AppCrown adds Quick Start dashboard features for advisers
September 17, 2010Financial advisers write me fairly frequently these days asking about whether it makes sense to use Salesforce.com as their CRM system and are surprised to find that there are at least two companies out there that specialize in reselling customized versions of the application specifically to their niche industry.
One of those, AppCrown LLC, just announced this week some interesting new features to its specialized Salesforce-based application, principally Quick Start, a dashboard that offers the adviser an instant glance at their clients’ real-time account information.
For example, they will be able to aggregate data residing in other applications they use that are integrated with AppCrown. This might include information from eMoneyAdvisor, MoneyGuidePro, reports from Orion Advisor Services, or from PortfolioCenter. If advisers are subscribers, feeds from Bloomberg and Reuters Advisers can also be sent to the dashboard as well.
In a prepared statement chief executive and founder Ted Tsung, said that Quick Start “is a natural addition to the suite of adviser and broker/dealer-centric capabilities that resides on our firm’s open architecture platform.”
What became AppCrown LLC was established in 2006, though it was then known as E*Assist LLC.
AppCrown describes themselves as a Salesforce-based technology integration provider, meaning that they make it easier for advisers to basically build their own platform using third-party software applications.
AppCrown is currently used by just over 1,000 advisers and more than 90 firms which includes both RIAs and broker-dealers.
It costs $100 per user per month.
AppCrown couldn’t come up with an adviser for me to speak with that has been using the new Quick Start feature in the pilot phase.
Even so, I got back in touch with an adviser at a firm that I knew was still using the application. Michael O’Donnell of Evergreen Management LLC said that while his firm wasn’t in on the beta of Quick Start they were still quite happy with the application itself, having been using it now for three years.
“I’ve been impressed with it and the work they’ve done, for instance we wanted a little tighter integration with Orion and they took us seriously and delivered on that,” he said, adding that his firm liked the development AppCrown has done in building out work flows as well.
Two competitors to AppCrown are Salesforce for Wealth Management from Salesforce itself, and XLR8 (pronounced "accelerate"). The latter was developed originally by Moulton Strategic Partners Inc. but was sold to Concenter Services (XLR8.com) in April.
Some point soon I hope to revisit all three of these — as well as any others I haven’t heard about.
For more information visit AppCrown online.
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