According to an announcement, AdvisorEngine is removing the Junxure brand from its cloud-based client relationship management tool, renaming the system to AdvisorEngine CRM. Additionally, open-architecture CRM received upgrades such as new prospecting and editing features as well as improvements that would see some pages load in a tenth of the time they’re used to.
This “important milestone” for the Junxure brand, which was first launched 28 years ago in 1994, marks the culmination of a four-year process that began in 2018 with AdvisorEngine’s acquisition of Junxure, CEO Rich Cancro said. The acquisition alone cost $30 million, and Cancro declined to provide figures on how much money and effort AdvisorEngine had put into the multi-year overhaul.
Almost immediately after the acquisition, AdvisorEngine began manufacturing an AWS cloud-based version of the software. This work ended at the end of 2019. By mid-2020, the look and feel of the tool began to redesign. Today’s improvements, including the rebranding, began around the same time and were telegraphed early last year when Junxure completed its long-awaited integration with Charles Schwab.
Just like it did with Junxure, AdvisorEngine will make its rebranded CRM available as a standalone product, priced per user, as announced. The firm declined to disclose the number of users on the CRM platform or how many of them remained before the 2018 acquisition.
The desktop legacy version of the software is still being maintained from a security and operational standpoint, but users who want the speed of the latest integrations or cloud-based improvements will need to switch systems, according to Suleiman Din, Consultant Intelligence Lead at AdvisorEngine .
All integrations provided within the cloud-based version of Junxure will be available and maintained, said Craig Ramsey, Chief Operating Officer of AdvisorEngine. “Our roadmap includes adding additional integration partners and going deeper with existing integrations,” he said.
One of those integrations is with compliant text messaging platform MyRepChat, a significant partnership as it competes for consultants’ mobile devices. In AdvisorEngine CRM, integration allows consultants to capture text activity and pull it into a client’s records. For example, CRM competitor RedTel Technology recently deployed its text messaging platform, Speak, as a standalone product and will “likely” integrate its text messaging platform with third-party CRM providers.
AdvisorEngine CRM users will benefit from “an entirely new technology foundation” and a “modern architecture” for the rebranded CRM, which will support “zero downtime deployment,” according to Raj Madan, the firm’s chief technology officer. Part of that foundation is making the software “cloud-native,” which will improve page load speeds and the tool’s ability to scale.
Now that major CRM upgrades are complete, consultants can expect monthly releases of new features and maintenance driven by customer suggestions and feedback. “We are proud to harness the best of Junxure and lead it as an AdvisorEngine CRM,” Ramsey said.
