Salesforce's is by no stretch the first advisor-specific CRM platform, nor is it the first to imply it will make advisors money.

In fact, it's just one of the latest tech-based rollouts in what GJ King, president of RIA in a Box, calls the "multitude" of new tools plan advisors can choose from to enhance their firm's efficiency.

Ultimately, plan advisors stand to benefit from all that technology, King said, but there is a downside.

"It's becoming more difficult to evaluate all the potential solutions out there," he said. "It's a lot to ask the principal of an RIA firm that's already wearing the hat of CEO, CIO and chief compliance officer to now be the chief technology officer."

This year King and his firm set out to understand better which types of tech offerings were most widely adopted by plan advisors.

Of the more than 850 firms surveyed, 44 percent used CRM software, 58 percent used a portfolio management and reporting system, and 64 percent used financial planning software.

As would be expected, adoption of technologies varied with firm size. Only 41 percent of firms with less than $25 million in assets under management used a CRM system, compared with 62 percent of firms managing more than $100 million.

Did investing in new technologies make a difference? In 2014, a strong year for retirement advisors given stock market returns, RIA in a Box's survey found aggressive adopters of technology saw their AUM grow more than twice as much as firms that adopted no new technology.

Overall, innovations in cloud computing and storage are driving technology costs down for plan advisors, a trend King expects to continue.

But he does caution that investment in a new product, such as a CRM system, goes beyond the point of purchase.

"Firms need to recognize there is a cost in implementing new programs properly and making sure the software is being properly utilized by everyone in the firm," King said.

"The real challenge of any technology implementation is training and driving adoption," he added. "The sad reality is the vast majority of firms will only use 10 to 20 percent of a new technology's capabilities without the firm making it a strategic priority to drive and force adoption."

Software designers are doing more than ever to help encourage that adoption by building useful and functional tools into CRM systems.

At least five firms have been offering advisor-specific CRM solutions for several years, and one for over a decade; at least another two CRM products were designed by advisors themselves. Most are priced on a per-user basis and can be as affordable as $20 a month per advisor. Some solutions claim a proven ability to seamlessly integrate with other advisor software products, like portfolio management tools.

"No piece of software is perfect, but there is a huge focus today on the user experience for advisors and designing sensible tools that can actually deliver results. Advisors are demanding programs that are intuitive and easy to understand," King said.

"And the market is delivering," he added.