Dow Jones launches client contact system

Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:) today announced the launch of "Dow Jones Wealth Manager Web Services," a revolutionary solution that enables financial firms to provide their advisors with reasons for personalized client contact integrated within the firms' enterprise-wide client service applications.

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The new solution offers advisors a stream of custom communication ideas by matching stories, articles and features from award-winning sources, including Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, to client-specific interests and holdings.

"The most pressing challenge for leaders in the industry is to help their advisors deliver on the service expectations of their clients," said Joseph Lanza, vice president, sales and marketing, Dow Jones Newswires-Americas. "Dow Jones Wealth Manager Web Services is the Client-Loyalty Engine that drives the frequent, productive contact that affluent clients expect from their wealth managers."

According to leading industry research, more frequent and meaningful advisor-client contact is strongly linked to increased assets and referrals for the advisor. Once satisfied with a birthday card and the occasional phone call about a hot new stock, affluent clients today demand more. A new study commissioned by Dow Jones Newswires from CEG Worldwide, "Cultivating the Affluent Client," finds that clients want 28 contacts per year, on average, with some top clients preferring as many as 48 meaningful contacts per year from their financial advisors.

For the first time, a set of web services has been developed to embed Dow Jones news directly into advisors' workflows. Full-service firms, private banks and wealth management boutiques will be able to leverage Dow Jones Wealth Manager Web Services, empowering their advisors and wealth managers to communicate with their clients more often and on more individually relevant topics. Once embedded in the firm's critical client service applications, Client News Matches are quickly and seamlessly accessible to the advisor, who then decides what and how best to share with clients: by phone, email or in person. This streamlined process eliminates the need to spend hours searching web sites or transferring information from one account management program to another and lets the advisor focus on the client experience.

Web Services Bridges Applications and Relationships

"Major national and regional firms have committed tremendous resources to build client service management applications," said Larry Joyce, executive director of wealth management solutions, Americas, for Dow Jones Newswires. "Dow Jones Wealth Manager Web Services is the technology bridge between the advisory applications and client communication, enabling the advisor to focus on providing high-quality service and firms to improve their ROI."

To start, the firm identifies the applications and platforms most critical to its advisors' productivity, such as customer relationship management (CRM), managed account and portfolio management systems, into which to embed Dow Jones Wealth Manager Web Services. The new solution incorporates a set of eight XML-based programmatic interface components accessed through industry-standard, secure Internet protocols.

Once integrated, the eight Web Services components allow the firm to entitle access to Dow Jones Wealth Manager, enable advisors to develop profiles of individual clients and then return news and information matches on a per-client basis - all within the most important applications on the advisor's desktop. Advisors choose items most closely aligned with a client's investment, professional and personal interests and use these as the basis for thoughtful client contact. Firms can also employ Web Services to add Dow Jones news and news search into any application, create email or alerts for the advisor, and present all Dow Jones news sorted by interests, holdings or by client groups.

Dow Jones Newswires provides technical support during implementation, including a developer's Web site, sample applications and a test environment. The firm's IT staff maintains complete control over integration of Dow Jones Wealth Manager Web Services' system design and content presentation. The extensive Dow Jones Wealth Manager content database is housed, maintained and updated by Dow Jones. Dow Jones' technical support and database management reduce cost of ownership and enable faster adoption by the firm's advisors.

News Matches on the Topics Clients Care About Most

To provide the broadest and most appealing array of news matches to client interests, the new solution includes all of Dow Jones' award-winning publications and sources, including Dow Jones Newswires, all editions of The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and Smart Money. Dow Jones Wealth Manager also includes leading national newspapers and more than 50 industry and trade publications.

The range of sources ensures that advisors will have an abundance of matches to client-specific interests, such as:

  • Professional Life - Business and economic trends, technology, small business management, product innovations, compensation and employee benefits.
  • Personal Interests - Home, fashion, hobbies, sports, travel, lifestyle, health and education.
  • Investing - Financial planning, portfolio holdings, company and market news, investment products and alternative investment vehicles.

    Dow Jones Wealth Manager also has a dedicated team of editors who rank and highlight news throughout the day so that advisors stay on top of vital developments affecting their practices and clients. In addition, Dow Jones Wealth Manager also helps firms extend the wealth management business model through the advisor ranks by including the latest news, trends and best practices in the wealth management industry, grouped into 20 Wealth Management Collections.

    Dow Jones Wealth Manager Web Services is a significant enhancement to Dow Jones offerings' for wealth management firms and practitioners, providing installation flexibility that will dramatically increase the frequency and quality of advisor/client communication.

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