It has taken much longer than anticipated, but Junxure CRM (www.junxure.com), a firm that integrates CRM technology, consulting and training for financial advisors, has finally announced the general release of “Junxure Cloud,” its comprehensive, cloud-based suite of CRM/office management products for financial advisors. After trying the application out for a few days, I’m happy to report that it was well worth waiting for.

From the minute you first log in to the home page, it is obvious that it was designed by developers that have a deep understanding of the RIA business. That is no surprise. Junxure’s president, Greg Friedman, is also the president of Private Ocean, a successful West Coast RIA firm. Vice President Ken Golding co-founded Junxure with Friedman, and he has been the application’s chief developer since its launch in 1998, when the two execs developed the initial desktop software.

The home page offers quick access to all of the key information advisors will likely need as they start their day. The page is populated by various tiles, many of which update in real time, much like the live tiles in Windows 8. For example, if you click on the word “actions,” all actions in the system that the user is entitled to see will be displayed. The actions tile has counters that show the number of actions, or tasks, that are past due or due on the day you open the software. There is a separate counter for pending actions not yet due. This way, users can immediately address the most pressing tasks by clicking the links to overdue and due actions. The links take you to the list of these pressing items in a grid format resembling a spreadsheet.

These can be sorted by the date the action was created, by the due date, by name, by type or by subject. You can also drag a column to the top bar to filter the items. For example, if you were to filter by due date, it would create a section heading in the list called “Due Today” and list all items due today, followed by the previous day with its heading, etc.

One improvement that Junxure Cloud boasts over the older version of Junxure is that it can link a virtually unlimited number of related actions and allow you to search them. In the previous version, you were limited to three per action. An action can also have multiple dates for searching. You can designate the day the action was created, a start date and a due date, for example.

Whenever you move from the home page, there are “breadcrumbs” at the top of the page to help you understand where you are and navigate back if you wish to do so. For example, in this case, you would see: “Home-Actions.” There’s also a floating toolbar at the top of the page. When you click on it, you see a miniature version of the home page. You can click on any element here to navigate around the program.

All lists throughout the system have a column chooser icon to the right of the grid. Clicking the column chooser allows one to select additional column headers, which you can then sort by. The list of columns is extensive. Just about anything that is a data field can be displayed as a column and sorted, offering a great deal of flexibility, even to the novice user.

Once you have customized a grid with the columns you require, you can save the grid as a template by clicking the “Save as Template” icon and assigning it a name. If you choose to do this, you can reuse the same grid without having to construct it again during future sessions by clicking the use template icon. There is also an icon in the same location to the right of the grid that allows you to export a grid to Microsoft Excel.

Back on the home page, there is an “Opportunities” tile designed to help you grow your business. There are two links here: “Open Opportunities” and “My Opportunities.” The former refers to leads for an entire firm. The latter refers to leads specific to individual advisors. If you click on open opportunities, they are listed in the same grid format as the actions are. This is another nice Junxure Cloud feature: There is design consistency wherever possible. This makes learning the application easy. If you can master the action grids, which is easy, then you have already essentially mastered the opportunities grid.

Another help growing your business is the “Dashboard” tile. This takes you to “My Dashboard,” the analytics section of Junxure Cloud. Here you can view information such as top clients by assets under management, discretionary versus nondiscretionary assets, accounts by investment model, etc. We expect to see the list of analytics widgets expand in the near future.

Click on the “Records” tile to see a list of all contact records in the database. There is a separate link in this tile to access the most recent 20 records you’ve viewed. The “Asset” tile gives you access to a list of all assets tracked in the system. The “Insurance” tile gives you access to all insurance policies tracked in the system. Both sections can be sorted by columns for record names, asset/insurance names, types, account numbers, etc. These grids have all the functionality described above, so they are extremely flexible.

Yet another element on the home page is the “Report Assistant.” This wizard is so intuitive that any novice should be able to master it in no time. When you click on the link, it asks you what you want to report on (actions, assets, insurance, etc.) then it asks you if you want to use a saved report or build one. If you decide to build a new one, it will ask you what saved search to build the report on (you can also do a new search). For example, I chose all first quarter 2014 opportunities. Then I chose the fields to include in the report (asset values, recurring revenue, non-recurring revenue, etc.) and sorted the results by recurring revenue. Now I can view it, print it or export it. I could then save the report and use it again.

“Workflow management” is yet another tile on the home page. On the main work-flow page, you can toggle back and forth between two sections: work-flow setup and work-flow management. The setup section contains a list of all of the firm’s work-flow templates. These are displayed in the standard Junxure list/grid format. To the left, there is a list of work-flow template subjects (compliance, meetings, reporting, etc.). When you click on a subject, it filters the list so you can easily find what you are looking for. There is also a button that allows you to create a new work-flow template or edit an existing one. As part of that process, you assign a work-flow category to the template. This dictates under which subject filter it will appear.

A good number of work-flow templates are included with the purchase price. Advisors who custody with Schwab can access additional templates available to Schwab clients. For those who require help creating their own custom work-flow templates and don’t want to do it themselves, Junxure Consulting can help for a fee.

The “Correspondence” tile links you to the records workspace. A record can be a contact, a client or a prospect. It can also be an entity like a vendor or a 401(k) plan. Once at the workspace, you can click a “select all” link or individually select people or entities you would like to correspond with.
When you click the “correspond” button, a correspondent assistant guides you through the process by asking you what type of communication you’d like (a letter or an e-mail, for instance, with labels and envelopes), confirms who the recipients are and allows you to select the proper template or create a new one. The application then performs the mail merge and allows you to review it before sending it out. There is also a link on the correspondence tile to a history where you can see all previous multiple-recipient correspondence. A document templates tile allows users to access all document templates or create new ones.  

There are also tiles on the home page for various third parties. Currently, the most robust integration available is with Orion, but Junxure is already in the process of adding ties to custodians such as TD Ameritrade and Schwab and other vendors such as Envestnet. We expect Junxure to have a significant number of relationships in place by year-end.

The client (or contact) record is at the heart of the Junxure system. The client record is both extensive and flexible. At the very top of each record is the client summary, which contains contact photos, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, record types, record owners, the names of those with access, keywords, tags and more. Under the summary are control buttons that allow you to add an action, add an opportunity, add an asset, add insurance, correspond, etc.

Under that is a profile section that goes into more depth. For those users who want to interact with people through social media but who do not yet archive their social media interactions, Junxure has a great arrangement with Cities Digital for saving e-mail and social media exchanges. Each of these sub-sections can contain multiple entries. Once you’ve entered the information, you can collapse or expand any section with a mouse click. Other tabs under the profile include employment, relationships and referrals.

The “Financials” section is also worth a look. Under this tab, the sub-sections are “Asset/Liability,” “Insurance,” “Income/Expenses” and “Taxes.” Under the assets/liabilities tab, you see a separate grid for each. My test database did not include vendor data, but if it had, one could populate the assets list from a third party or a custodian. If you drill down, there is an extensive record that can display just about any conceivable detail about the asset or liability. It is very impressive. Under the lists there is a calculation of the client’s current net worth.

The insurance tab works in similar fashion. The “income and expenses” tab allows you to list each of those in its own grid, including which spouse to attribute the income to, the type of income and many other columns you can add. After all the income and expenses are listed, the next amount is displayed at the bottom of the page. The tax tab allows the user to store all relevant federal and state tax information, much the way the previous version of Junxure does.

There are many other nice touches that make Junxure Cloud impressive. It is touch-enabled, a boon for Windows 8 users. It can be synchronized both ways with the Microsoft Exchange Calendar and the Google Calendar. The navigation is much better than the original Junxure. Nor is the learning curve as steep as it was in the original Junxure. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

And the price is reasonable for the system’s capabilities. The retail price is $75 per user per month, and discounts are available through Schwab, TD Ameritrade and other partners.

Still, in spite of how positive I am about the new product, some caution is in order, since we are dealing with two distinct audiences: those using the original version and those that aren’t. For almost anyone new to Junxure, I would strongly recommend Junxure Cloud. It is modern, it is powerful, and it is going to get even better once a few integrations are completed and a few incremental improvements take place.

If you are a current Junxure user, the case is a bit more complicated. A small minority of users will be attached to things the new Junxure doesn’t have and they will have to wait for it. Meanwhile, some larger firms are hesitant to move to the cloud and are happy with what they currently have. For now, you are probably fine with the status quo. For everyone else, and I believe that includes the majority of current Junxure users, your wait for a better product is over.