Two new customer relationship management systems could help advisory firms save time and reduce overhead.
The simpler, less expensive platform is ClientVision, a CRM system that is integrated with Microsoft Outlook 2007, from Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash. It is web-based, and all data are backed up online.
ClientVision, from AdviceAmerica Inc. of Freemont, Calif., is designed for smaller firms whose client base has relatively simple, straightforward wealth management needs.
The system allows a user to click on the ClientVision tab within Outlook, generating folders for personal and financial information, and financial reports. Each folder has sets of self-explanatory icons.
For example, in the personal-information folder, details can be filled in for a spouse, children, other advisers, risk profile and goals.
The financial-information folder contains worksheets for recording the details of your client's assets, income, liability and insurance policies.
And in the financial-reports folder, six reports can be generated, such as portfolio holdings or a financial-overview report.
"We're able to store much deeper financial details for the clients than with Outlook alone, and we of course would like to see that same financial data driving financial planning using AdvisorVision," said Gary Kinghorn, director of marketing and product management with Advice-America.
Advisers looking for a mere sales tool, however, will be disappointed.
"Our system is much more about better managing communications with clients" than it is a sales tool, Mr. Kinghorn said.
Bill Winterberg, an independent financial adviser who maintains his own technology blog (fppad.com), has evaluated the software, and he likes it despite a shortcoming or two.
"First of all, those advisers that are already comfortable with Micro-soft Outlook will find ClientVision's interface very intuitive and easy to learn. Now compare that with Redtail [Technology Inc. of Gold River, Calif.] or Junxure [from CRM Software Inc. of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.], where the learning curve is lengthy and extensive," he said.
That isn't to say that the ClientVision software is perfect.
"The first thing you've got to add, I told [AdviceAmerica] after conducting my own evaluation, is a keyword search," said Mr. Winterberg, who is also a Portland, Ore.-based operations and efficiency consultant to financial advisers.
The subscription cost for the software is $399 a year. However, advisers that use the online financial planning system can subscribe for just $199 a year.
In addition, advisers can purchase Outlook 2007 for $90 from AdviceAmerica.
A more complex and expensive program is E*Assist LLC's CRM offering, which was designed for wealth management firms of any size.
The Oaklands Gardens, N.Y.-based vendor's product is built on top of Salesforce.com, a tried-and-true development platform on which 1 million users rely and which is constantly being improved by a legion of developers.
One user of San Francisco-based Salesforce.com Inc.'s system since December is Evergreen Management LLC, a registered investment advisory firm in Chattanooga, Tenn., that manages $147 million in assets.
Michael O'Donnell, an adviser with Evergreen, said that he and his fellow advisers sought a Salesforce .com-based system from the beginning. But they ruled out Salesforce for Wealth Management, which came directly from the company, because it lacked work flow features.
That left two options, E*Assist and XLR8 (pronounced "accelerate"), from Moulton Strategic Partners Inc. of Flower Mound, Texas.
"While I think we would have been happy with either one — XLR8 or E*Assist — based on features, we thought E*Assist came in more reasonably priced," Mr. O'Donnell said.
A significant factor in the application's adoption is its integration with many other applications that many advisers license, he said.
For example, it integrates with MoneyGuidePro, a financial planning software from PIE Technologies Inc. of Midlothian, Va., with the portfolio-accounting system of Orion Advisor Services LLC of Omaha, Neb., as well as PortfolioCenter, from The
Charles Schwab Corp. of San Francisco.
Such integrations make it easier to move data from E*Assist to other applications.
The firm was learning to use the advanced work flow and process features in the application, Mr. O'Donnell said. These features help make a firm more efficient because they allow processes such as account opening to be done the same way each time.
"That is one thing that is missing in Salesforce and Salesforce for Wealth Management," Mr. O'Donnell said. "If you want structured work flows, you have to go to a third party like E*Assist and XLR8."
E*Assist is entirely web-based and costs $100 a month per user.
Visit the online version of this story to view annotated screen capture slide shows of the ClientVision and E*Assist interfaces.
E-mail Davis D. Janowski at [email protected].
