Advisers less than happy with CRM and planning software

Financial advisers aren’t particularly happy with their Client Relationship Management (CRM) providers such as XPLAN, providing an opportunity for incumbent providers to lift their game as well as an opportunity for new entrants, according to new white paper released by Netwealth.

The Netwealth white paper, released this month, notes that advice practices continued to support large and dominant CRM providers to deliver front office services and client engagement with most advisers (61 per cent) using XPLAN as their CRM to manage client information, followed by Excel (16 per cent) and other (14 per cent).

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It also noted the degree to which emerging companies like Midwinter and AdviserLogic were making inroads into the CRM space, together having almost 20 per cent of the market.

However, it was the relatively high level of use of Excel which prompted Netwealth to point to issues of adviser satisfaction with the major CRM providers.

“When turning our attention to another core technology, financial planning, strategy and modelling software, XPLAN again has the largest user base (62 per cent), again followed by Excel (27 per cent). Similarly, both Midwinter and AdviserLogic are gaining market share here,” the white paper said.

“Given the tight integration between CRMs and financial planning software these results do not surprise. However, it is interesting that Excel rates so highly across both technologies, given the relatively unsophisticated nature of spreadsheets and that there is no tight integration between the CRM and financial planning and modelling tools.”

“Given the reliance by advice practices on both technologies, adviser satisfaction is somewhat of a concern,” the Netwealth white paper said. “Advisers on average give their CRM a satisfaction score of 3.1 out of 5, whilst they also provide their financial planning, strategy and modelling software an average rating of 3.1. This rating presents a significant opportunity for the incumbent providers to lift their game and flags the extent of the opportunity to the aforementioned new players.”