Wealth management firms in North America will increase spending in customer relationship management systems tools by 8 per cent over the next five years, expanding from around $460 million last year to $620 million in 2014, Aite Group, a research firm, has reported, according to Wall Street and Technology.

Aite Group could not be reached to verify the numbers in the WST report at the time of going to press. However, a number of issues were mentioned in a press release about the report on Aite’s website.

“The report highlights investment drivers for CRM and forecasts CRM spending in North America. In addition, it provides an in-depth comparison of seven North American CRM vendors that cater to the wealth management industry, and names best-in-class solutions for several categories,” Aite Group said on its website.

“While many large and small wealth management firms are beginning to embrace these newer solutions, a significant number continue to manage client contacts and activities through Microsoft Outlook/Office and other tools,” the organisation said.

The survey in March was taken from 380 financial advisors. It revealed that almost a quarter of survey participants either do not have access to a CRM solution or do not find the solution applicable to their business. “We expect this situation to change as financial advisors increasingly recognize the business value of today’s CRM solutions,” Aite Group said.

CRM vendors profiled in the 54-page report include CDC Software, Junxure, Microsoft, NexJ, Pareto Systems, Redtail Technology, and Salesforce.com.

Aite Group said that in its best-in-class category, Microsoft Dynamics’s NexJ product came top in the “large firm” segment, with Salesforce for Wealth Mgt’s Redtail faring best in the “small firm” category. Pivotal CRM came top in the “medium” firm category, the report said.