CRM solutions vendor NexJ Systems is aiming to extend its footprint into mutual fund dealers, brokers and life insurance distributors by offering a fully integrated cloud-based desktop. The company, which is well-known in the financial industry for its CRM offerings, is partnering with Winfund, a vendor of wealth management solutions, to create a specialized hosted desktop offering that incorporates specific capabilities needed for the financial markets.
The Winfund/NexJ Systems collaboration should prove to be very interesting, especially since financial businesses, such as mutual fund dealers, brokers and life insurance dealers, are bound by complex compliance and security needs. That situation should making the private cloud offering even more significant. If the companies can successfully deploy cloud-based desktops that meet the security and compliance requirements of their customers while hosted off-site, NexJ and Winfund will have blazed a trail into a new territory and may help to dispel many of the beliefs that hosted desktops don’t offer adequate protection.
NexJ enterprise CRM solutions are designed to allow companies to understand more about the customers they interact with so they can make more informed business decisions and generate bottom-line results. Featuring industry-specific capabilities for financial services and insurance, NexJ brings customer information in multiple systems together into a unified and comprehensive view of the individual. Companies use this people-centered view to develop and rapidly evolve innovative customer service strategies and become more competitive.
Through this agreement, Winfund will integrate a select set of NexJ’s next-generation CRM functionality into its W.connect and W.insurance solutions to provide Winfund customers with further value while maintaining a seamless user experience. Customers will have the option of a private cloud solution hosted off-site or on-premises. Both types of deployment will be provided on a subscription basis.
Of course, NexJ is not the only company offering hosted desktops or desktops in the cloud. Several vendors are experimenting with the very same concept under a moniker often referred to as DaaS (desktops as a service). DaaS vendors include the likes of Desktone, MindShift Technologies and Nervogrid, which are using VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) technology to deliver hosted desktops.
Where NexJ and Winfund differ is in the specialization and requirements needed by a vertical market and also the flexibility to deploy the desktops on an in-house private cloud or an off-site private cloud, which gives the customer choices beyond the typical DaaS vendor offerings.
Ultimately, NexJ/Winfund’s play into the DaaS space may spell out how the market evolves and how other services may change to compete, or it could be the first step in the fragmentation of the market that will evolve to serve specific vertical needs.
Regardless, both companies are bullish on their success. In a prepared statement, Laird Elliott, president and CEO of Winfund, said, “We believe this provides us with significant strategic advantage in new business opportunities and further provides our existing W.connect and W.insurance customers the ability to leverage additional functionality with their current deployment.”
John Vincze, senior vice president of NexJ, said in the same statement, “Our relationship with Winfund will allow us to further expand our sales channels and reach a new market segment by delivering our integrated private cloud solution as a subscription service.”
