Quick Takes are designed to provide readers with a quick overview of a product or service of interest. They are not designed to be a comprehensive review, but rather an informational piece that draws reader’s attention to something that I’ve recently looked at that interested me enough to share it with you.

Truelytics, A Business Intelligence Application for RIAs

Back in 2014, at the initial Orion FUSE hackathon, I was introduced to a business intelligence application from Gladstone Associates. My fellow FUSE judges and I liked it so much that we recognized it as the Best Application of Business Intelligence at the event.

Since that time, I had not heard anything further about the Gladstone software; now I know why. Gladstone sold the technology. It has been rebranded and relaunched as Truelytics. While the new offering differs in many respects from the application that I saw in 2014, there is a lot of potential here.

Truelytics claims to be “only online self-service platform in the industry that gives you the ability to understand the value of your entire practice including earnings contributions and the key strengths and weaknesses that are driving your business.”  Among other things, it provides firm metrics on an ongoing basis. Truelytics claims that they can provide valuations with a minimal amount of manual data entry.

As should be obvious, there are several applications for this technology. According to Truelytics CEO Terry Mullen, 35% of advisors will retire within the next ten years.” Those who want to sell their business will want an objective valuation of what their business is worth. Truelytics can provide that. Mullen says that Truelytics can also help advisors increase the value of their business. How? By providing business intelligence and benchmarking. Not only will Truelytics help identify potential weaknesses in a firm’s operations, it will also provide a playbook for improving a firm’s overall score.

Advisors often have difficulty quantifying what an improved benchmark score means to them in dollars and cents, so Truelytics provides information on what an improved score can mean in dollar terms.

Mullen says that advisors become successful through a host of things, but few focus on the business of their business. Even the terminology is wrong, he claims. Most advisors refer to their business as a practice or a book. “You practice sports and yoga,” he says. “A book is something you read. An advisory firm is a business.” Truelytics provides actionable data to help you run your firm like a business.

The firm boasts a management team with years of experience. Mullen has worked for several large firms including Sun Life Financial, Lincoln Financial Distributors, and AIG. Kevin Connor, a Managing Partner, worked at the Hartford for years.

Pricing is competitive. You can get a high-level firm evaluation for free. The paid service, which costs $100 per month or $1,075 per year provides an advisor eValuation with four industry accepted models, a firm eValuation and scorecard, over 40 key performance indicators (KPI’s) highlighting firm risks and upside, benchmarking against industry peers, a personalized dashboard, and more.

If there is one thing that all of the thought leaders in the practice management space agree on it is that advisors need to focus more on business metrics as a key to growth and success. Truelytics appears to be a tool that can help you improve your business and provide a valuation of your business. I suspect that many readers can benefit from what Truelytics has to offer.

More information is available at www.Truelytics.com.