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Is Salesforce the future of adviser CRM?

Posted on September 9, 2011 by in Software

My commentary below was originally included in September 9’s Bits and Bytes post, but I pulled it out because it deserves to be featured in its own thread.

Custodians and technology vendors are doing all they can to win the business of advisers. The one tool used by the majority of firms is CRM. So in theory, if one can deliver the “best” CRM solution, one will likely win the majority of business from advisers. Salesforce seems to be the common thread in the CRM space heading into the final quarter of 2011 (see September 9’s Bits and Bytes for details).

My Thoughts on Salesforce

I think it’s safe to say that all roads in adviser CRM developments are leading to Salesforce. After all, they’re one of the leading providers of a CRM platform to enterprises. They had 45,000+ attendees at last week’s Dreamforce conference. They have Chatter, a built-in social collaboration product, to expand the platform’s functionality. And they have mobile apps.

But most advisers know that out-of-the-box, Salesforce is not designed for the way they do business. It needs customization, sometimes extensive and costly customization. To solve the customization issue, several providers exist that build and support overlays to the Salesforce platform. See AppCrown and Concenter Services. Then there’s the customer service and support element. I hear from frustrated advisers that they can’t get decent customer support once they sign on. And all Salesforce plans require an annual contract, so if 90 days go by and the firm hates Salesforce, there are no refunds.

And now, TD Ameritrade, Schwab Intelligent Technologies, and even Orion Advisor Services are customizing Salesforce. So which one will have the best (or better) custom overlay? And which one will provide the best support to its advisers?

I feel the vendor/custodian that figures out how to provide the best customer support to its advisers will win the war in CRM. Building the best custom overlay is just the battle.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for September 9

Posted on September 9, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

Originally I hadn’t planned on posting a Bits and Bytes update today. I was on vacation until today and there were no relevant stories that came across my feeds. Then yesterday afternoon came.

While on my return flight to Dallas, my feeds and screens peppered me with updates from many of the major custodians including Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and Fidelity.

Say Goodbye to Paper-Based Compliance Practices

But first, my September column for Morningstar Advisor covers a technology product aimed at reducing the manual data-gathering process associated with compliance activities, namely trading supervision and pre-clearance approval. Go read it! Say Goodbye to Paper-Based Compliance Practices.

Now on to this week’s stories of interest:

 TD Ameritrade to release customized version of Salesforce from FA-Mag.com

[So if you’re Schwab and announce a partnership with Salesforce in October 2010, then take a year to roll something out to advisers, someone might steal your thunder. That’s just what TD Ameritrade did this week as it announced the rollout of a customized version of Salesforce at about a 40% discount to advisers. I’m going to view the demo this afternoon and hope to report shortly thereafter.] TD Ameritrade Institutional (TDA) is putting final touches on a customized version of Salesforce that it will release in October.

Fidelity Rolls Out ‘Technology Investment Evaluator’ for Advisors from Financial Planning

[Not to be left out, Fidelity is providing its internal consultants with an Excel-based spreadsheet that helps rank the various tools available to advisers by how well the tool might meet advisers’ needs.] Fidelity Investments’ RIA custodian business has announced a new tool, Technology Investment Evaluator, to help advisors run their businesses more efficiently.

And on Monday, I posted that Schwab revealed its new Intelligent Integration website and formed a new subsidiary called Schwab Intelligent Technologies to support the effort.

For my thoughts on Salesforce, read Is Salesforce the future of adviser CRM?

Schwab reveals Intelligent Integration website

Posted on September 5, 2011 by in Software

Over the weekend, Schwab revealed a new website featuring details of its Intelligent Integration solutions for financial advisers.

Schwab Intelligent Technologies website

Schwab Intelligent Technologies website

The new site, published by Schwab Intelligent Technologies, a new subsidiary of The Charles Schwab Corporation, offers advisers a glimpse of what the company hopes to accomplish with the Schwab OpenView Gateway™ solution.

Website visitors can view a brief demo video of the Intelligent Integration vision, read a FAQ, and see the list of third-party integration providers.

FPPad Bits and Bytes for September 2

Posted on September 2, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

Sorry, there’s no Bits and Bytes update for this week. I’m on vacation with my family to end the summer and won’t return until September 12 (so there may not be a Bits and Bytes next week, either!)

In the meantime, make sure you see my coverage of this week’s Gemini + Orion Advisor Forum:

Orion aims to impress at its annual Advisor Forum

Orion announces integration with Salesforce/AppCrown CRM

Orion Advisor Desktop updates include performance screens and file sharing

Orion integrates reporting options from AdvisoryWorld

Posted on August 31, 2011 by in Portfolio Management Software

Yet another integration announced by Orion Advisor Services this week is one with AdvisoryWorld, enabling access to the reporting company’s extensive library of fact sheets, analytics, and comparison tools.

AdvisoryWorld provides a large universe of reports, all supported by data sourced from Lipper, Morningstar, Standard and Poor’s and Zacks Investment Research. For a comprehensive view of AdvisoryWorld’s report options, see their PDF by clicking the following link: http://www.advisoryworld.com/ice/AdvisoryWorld_Sample_Reports_Full.pdf

Sample Report from AdvisoryWorld

Sample Report from AdvisoryWorld

Michael Wilson, Chief Operating Officer of AdvisoryWorld, said that the company is finalizing a reseller agreement with Orion over the next week, so the integration should be available to Orion users shortly. Pricing starts at $45 per month per advisor for AdvisoryWorld’s basic reporting module and $95 per month per advisor for an extended version.

With the integration active, advisors using Orion’s platform will be able to automatically pass position and holding information from Orion into AdvisoryWorld. There won’t be any need to re-key position information in order to generate reports with up-to-date holding information.

Orion Advisor Desktop updates include performance screens and file sharing

Posted on August 31, 2011 by in Portfolio Management Software

After a fantastic afternoon of activities including a golf tournament and a tour of the Denver Botanical Gardens, attendees of the Gemini + Orion Advisor Forum looked forward to the final day of sessions.

Prior to departing for outdoor activities, Orion provided an update of their Advisor Desktop suite, including a discussion of enhanced performance screens, end-to-end trading processes, and new integration with the Dropbox cloud file sharing and synchronization service.

Enhanced Performance Screens

New additions to the performance screens include two “gadgets,” where performance can be displayed using heat maps or bar graphs. The heat maps are a very slick addition, where they show performance information in shades of red and green (much like the daily return grid on the MorningstarAdvisor.com homepage), and can be configured to show performance by style, model, account, household group, and more.

Dropbox Integration

Big Guns at the Orion Advisor Tech Panel

Big Guns at the Orion Advisor Tech Panel

During the Tech Panel discussion, Orion revealed that its working on an integration with the popular cloud file storage service Dropbox. Orion president Eric Clarke commented that its the company’s first attempt at supporting such a service and aims to simplify the process of sharing documents and information between Orion’s service team and their advisor clients.

Advisors who currently use Dropbox with their clients for other purposes may be able to leverage this new integration and deliver certain reports and data generated from within the Orion system directly to the end client’s shared folder.

Look for the Dropbox integration to be available in the next major release, scheduled for December 2011.

Orion announces integration with Salesforce/AppCrown CRM

Posted on August 30, 2011 by in Portfolio Management Software

In his State of the Company address to Orion Advisor Forum attendees, Orion president Eric Clarke announced that the company will be releasing an integration with Salesforce/AppCrown CRM by December of this year.

Orion president Eric Clarke

Orion president Eric Clarke

The announcement wrapped up a series of highlights how Orion is investing in its own business and in the business of its advisor clients.

New for Orion this year is a hardened server facility in Nebraska, an eProfile system designed to streamline the account creation paperwork process, and an Advisor Voice feature on the web, where advisors can submit their votes on top desired features they’d like to see released in the future.

At the conclusion of his address, Clarke described Orion’s vision to fully integrate the Advisor Desktop platform into the Salesforce/AppCrown platform by January 2013. This, according to Clarke, will allow advisors to manage major components of their business, including CRM, portfolio management, billing, and trading, all from within the CRM environment.

Orion aims to impress at its annual Advisor Forum

Posted on August 29, 2011 by in Portfolio Management Software

As afternoon thunderstorms rolled off the Rocky Mountains, the Gemini + Orion Advisor Forum 2011 officially kicked off in Denver, Colo.

According to Kyle Hiatt, VP of Business Development for Orion Advisor Services, I’m attending the event with roughly 300 other clients, prospects, and interested parties of Gemini Fund Services and Orion. The majority of my time over the next few days will be spent on the portion of sessions conducted by Orion.

Tech Lab

Orion’s session today featured a Tech Lab, open to any and all who wanted to learn more about the platform, see new features demonstrated, and interact with many of the engineering and support staff on site. What impressed me about the Tech Lab was its light footprint.

The Orion Advisor Services Tech Lab

The Orion Advisor Services Tech Lab

There were five lab stations in all, running off of either 11″ MacBook Air ultra-portable laptops or 13″ MacBook Pros, each connected to 27″ Apple Cinema Display monitors. The occasional iPad made an appearance as well to demo Orion’s mobile app.

All systems were running Orion’s Advisor Desktop portfolio management system through the Citrix Receiver application. The Orion Web Access components were demonstrated on Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers. Three of the five Macs were running Lion, the latest version of the Mac operating system.

The conference facility did provide a hard-wired Internet connection for the Tech Lab, though a local Wi-Fi network was created to connect the MacBook Air laptops to the Internet.

Nevertheless, it was quite impressive to see how Orion’s platform (in use by firms that manage billions of dollars) could run off a laptop computer that fits inside an inter-office envelope. It really demonstrates the power and flexibility of hosted services and the cloud computing model.

As with most conferences today, attendees are encouraged to share their thoughts via social media. Forum tweets are tagged with #GOAF11 and the official Twitter account for the event is @AdvisorForum.

I look forward to attending sessions over the next two days covering many of the new features and additions to the Orion platform and will update FPPad as time permits.

Cloud Data Security Depends on Your Password Strength

Posted on August 29, 2011 by in General

Financial advisers are concerned about the security of data they place on the cloud. Cloud services including CRM, portfolio management, document management, and more are all accessed by credentials connected with the adviser’s account. The strength of the login credentials largely determines how well account data is protected from attack or unauthorized use.

Technically, the strongest passwords have a high amount of entropy. There’s a lot of science that goes into the explanation of entropy and its application to passwords, but allow me to share a webcomic from xkcd that captures the concept in six short frames.

[Hat tip to Ben Gilbert, CFP®]

FPPad Bits and Bytes for August 26

Posted on August 26, 2011 by in Bits & Bytes

Again, I found myself fully engaged in content creation and research this week. I completed my Morningstar Advisor column for September and added new content to my Transformative Technology slide deck for a presentation in September. Next week I’ll be attending the Gemini + Orion Advisor Forum in Denver, CO, immediately followed by a week of vacation to escape this brutal heat in Dallas.

Here are this week’s stories of interest:

There are multiple stories on Schwab Advisor Service’s Intelligent Integration initiative to kick off this week.

My take: Schwab’s Intelligent Integration is finally producing results. But will Schwab’s approach on limiting its integrations prove to be a prudent move or a platform-limiting one? Think about Apple’s success with app developers: Would the iPhone and iPad be so successful today if Apple were the only developer of applications for the devices?

ByAllAccounts and Redtail Technology Offer Centralized Access to Clients’ Comprehensive Account Data from GlobeNewswire.com

ByAllAccounts, Inc., the financial advisor’s choice for account aggregation, and Redtail Technology, a leading provider of Client Relationship Management software, today announced a partnership that provides financial advisors easy access to a more comprehensive client snapshot.

Special Report: The technology products advisers use most from InvestmentNews.com

My take: There are a few articles here about adviser use of technology plus two updates of survey results listing the most popular technologies overall and by category. I’ll likely compare the InvestmentNews survey results with those of the 2010 Financial Planning Magazine Technology Survey.

A Look Inside LPL Financial’s Social Media Strategy from Financial-Planning.com

[If you’re the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer by assets, just how do you implement social media across thousands of reps?] At focus11, LPL Financial’s national conference held earlier this month, it was clear that social media was clearly more than just a casual “focus” for the 5,000-plus attendees.