Black Diamond has recently launched a new CRM solution called the Black Diamond CRM. It is built on Salesforce through Salentica Elements, but has five main differentiating qualities:

 

1. Outsourced CRM Administration - Black Diamond will hold the administrative licenses for firm environments; firms will have a defined experience presented in the CRM without the additional complexity of managing an enterprise CRM application. As a result, firms will have limited options to customize the application. Most notably, Black Diamond CRM firms are restricted from adding new objects and can only add a small number of fields to selected objects.

2. Single Service Experience - Black Diamond CRM firms will access CRM support through their traditional Black Diamond service team and case management system. To accomplish this value add, firm CRMs must be configured and deployed as standardized as possible.

3. Defined Managed Services - As mentioned above, firms will have limited options to customize the environment but services such as installing Salentica updates will be done as a holistic service offering. Additional services, either paid for or included in per-user pricing, are available but are predefined in scope to confirm with the standard offering.

4. In-App Black Diamond CRM Experience - Black Diamond and Salentica are committed to providing an experience that is best-in-class between the two applications including contextual deep links from Black Diamond to CRM and enforcing preferred systems for data entry. These enhancements will be available to Black Diamond CRM users and Salentica Engage users as we bring our development enhancements to production in early 2024. As of today, this experience requires one of our SS&C CRM solutions and will not be offered to consumers of other Salesforce CRMs, such as Financial Services Cloud.

5. Approved Integrations - The Black Diamond CRM will come available with defined integrations that can be enabled, configured, and deployed without additional fees. For integrations that are not approved, there will be a required implementation fee and annual maintenance fee per integration.

 

Prototype of In-App Black Diamond CRM Experience

The contextual deep links would take users directly to CRM pages from within Black Diamond.

 

Ideals firms for Black Diamond CRM include smaller advisory businesses that do not have the operational means to manage complex systems day-to-day, or small to medium-sized businesses that are looking for a standardized solution that doesn't require customizations. With future growth in mind, as firms expand and add resources required to manage enterprise systems, we will provide a simple contractual process to transition firms to Salentica Elements which will allow firms administrative control all without having to migrate CRMs.

Black Diamond CRM consumers will receive our standard Salentica Elements solution with subtle branding differences that align with the Black Diamond Wealth Platform.

 

SS&C CRM solutions are as follows:

 

Product	Platform	Target Market
Black Diamond CRM	Salesforce, through Salentica Elements	Wealth Management- standardized solution for emerging/breakaway advisory businesses
Salentica Elements	Salesforce	Wealth Management and/or Asset Management - Purpose built but customizable for mid/enterprise businesses
Salentica Engage	Dynamics 365	Wealth Management and/or Asset Management - Purpose built but customizable for mid/enterprise businesses
Tier 1 CRM	Salesforce	Capital Markets and Investment Banking - Purpose built but customizable for small/mid and enterprise businesses

 

SS&C’s CRM solution division has grown considerably since the acquisition of Salentica. Today we have over 30,000 daily CRM users, over 400+ firms, and 140+ employees. Each year we provide at least two updates to our core CRM platforms including platform releases that complement our industry-specific enhancements.

 

As a current Salentica firm, please review the following Q&A section for more information:

Q: If we are a current Salentica Engage client and we really like the idea of an outsourced CRM structure, can we explore moving to the Black Diamond CRM?

A: Potentially, but this will require a contract amendment and an implementation project, and we will strictly enforce customization limitations and annual integration maintenance fees. Please submit a ticket to our support team, and we will discuss that on a firm-by-firm basis.

 

Q: If we are a current Salentica Engage consumer but haven’t customized the solution and we really like the idea of an outsourced CRM structure, can we explore moving to the Black Diamond CRM?

A: Not at this time. We recommend waiting for the in-app black diamond CRM experience, single service model and approved Integrations once they become available. If you’re not satisfied with your current Salentica Engage product and wish to migrate to the Black Diamond CRM or Salentica Elements, please submit a ticket to our support team, and we will discuss that on a firm-by-firm basis.

 

Q: How can we install the Black Diamond In-App CRM experience?

A: This requires Salentica Engage and operational work to “sync” common contact, address, and relationship data points across the application and provision contextual deep links from Engage to Black Diamond. We’re currently building the syncing capabilities in our Data Broker tool and Black Diamond is working on their UX interface for the in-app experience. As these development items progress through our teams, we will solicit beta participants and come to market with collateral on how to use and install the new features once they’re generally available. The current ETA is the first quarter of '24.

 

Q: We want one single service experience across our SS&C applications, how do we get that?

A: This is one of the most common pieces of feedback we get through our surveys.  We are actively reviewing ideas to offer a seamless firm experience across multiple products.  We look forward to sharing more information when it's available

 

Q: What are approved integrations?

A: Approved integrations are a defined list of third-party applications that we will enable, configure, and deploy without professional service fees. We are offering this option with the Black Diamond CRM and will evaluate an option for Salentica firms.

 

Q: Where can I find updates to the Black Diamond CRM enhancements that will be available to Salentica Engage firms?

A: We will use various methods to help drive awareness including, but not limited to:

• Salentica.com blog posts

• Workshop Wednesday update

• Salentica Help Center articles

• Joint webinars with Black Diamond

• Salentica quarterly newsletter updates

Q: I’m currently using Salentica Data Broker but we have our own version of Microsoft D365, can we use the in-app Black Diamond CRM Experience?

A: No, not at this time. The Black Diamond CRM experience requires the Black Diamond CRM or Salentica Engage.

 

Q: Where can we find more information about the Black Diamond CRM, including features that we will get access to already being a Salentica firm?

A: Here’s a link to download a recording of our webinar presented on 11/8/2023: BD CRM Webinar Replay

 

Please submit a support ticket to speak with someone on our team about any of the information in this article.