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Tapping Into Big Data? No Big Deal

Written by Grace L. Williams.

“We are moving toward a fully paperless model,” says John Murphy, Chief Financial Officer of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.-based B&C Financial Advisors.

Big data might sound like an abstract concept being excercised by corporations, but some independent advisors have already found ways to use information in their practice in a very targeted fashion.

All it took was the right tools and working with the vendor to tap into client data, says John Murphy, Chief Financial Officer of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.-based B&C Financial Advisors, which manages $235 million.

Additionally, Murphy tells Re: Invent|Wealth his practice has moved to digital reports and even communicating via text because clients “want online access and to be able to see their accounts on a smartphone.”

What technology do you use and what does it do?

We use a combination of solutions including Junxure’s CRM software to help organize office workflow and SS&C Advent’s Black Diamond platform, which helps track portfolio performance and communicate that back to our clients. We also use Black Diamond’s data mining tool to help with our investment process and its client portal to allow our clients to access their reports and see account information from any device.

When did you decide to implement it in your daily work?

We started using Junxure in 2012. In 2014 we decided to migrate to Black Diamond after using Advent’s Axys program since 1995.

How does it improve the quality of what you do?

Junxure helps with workflow and all client interactions, allowing everyone in our office to easily locate items that may have been handled by someone else and to get up to speed on the various conversations that have been had with our clients.

We are moving toward a fully paperless model, but we have no desire to rush clients that are more comfortable with traditional paper reports, so Black Diamond has been great for serving the needs of clients who are comfortable using technology to access their information online as well as those who prefer detailed, hard copy reports.

As a firm that takes a very personalized investment process, we have also found Black Diamond’s data mining tool to be especially helpful to assist in gathering all of the data necessary for our review process.

How does it shape the quality of your client interaction?

Our number one goal with our clients is transparency.  We want them to know everything we are doing for them and through our Black Diamond reporting software and Junxure CRM, we are better able to accomplish this. Good communication is key for every relationship we have.

What is one area you would like to see improve?

The great thing about Black Diamond is that they actively process feedback from their clients and try to shape their offerings based on client need. Right now, we would like to see some improvements to the fixed income area in Black Diamond and we are actively talking with them about the enhancements that would be most valuable to our process.

Financial-Planning.com. (2015). Tapping Into Big Data? No Big Deal [News Story]. Retrieved from http://www.financial-planning.com/news/practice/tapping-into-big-data-no-big-deal-2695156-1.html