Salesforce Caters To Wealth Management Advisers With New Cloud
Salesforce, emulating what it has done in the past to boost the performance of sales agents, is looking to reinvent customer relationships in the financial services industry for a new generation of tech-savvy advisers and investors.
The CRM leader introduced Tuesday its Financial Services Cloud, a solution that primarily targets wealth managers but enables a number of use cases for professionals in the financial sector.
Simon Mulcahy, general manager of Salesforce's financial services division, told CRN that Salesforce has been developing a solution to assist wealth management advisers in engaging with their customers for about a year after soliciting feedback from scores of financial firms of all sizes.
"The financial services industry is unbelievably ready for change. Wealth management was our first target in creating the Financial Services Cloud," Mulcahy said.
A new paradigm is emerging for a vastly underserved group of investors -- young people.
"The next generation just does not want to engage with the old school wealth adviser. That's the big problem. Because they don't approach it with the right technology mindset," he said.
Right now, the industry is bifurcated for investors -- they either have an asset manager, or they invest on their own. What they want is an intermediary who gives advice and engages in collaborative planning, he said.
To win those clients, advisers need tools that help build deeper relationships, Mulcahy said.
The Financial Services Cloud aims to fill that niche by offering financial professionals a snapshot view encompassing market information and insights related to their book of business along with detailed client information and analytics.
"We want information to be as proactive as possible," Mulcahy said. "Software reminds users of opportunities to focus on."
While wealth management is the most natural use case of the technology, it can serve a wider range of financial professionals, Mulcahy added.
"It's relevant for big houses, brokers, retail banks, insurers that are moving into wealth management. All of them will want this tool," he said.
Salesforce partners were already offering solutions to the financial services industry, but the cloud software vendor decided to customize a cloud for that vertical, he said.
Gireesh Sonnad, CEO of Silverline, a Salesforce certified Financial Services Master and Platinum Partner with deep experience in the industry, told CRN he believes the new product will transform the experience of financial services organizations and, in turn, improve the experience for their investors.
"We have been providing custom solutions for firms since 2009. Financial Cloud has been designed to meet the unique, specific needs of these organizations, and will lead to deeper, one-to-one relationships and happier clients," Sonnad told CRN via email.
The CEO said the new cloud will help Silverline's customers "develop meaningful and enduring relationships with their clients while helping to improve profitability and operational efficiency."
PUBLISHED AUG. 24, 2015