National Retirement Partners Builds Customized CRM Tool for Financial Advisors on Force.com

"With Force.com, we’ve been able to give our member firms a CRM tool customized for the retirement plan advisor; this benefit has helped them better manage their businesses and driven significant efficiencies. Force.com has even driven business to us!"


Challenge
  • National Retirement Partners, the largest independent retirement-focused broker dealer in its industry, required a new CRM solution for its central office and financial advisor network that provides advisory services for over 5,000 retirement plans with assets in excess of $60 billion.
  • NRP, which provides services that help member firms save time and reduce liability, wanted to offer a pre-configured CRM tool customized to help retirement plan advisors more efficiently service clients. 
  • With more than 130 office locations and over 450 registered representatives, NRP needed a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution it could easily deploy, upgrade, and maintain. Other key requirements included customizability and the ability to integrate with other systems.

Solution
  • Rather than purchase a solution from SugarCRM, Microsoft CRM, or ACT!, NRP chose to build a CRM tool specifically for its retirement plan advisors on salesforce.com’s Force.com platform. The company liked Force.com’s platform-as-a-service model, easy customization, and open API.
  • With assistance from salesforce.com partner Echo Lane, NRP developed the tool in less than 3 months, customizing it to address the needs of its sales, marketing, and support users, as well as financial advisors. 
  • NRP installed Pervasive Data Integrator from the Force.com AppExchange marketplace. The application supports investment due diligence by integrating CFA team analytics with Salesforce via a SQL database.
  • Pervasive also enables integration with broker dealer commission records for an industry-leading automated commissions system.
  • Force.com for Outlook keeps client communications in sync. NRP also integrated a proprietary hosted document storage facility with Salesforce and Outlook to track and manage complex 401(k) plan documentation.
  • NRP enhanced compliance with a Custom Fiduciary Audit Checklist object that automatically generates a report in PDF format. The report includes complete information on files, locations, and updates as needed for fiduciary liability.
  • The company also customized projected revenue and profitability calculations by plan, considering assets, commissions, and withdrawals. Rollups at the account level provide the ability to see across segments of their book of business.
  • Salesforce Ideas helps NRP solicit enhancement ideas from their advisors and provides a vehicle for their feedback. 
  • A customized user guide and 30 org-specific online training clips help drive adoption; financial advisors are given 4 free hours of NRP admin time. NRP has also worked with Echo Lane to develop a paid training program for financial advisors. 
  • The Salesforce customer service solution is available pre-customized from NRP for financial advisors who need a 360 degree customer view.
  • Premier Support includes a dedicated Salesforce rep to help NRP get the most out of its Salesforce investment.
  • NRP plans to deploy the Salesforce Customer Portal and Salesforce Mobile in future phases.

Results
  • Building on Force.com enabled NRP to quickly deliver and deploy a customized CRM system internally and to financial advisors. The platform-as-a-service model eliminates maintenance and infrastructure, freeing the company to focus on its core business.
  • Customized revenue and cost modeling helps advisors measure client/plan profitability and facilitates better business planning.
  • NRP enhanced compliance with Audit Checklists and by integrating Salesforce with Microsoft Outlook and its hosted document storage facility.
  • Time-saving integration with NRP’s commissions system gives member firms real-time data on commission revenues. 
  • Salesforce Ideas enables NRP to better serve financial advisors and increases loyalty and retention. 
  • Recruiting is enhanced due to enthusiasm among financial advisors for NRP’s adaption of Salesforce. Salesforce helps drive new business to the organization.
 
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