase or change data easily. With the latest version, advisers must actively click on an "edit" link to open a record for changes.
Junxure has about a 10% market share among fee-only advisers and about a 5% share among fee-based advisers, according to published reports.
LOTS OF COMPETITORS
Data from a 2005 survey performed by Rydex AdvisorBenchmarking Inc. of Rockville, Md., revealed that in 2004 the single-largest program used for CRM purposes was Microsoft Outlook. It was used by more than 26% of the 353 firms that responded to the survey.
According to that survey, among actual CRM software packages, Act! from Sage Software Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz., was used by 25% of firms, 20.7% of firms fell into an "other" category, almost 12% used Goldmine, 9% used a custom or proprietary solution, and 3.9% used a product from EZ-Data Inc. of Pasadena, Calif.
CRM Software provides data conversion services, at additional cost, to those firms migrating from another program to Junxure.
The process can take from two to four weeks. Costs vary depending on the complexity of the data and number of data fields, but the typical range is between $3,000 and $5,500.
The current price for a year's license for three users of Junxure is $1,600 and then an annual renewal fee of $1,100; the cost for 12 users is $4,300 with an annual renewal fee of $3,800. While pricing for the latest version has not been finalized, when put on the spot, Mr. Golding said that it will likely be in the range of an additional $25 to $50 per user.
Other CRM packages for advisers include Act!4Advisers (an Act! add-on program from Allied Financial Software Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga.), Advisors Assistant from Client Marketing Systems Inc. of Pismo Beach, Calif., ProTracker from ProTracker Software Inc. of Hampton, N.H., Redtail Technology Inc. of Gold River, Calif., and Salesforce.com from Salesforce.com Inc. of San Francisco.
We will cover each of these products in the coming issues.
Visit the online version of this story, which includes an annotated slideshow of key interface screen captures in the new version of Junxure. To access the slideshow, go to investmentnews.com/techslideshow 0211.
Please add your voice to our technology coverage. E-mail Davis Janowski with your insights and suggestions for coverage at investmentnews.com/tech.
