Pareto Principle

Its deal with Cadaret, Grant to customize its existing CRM software was the first of its kind for the nearly six-year-old firm Pareto Systems, says co-founder Duncan MacPherson. Most of its more than 5,000 users had come from advisors at much bigger corporate outfits.

MacPherson says his software is a philosophy–a way to connect with a client rather than a list of boxes to check. "Most CRM puts a huge emphasis on functionality that's not relevant to the advisor," says MacPherson. "You hear people say CRM fits neatly on a dashboard. We wanted to help advisors keep and attract great clients."

Naming its software after the Pareto Principle was no accident. Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, posited that 20% of the people owned 80% of the wealth in his country in 1906. Dr. Joseph Juran, an engineer, borrowed Pareto's idea 40 years later, twisting it to create a new theory positing that 20% of effort creates 80% of the results. This is the version MacPherson refers to when describing how his software works, and how an advisor's team should be working to get the best, or most profitable results, for the firm. "We want an advisor to know what he gets paid to do, and what his team is responsible for doing," says MacPherson.