How To Understand The Benefits Of A Crom Technology Report

Transcription

1 [ ABOUT THE CRM REPORT ] The Financial Planning Association (FPA) and ActiFi are proud to announce the completion of the first of a planned total of seven technology reports: the CRM edition. This is the first in-depth guide created for advisers to assist them in chosing their CRM. A total of 16 CRM software packages were reviewed in the research report, which is composed of data gathered from FPA members, customers of CRM vendors, the vendors themselves and testing of each CRM application. [ TAKE A LOOK ] Take a glance at what the CRM report has to offer. Toted by Investment News as a a major research study on customer relationship management, the CRM Technology Report provides an easy-touse guide to help advisers make smart software decisions to improve their work flow, potentially increase profits and advance their business. But don t take our word for it. Take a glance at the following pages and see for yourself! [ PURCHASE AT A DISCOUNT ] FPA and TD AMERITRADE Institutional are currently offering a savings of $200 off the regular retail price. This report is valued at $495, but since you visited TD AMERITRADE Institutional s website, you can purchase this report at a discounted price of $295. Visit FPA s online store at FPAStore/CRM20102 and add the report to your cart (you may need to log in or create a new login). Simply view your shopping cart, click on promo/gift card, enter TDCRM into the promotional code window and save $200 on the CRM Report purchase instantly. Save even more with an FPA membership! As an added value, individuals hearing about this great deal have the opportunity to become FPA members simply by purchasing the CRM report. Membership includes these great benefits, as well as the next three technology reports free of charge. In order to take advantage of this special offer, please call us at , option 2 and mention this special price for the CRM Report plus FPA membership offer from FPA and TD AMERITRADE. TD AMERITRADE participated as a custodian respondent and is the sponsor of the study. TD AMERITRADE is separate and not affiliated with FPA or ActiFi and is not responsible for the policies or services of any thirdparty, except to the limited extent that TD AMERITRADE participated in the study. TD AMERITRADE does not guarantee nor is it responsible for the completeness or accuracy of the data provided or for the quality of any third-party product or service. TD AMERITRADE makes no warranty or representation with respect to the service as to suitability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no instance should the listing of a third party be construed as a recommendation or endorsement by TD AMERITRADE. Brokerage services provided by TD AMERITRADE Institutional, Division of TD AMERITRADE, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. TD AMERITRADE is a trademark jointly owned by TD AMERITRADE IP Company, Inc. and The Toronto-Dominion Bank. Used with permission.

2 [ TABLE OF CONTENTS SAMPLE ] Contents AbouT us CopyRighT And disclaimers CopyRighT logo notices executive summary purpose And methodology Why We WRoTe This WhAT is CusTomeR RelATionship management? ReseARCh methodology overview CRm vendors included in This RepoRT how To use This RepoRT Choosing The CRm ThAT is RighT for you making The CRm investment more ThAn TeChnology dollars identify your business goals, Then map Them To business processes And CRm functionality driving business benefits from CRm using Advanced CRm marketing functionality to drive Revenue growth improving your effectiveness Through Task and Action sequences understanding the profitability of a practice Through systematizing your Work Reduce Risks with Clear Audit Trails defining Client interactions The CRm market TodAy TeChnology solution: CRm systems how CRm TeChnology differs from ConTACT management systems (e.g., outlook) AdviseRs And TheiR RelATionship WiTh CRm TeChnology TodAy CRm TeChnology landscape CRm functionality overview breakdown of functional CATegoRies into features And functions The fpa/actifi CompAsses how to use the Compasses key functionality Compass findings key benefit Compass findings moving forward Things to Consider When Reviewing Compass scores individual vendor scoring And profiles Act4Advisors Allied financial software inc Advisors Assistant Client marketing systems inc AppCrown (formerly e-assist) big Contacts Clientvision Advice America galeforce

3 [ TABLE OF CONTENTS SAMPLE CONTINUED ] gorilla CRm bill good marketing Junxure maximizer CRm protracker Advantage Redtail CRm salentica Advisor desk salesforce CRm smartoffice ebix CRm solution 360 ias software xlr8 moulton strategic partners An insider s view The future of CRm And AdviseR TeChnology The impact of ChAnge on financial services The effect on CRm: The building of an integrated solution preparing Advisers for the new generation of CRm Technology starts Within the practice five key future TRends integration and delivery of a build-your-own, best-in-class Adviser Workstation The importance of using CRm to improve Workflow Applications and Tools moving to Cloud-based/hosted solutions The Tradeoff between Choice and integration ConClusion Appendix A: functionality CATegoRy scoring overall methodology Appendix b: benefits CATegoRy scoring overall methodology

4 [ EXCERPT FROM THE CRM REPORT ] Exhibit 12 al Basic Contact Calendaring Capability Document Reporting and Dashboards Prospect/Sales Workflow Capabilities Practice 360 Degree Client Accessibility Description How easy is it to manage and organize contacts? What does the calendaring functionality look like? What additional features exist beyond basic calendaring? Does the CRM provide a homebuilt or integrated engine? If integrated, which engines (e.g., Exchange, Gmail, and Lotus Notes) does the CRM integrate with and how well does it integrate (e.g., how many clicks to synch an )? What options exist for document management and how well do they integrate with the CRM? How easily can an adviser go back and forth from documents, what are the number of steps, the ease of integration, etc.? Once a prospect is identified, how easily can the CRM system embed a standard intake process? How well can advisers manage their sales pipeline within CRM including customizing and reporting on the sales process? What type of marketing campaign management exists and how well can the CRM system handle campaigns, marketing and lead generation? How easy is it to retrieve information once it is entered? What is the flexibility offered in report generation and activity dashboards? Does the CRM solution offer both out-of-the-box adviser-specific reports and build-it-yourself reports? Can users embed action sequences and task triggers and how easily can business rules be implemented directly into the CRM system? Does the solution offer effective time and task tracking and activity management? Beyond simplistic to do lists, can the CRM system maintain a history of all the interactions with a particular client? What are the CRM s capabilities to handle non-client centric aspects of the financial advisory practice, for example, finance, accounting, human resources, internal project management, and staff training and development? How effectively does the CRM handle the financial advisory-specific features that assist in dealing with clients? In addition, what options exist for implementing these functions? Some of the important functions may include insurance tracking, investment tracking (holdings, accounts), financial planning attributes (income statements, net worth statement), etc. How accessible, reliable, and secure is the CRM system? On what platforms can an adviser access the technology? what CRM technology can provide. Although not all vendors would classify their capabilities into these same categories, all underlying functionality offered by the CRM vendors is contained within these 10 categories. breakdown of functional CATegoRies into features And functions Each of the 16 vendors included in the study was put through a rigorous functionality checklist that began with the 10 functionality categories. To provide objective scores for each functional category, the research drilled down to the most granular level of functional performance. Specifically, each functional category was divided into features that further broke down into task functions as follows: functional Category definitions al Categories the highest grouping of activities of a given technology solution applicable only to that specific solution (e.g., they pertain only to CRM, financial planning software, portfolio management technology, or another specific type of technology solution). This is a general category such as the ability to handle communications. Features a set of activities that make up a functional category. A feature is typically executed by performing one or more functions. These are subgroups of the general category that are specific types of actions you can take (for example, managing communications, which falls within the general capability). -18-

5 [ EXCERPT FROM THE CRM REPORT ] Exhibit 13 ality Category Feature Feature a set of activities that make up a feature. It is a subset of a feature and cannot be broken down further. This is the specific action that can be taken, such as sending an to a specific contact in the CRM system. example: Taking a look at the functional Category Capability For the research, vendors were given the opportunity to fully describe and provide a demonstration of their entire solution. Each vendor was provided with the functionality checklist in advance, so each was aware of the process detail level. To illustrate the process, consider the functional category Capability. The in-depth evaluation was conducted live with each vendor. For Capability, each vendor was asked to perform tasks associated with a feature and function. For the feature , the vendor was asked to demonstrate how its system conducted the five functions associated with the feature, and each specific CRM system was scored on its ability to perform the task. In addition, each CRM system was scored on the following questions: How intuitive is the feature? Does the vendor integrate with any other solution to deliver the capability? If so, what is the level of integration within the CRM solution? Are there any unique functions within the feature that differentiate the software? The fpa/actifi CompAsses The evaluation and scores of a specific vendor s benefits and functions were then plotted via two matrixes called the FPA/ ActiFi Compasses. These Compasses were developed to provide advisers with a visual guide on how one CRM vendor compares with another. The Compasses allow advisers to easily compare one CRM vendor with another on both the benefits an adviser could see by selecting a specific CRM system, and the functional attributes that are a build-in part of a specific CRM offering. Exhibit 14 Contact can be ed directly Contact can be mailed via integration with external client Provides the ability to associate s with contacts Capability Automation Templates Integration bounce management function is available The solution tracks the compliance requirements while archiving s -19-

6 [ EXCERPT FROM THE CRM REPORT ] Exhibit 15 ality Compass Benefits Compass Practice Basic Contact Calendaring Customer Service/ Support Vendor Presence Price Accessibility Capability Flexibility Scalability Reporting and Dashboards Workflow Document 360 Degree Client Prospect/Sales Vendor A Integration Roll-out and Set-up Overall ality Vendor B 1 4 Limited Capability Best in Class functionality Compass The CRM solutions were also scored across all 10 functional categories. Vendors received rolled-up scores on a four-point scale for each of the 10 functional categories, based on whether features existed and, if they did exist, an evaluation of how they performed. Key criteria related to the ality Compass include: Features were evaluated down to individual functions, but scores were determined at the feature level and rolled up to the functionality category level only. Vendors were unable to achieve a rating of 4 without having all the available functions in any given feature. Weights were assigned (based on importance) at both the feature and function levels. Each feature contained in the 10 functionality categories was scored based on three components (see Appendix A for full description): 1. Existence of functions in feature (weighted at 50 percent). 2. Intuitiveness scored on a scale of 0 to 1 with common scoring being 0.5 for somewhat intuitive and 1 for easy to use, very intuitive (weighted at 25 percent). 3. Level of integration based on a four-point scale in which a score of 1 represents Level One integration and 4 represents Level Four, or a fully integrated feature (weighted at 25 percent). benefits Compass Based on the market analysis combined with specific functionality components, a series of benefits criteria was developed to help advisers evaluate some of the less tangible attributes of each vendor s CRM offering. All criteria are scored on a four-point scale but consist of different components depending on the category. These criteria include: Vendor presence Scored by looking at years in the business, number of users, experience with financial advisers, etc. -20-