Advisor Tech Adoption: When the Boss Is the Roadblock

The panelists also agreed that more than the technical staff and principals needed to be involved in the purchasing and implementation of new software. Kincheloe suggested that in any tech adoption process, include someone who might be skeptical about the technology (not hostile) to show the rest of the staff how the decision isn’t just coming from IT. Pomering seconded that idea, noting that it “gives that person more buy-in” to the decision, while Jack mentioned that every two weeks “we do a lunch-and-learn on Junxure” for staff.

Mertens said that at Orgel, “we work with our people using case studies” to show how the new technology will “resonate” with staff in their quotidian duties. That means, he said, “not talking about ‘greater efficiency’” in the abstract but rather showing them “how it is going to make my life easier” in daily processes like reducing the time needed to prepare for client meetings, “using old meeting notes to show how much time it’s really saving.” Kincheloe said that in her consulting work, “when I go into firms, one of the key pieces about Junxure” is to move perception of the software’s benefits among staff members from “it’s all about me” to “it’s all about the clients.” Mertens said of technology that “it’s not adoption that’s the problem but utilization.” At Orgel, they keep repeating the Junxure mantra: “If it’s not in Junxure, it didn’t happen.”

Jack said that at Budros, Ruhlin, “we use that exact term as well,” saying that the firm points out to staffers, especially the rainmakers, that “there are guys who do all this work but don’t put it into Junxure, so they don’t get the credit for that.” After years of encouraging use of the software, “it’s now the culture,” he said.

Pomering recalled that when she joined Moss Adams’ RIA firm, “I didn’t know Junxure and we had only 20% usage of it at the firm.” So “we did a case study of how we wanted a platinum client relationship” to develop. “We wanted a deep, seamless experience for clients, and staff were excited about that,” but what they didn’t realize was that the firm already “had a tool — that we were paying for — to accomplish that vision.”

She said that “our adoption now is almost 100%,” saying that “we removed some people” from the firm not simply for their failure to use Junxure, but because “their priority was not providing that kind of client experience.” Such an adoption strategy, Mertens said, “ends up being infectious — we used to do trades by hands, and sometimes that paper would be lost — which means the trade wasn’t done, which means the cash wasn’t generated, which means a check wasn’t sent out, which means it was a bad client experience.”

In response to an audience member who lamented that the principals in his firm wouldn’t even use Junxure, Pomering admitted that she didn’t have the platform installed on her own computer. However, she said “I’m not in a client-facing role,” and she does use business analytics “reports generated out of Junxure,” which the staff calls ‘Rebecca Reports.’

“I’m a financials nerd,” said Pomering. “I want a lot of statistics” around firm benchmarks like revenue per client, data that she says she uses to “to drive behavior and eventually culture.”

Mertens finished the session by saying “Junxure is the core of all our [key performance indicator] reports,” also mentioning revenue per advisor, which the firm uses to “make core decisions about the future.”

Finally, referring to the efficiency that advisor-focused CRM software like Junxure provides to firms, “we’ve hired eight new people in the past two years” as Orgel has grown. “We need to know where that stops.”

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