Investment banking: data drives deals drives dollars

 

Data drives deals

For the corporate banking team there are specific benefits in adopting the single system approach to CRM:

The capital markets teams have a world of information about clients – trading relationships, trade data, research consumption, events attendance, analyst meetings, conversations with sales and more. You should also be able to leverage the collective knowledge on which investors have shown interest in specific stocks or corporate bonds, captured from Bloomberg interactions and historic trade activity. All this data – often automatically captured at source – gives you context around institutional clients and can streamline the efficiency of identifying potentially interested parties for a fundraise, generating target lists in next to no time. Similarly, any previous dealings with the issuer in your deal can be picked up firm wide if you’re all working off a single platform. 

For the M&A team, access to the data from other teams can be key. This includes previous activity and preference information on potential financial buyers, be they private equity or corporate. Existing relationships within the firm may put you in an advantageous position. This applies most obviously to corporates but also to PE firms invested in existing corporate clients. 

 

Capturing the power of personal relationships

The ‘black book’ of contacts still holds great power – deal flow origination is still very relationship driven, especially with the key private equity and venture capital contacts. If your firm has concerns about IP drainage when staff leave, a connected CRM will assist. The contacts reside in a single system, bringing improvements to the performance of the entire team, enabling you to leverage the institutional strength of the organisation. In a competitive syndicate situation this can make all the difference.

 

Keeping a clean sheet

These days, there is no longer any need to run separate systems to avoid compliance breaches: a sophisticated CRM can ring fence specific deals, giving different levels of access and privileges to nominated people and creating easily accessible audit trails for all activities, yet still maintaining that crucial access to the intelligence that can assist in bringing the deal to market faster and more successfully.

Beyond the realms of ring-fenced confidential deals, a single, auditable CRM will also assist with compliance in general, mitigating risk and maintaining your reputation. 

 

The big picture

At the highest level within the investment bank, the management information opportunities offered by using a single system are significant. It delivers a complete 360 view of your activities, huge opportunities for cross selling and actionable insights in all areas of your business. Beyond that, it affords the ability to create overview dashboards continuously monitoring your chosen KPIs, increases collaboration within the firm and boosts efficiency. For example, training and support become streamlined, adoption of the solution is accelerated and resources are optimised. 

 

Pain vs gain?

As the lines blur between public and private with the rise in popularity of direct listings and the on-off reemergence of SPACS, joined up data and a single solution will become essential for firms wishing to adapt quickly to new market norms and demonstrate their market leadership. Yet, if business is booming, is there appetite for the disruption and pain caused by a system change? Resistance from a busy IT team may be equaled by resistance from one or more teams who feel that their current system is fine. 

 

A capital markets-ready CRM with proven in-house implementation expertise, including swapping out legacy systems, data migration and training of individual teams, will minimise disruption and fast-track your ROI, in many instances to under 6 months. Not only that, but with regular updates reflecting client requirements, market developments, regulatory changes and technology advances, you will never be behind the curve and can focus your efforts on your clients and your business, knowing that the technology is taken care of and your teams are in the best position to seize opportunities.