Whether the overall job market is up or down, highly skilled financial advisors are always in huge demand. To help gain a keener competitive edge in recruiting these advisors, and improve efficiency along the way, Lincoln Financial Group has replaced its long-time paper-oriented work environment with a Windows-based ECM (electronic content management) system from Hyland Software.

Although based in Philadelphia, the 100 year-old firm now offers financial products such as retirement plans, insurance, and annuities, nationwide, relying on a coast-to-coast network of 2,000 financial planners to advise customers on how to create financial strategies and employee programs tailored to specific needs.

Raymond James’ 4,640 advisors have complete flexibility in how they manage their customer relationships. Until recently, that also meant the customer relationship management (CRM) tools the advisors used were locally managed, and may have varied from homegrown spreadsheet type systems to third-party solutions individually selected at each location.

This spring, Raymond James began offering its advisors a new proposition. Working with Microsoft, Raymond James launched a centrally-managed Microsoft Dynamics CRM system intended to give its advisors the latest tools and functionality for managing customer relationships without the advisor having to undertake the effort involved in implementing, maintaining and backing up a system for managing extensive client data.

IN NEED OF A BETTER AGGREGATE VIEW OF HIS OWN HOLDINGS, AN ENTREPRENEUR BUILT ONE.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” Hemingway’s rebuttal: “Yes, they have more money.”

Chris Snyder learned how the rich are different after he sold Loan Pricing Corporation to Reuters for $50 million.

“I had money to worry about for the first time in my life,” he recalled. “When you cash out of a company, you become your own trust fund baby.” He went to see several private bankers and came away underwhelmed. They all sounded the same with recommendations of a mix of stocks, bonds and a few miscellaneous investments.