Author: Josh

Transform Your Investor Communications With the Right Tools

Posted on January 15, 2021 by - Investor Relations & LP Experience

The competition to win—and retain— investor communications are becoming increasingly fierce, and market predictions point to continued escalations in difficulty.

Combine that with a noticeable decline in the number of investors planning to invest more dollars in the marketplace and we’re finding that many Private Equity firms and asset managers are actively looking for innovative and effective ways to win over new investors and maintain the interest of existing ones.

Private Equity Communication Tools: Turning Challenges Into Opportunities

While it is more difficult than ever to secure capital and close deals in Private Equity, this challenge actually provides a unique opportunity and powerful motivation. Forced to adapt or be left behind, firms are exploring new technology that they may not have otherwise considered.

What they are finding is that these tools can be used to improve workflows and streamline operations. When successfully implemented, Private Equity communications solutions, in particular, can positively impact both resource utilization and revenue.

With communication and transparency increasingly at the core of GP-LP relationships, focusing on improving and redefining the ways that firms interact and communicate with their investors can produce a significant competitive advantage.

Setting Your Sights on a Purpose-Built Private Equity Investor Communications Tool

Many communication tools promise the ability to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of interactions with stakeholders. However, few are purpose-built for the Private Equity industry.

As an asset manager or other stakeholder searching for the right solution for your company, it’s important to prioritize your specific needs and goals rather than settling for a system that’s “good enough.” Before you start shopping for a solution, you should create a detailed list of your requirements so that everyone involved in researching and reviewing your options is, literally, on the same page.

Insisting on a Proven Solution

Altvia’s Private Equity communications solution, Altvia Correspond, is built around specific industry needs like investor relations, communications, marketing, and fundraising. Altvia Correspond Market Edition provides the core features of a mass email application with the benefit of integration with AIM, our Private Equity CRM solution on the Salesforce platform.

It’s an end-to-end system that addresses all of a firm’s data and Private Equity communications needs. It allows users to easily, creatively, and effectively manage communications for prospecting, fundraising, deal announcements, and roadshows without the labor-intensive, manual “swivel chair” approach that requires exporting data from a CRM and then importing it into a separate email application.

Some of Altvia Correspond Market Edition’s advanced capabilities include:

  • INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS. Use one system to manage your data, mass communications, contact lists, and reporting.
  • SMART LISTS. Create dynamic email contact lists from your AIM data to ensure data integrity and send targeted communications.
  • ENHANCED ANALYTICS. Leverage data from your communications to drive more informed decision making for fundraising and deal sourcing.
  • FLEXIBLE MASS EMAILS AND TEMPLATES. Grow relationships with personalized communications for broad audiences and leverage contact lists and mailing templates for more frequent engagement.

Investor Communications Tool Provider That Stays on the Leading Edge

Private Equity communications tools, and investor relations solutions in general, continue to evolve as business practices change and available technology improves. As more Private Equity firms adopt scalable and efficient communications solutions, the need to differentiate in order to stay ahead of the competition will increase.

Simply implementing an adequate system and then turning your attention to other initiatives isn’t a good long-term strategy. Becoming complacent about your private equity communications solution can cause you to fall behind your competitors. You’ve got to regularly assess your options and be prepared to move to a better system if one is developed.

At Altvia, not only do we offer a full line of integrated solutions to meet your needs today, but we also provide comprehensive consulting and support through Altvia Care to ensure that your needs are addressed and you’re always taking full advantage of our suite of products as they evolve in sync with our changing industry.

As Keith Janosky, CFO, Head of Investor Relations at Khosla Ventures notes in a webinar on The Art of Virtual Fundraising, “We use Altvia to track our LPs and our regular communication with regards to fundraising so we can record their interactions and emails.”

Get more of his perspective and insights from other experts when you watch the information-packed session.

Why Private Equity Culture Matters To Limited Partners

Posted on January 13, 2021 by - Investor Relations & LP Experience

Company culture is the visible manifestation of an organization’s ethics, integrity, and reliability. It’s important in every industry, but private equity culture is particularly impactful because building and maintaining trust is the foundation of our industry.

For Limited Partners (LPs) looking to invest with a General Partner (GP), a positive culture is also vital because it’s a good predictor of long-term financial success.

When an LP is trying to find the right GP, the requirement of a proven track record is obvious. But the importance of choosing a GP whose values align with yours isn’t as apparent. Investors need to do “cultural due diligence” on a firm in the same way that a GP would assess an operating company.

LPs should never place investments with a firm they can’t trust, no matter what the financial performance indicators look like. That’s true for many reasons, including that firms with poor culture are more likely to misrepresent financial reporting.

Let’s take a look at what culture is, and why private equity culture is important for LPs.

What is private equity culture?

According to Investopedia, corporate culture is “…the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company’s employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions. Often, corporate culture is implied, not expressly defined, and develops organically over time from the cumulative traits of the people the company hires.”

Some people mistakenly think of culture as “the fun social things firms do” like team building and celebrations. Those activities definitely contribute to a company’s culture, but investors are more concerned with the underlying forces that drive how the organization interacts on a professional level, both internally and externally with partners, clients, etc.

Private equity culture as a driver of performance

LPs that are looking for a good place to invest will do well to put at least some importance on firm culture. Research shows that a good, strong culture is linked to better financial performance.

Firms with a positive culture are more likely to be strategically innovative. They embrace diversity in thought and problem-solving and are more willing to try new approaches rather than sticking with old processes simply because “this is how we’ve always done it.”

The ability to innovate in areas like business processes, communication, and how investment decisions are made are all examples of small, often culture-driven changes that can make a big difference. The benefit to LPs is that their investment is going into a firm that is forward-thinking—a common predictor of financial success.

Firms with a strong culture are also better at retaining top talent. Recruiters are constantly looking to “poach” the best employees by promising the next exciting and lucrative opportunity. Plus, talented employees are often tempted to strike out on their own and start a firm themselves.

The difficulty of fighting these forces increases substantially if working conditions in the office are less than ideal. Office politics, poor recruiting and management practices, and unfair promotion processes are all things that can drive good employees away—and with them, potential investors.

When a firm is able to retain its top talent through good corporate culture, LPs benefit significantly. Not only does the firm have the talent it needs to grow, but it also maintains the expertise necessary to make solid business decisions and nurture strong relationships.

Reduce fraud risk with positive firm culture

The dark side of firm culture is that a dysfunctional or toxic work environment has been associated with an increase in fraud. A Glassdoor study linked poor company culture to more deceptive financial reporting.

The report identifies two potential reasons for a negative culture leading to fraudulent outcomes. The first theory is that a company with poor culture tends to set unrealistic performance goals. The case of Wells Fargo employees opening fraudulent customer accounts is an example. Employees were under immense pressure to hit sales goals since compensation and career advancement were tied to those objectives.

This type of sales pressure isn’t unique to Wells Fargo, of course. But, the setting of unrealistic goals led to the de facto acceptance of unethical behavior. Salespeople believed they were more likely to get fired for not hitting their numbers than they were to get caught opening fraudulent accounts and fired for that.

The second theory is that firms with poor company culture lack sufficient “internal controls” to safeguard them from fraudulent behavior. In the absence of institutional controls, strong company culture that is focused on ethics and integrity acts as a safeguard. But in a company that starts to foster a “win at all costs” attitude, these safeguards quickly break down and ethics are tossed out the window.

Better culture, better business

Ultimately, a positive firm culture isn’t simply a “nice to have” attribute. It’s a driver of better relationships and a predictor of financial success that gives investors the confidence they need to take the next step.

Pro Tip: For General Partners, one of the best ways to develop investor trust today is with a secure LP-Portal. Altvia’s LP-Portal helps GPs achieve that goal by enabling fast and secure sharing of many types of files including documents, videos, audio files, and recorded webinars.

Schedule a demo to learn more about this product and how it contributes to a culture of transparency and attentiveness that stakeholders appreciate.

Which Private Equity Benchmarks Should Your Firm Adopt?

Posted on January 11, 2021 by - Private Equity Technology

Compared to measuring public market investments, private equity benchmarks for fund performance are an entirely different animal.

As a relatively new asset class with irregular cash flows, private equity funds require a different way of thinking than other asset classes.

Over the past decade, Limited Partners (LPs) have been using public market-equivalent (PME) benchmarks to measure fund performance. While PMEs are more complex to calculate, they do offer methodological benefits.

Still, many firms prefer to leverage their own measurement techniques, often based on comparing Internal Rate of Returns (IRRs) to stock indexes.

In any event, a good benchmark should be applicable, understandable, and reflective of the underlying portfolio. A critical part of managing risk, benchmarks help firms evaluate past investments, understand the overall picture, and ultimately, make informed decisions. In order to stay relevant—and stay ahead of your competitors—General Partners (GPs) must have the ability to report on fund performance with metrics that LPs can easily compare to industry benchmarks in order to choose the fund manager that’s best for them.

Crucial Components of Private Equity Benchmarks

Assessing private equity performance can be a complex task. While benchmarks should reflect the fundamental characteristics a firm believes will make a good investment, the types of benchmarks often vary from LP to LP. As a result, LPs can use their benchmark choices to differentiate their firm from competitors.

Of course, before deciding whether or not to invest, firms need to fully understand what they’re measuring against their chosen benchmarks. They need to know:

  • Is the investment liquid or illiquid, private or other asset?
  • What’s the performance over time?
  • What’s the opportunity cost of investments?

Generally driven by mandates like non-U.S. funds under $1B versus broad global PE portfolio, private equity benchmarks can be broken down into four main types based on their function:

  • Compare a fund or portfolio to the industry
  • Compare a fund or portfolio to the public markets
  • Compare the industry to the public markets
  • Compare a fund or portfolio to the public markets and compare that to how well the private equity industry did relative to the public markets

Finally, when you establish a robust benchmark to evaluate the performance of an actively managed portfolio, consider to what extent multiple measurements will allow for a more holistic view. Are you capturing quantitative and qualitative measures over both short- and long-term periods? This is the kind of data that will help your firm have the big-picture view necessary to make informed investment decisions.

Technology Streamlines the Benchmark Process

Today’s data analytics solutions can help your firm eliminate unnecessary risk by ensuring your team is always working from a single source of truth. Not only can you increase the transparency and accuracy of the data you collect, your firm can also gain critical backend efficiencies when you choose a solution designed specifically for private equity.

Altvia Answers, for example, helps firms connect data from disparate sources and easily gather meaningful information they can use to create more powerful private equity benchmarks. With a central repository for all of your firm’s data—and analytics you can obtain without IT assistance—your firm can also quickly access the information investors request and need in order to make good decisions.

Adopting tools designed for private equity can help your firm provide a fully transparent experience that builds trust with stakeholders and investors, and that empowers you to stand out from the competition.

Global Private Equity Benchmark Considerations

Today, many private equity firms use U.S. benchmarks like the S&P 500., However, some firms are beginning to recommend switching to a more global or blended benchmark system. If this trend takes hold, expect a slow progression, as changing a benchmark is a complex process requiring the approval of a firm’s board.

For now, investors should take care to understand what’s being measured, how it’s being measured, and what is being used to benchmark returns.

Private Equity Fund Management System: What Your Firm Needs to Know

Posted on January 1, 2021 by - Private Equity Technology

With Private Equity Data Delivering More Insight Than Ever Before, It’s No Surprise More Firms Are Using Technology To Stay Competitive.

Making deals and raising funds may seem to be all about the numbers. However, any experienced fund manager will tell you that success depends on how effectively private equity firms can leverage relationships with a fund management system.

These days, managing relationships requires tracking vast amounts of private equity data. Deals move fast, and the competition is fierce.

You can’t afford to fall behind because you don’t have all the information you need. In an industry where trust and confidence are key, you can’t look like you don’t know what you’re doing.

Today’s top-tier private equity firms have a holistic view of their network and the influence they yield at their fingertips. Firms do this by using a CRM system built specifically for the unique and evolving needs of private equity.

Chances are you’re currently recording contacts, conversations, and notes in multiple disparate ways:

  • Spreadsheets
  • Emails
  • Calendar invites
  • Handwritten meeting details
  • Sticky notes

Obviously, this is no way to manage your crucial relationships and funds effectively.

Private equity data management systems like CRMs, connect data from reports, conversations, emails, and meeting notes seamlessly. A CRM records the history of each contact—from how they are connected with the firm to their current industry position to previous roles.

When you’re ready to improve your firm’s efficiency by leveraging your valuable private equity data, here are the considerations to make for your CRM system.

Connect Data to Your Fund Management System

No doubt about it: Companies that know how to harness their private equity data and the insights it provides are the ones that will succeed in today’s digital world.

Private equity firms have been collecting data for years. However, many struggle to use it due to a lack of integration. Add in the rapid advancement of technology and it’s easy to understand why fully leveraging private equity data is the number one challenge reported by industry executives.

Accurate private equity data is crucial during every stage of a deal. Yet accuracy isn’t always a guarantee. Private equity firms have access to more data than ever before. However, many use inefficient reporting and tracking systems that slow down the process and degrade the quality of the data.

With no consolidated repository for important information, teams face many challenges and risks, including:

  • Hours wasted hunting down data
  • Time spent creating workarounds to make sense of disconnected facts and figures
  • An increased chance of errors and greater risk to the firm
  • Making investment decisions based on inaccurate information
  • Failing to keep up with regulations
  • Wasting budget on solutions that don’t work

Centralizing all of your deal data in one place frees up valuable resources and increases the accuracy of your data to improve decision-making.

Your fund analysts, for example, can spend less time on administrative tasks like sorting through emails, calendars, and Excel (read 10 Reasons Excel Falls Short for Fund Managers) and more time deriving value and meaning from their private equity data to inform your firm’s strategy.

More importantly, having confidence in the accuracy of the data also leads to confidence in the decisions made based on it.

Choose the Right Fund Management System

If you remember one piece of advice from this article, make it this: You must develop your data analytics strategy to solve the problems you need solved, not around your current systems.

Your private equity data management system should be tailored to the industry’s unique demands. When evaluating solutions, ask the following about the platform:

  • How well does the provider understand our firm’s particular fundraising requirements?
  • What kinds of workflows does the system offer for deal tracking?
  • Do the tools and the team demonstrate an understanding of how investors think?

The system you select should be backed by people who are committed to serving as your business partner, not just your software provider. Adopting any new software is a change, and the switch to a new CRM requires change management, particularly during the implementation phase. You will need a support team that is committed to serving your team as you transition and understands the private equity business model. (Find tips on managing the implementation process here.)

Finally, decide whether you want a standard or customized solution. While a standard solution may promise the convenience of an integrated suite of technologies, you’re often stuck with lackluster capabilities that don’t serve the specific and unique needs of your firm.

Customized solutions, on the other hand, offer more flexibility to meet your evolving business requirements. This is especially important if you want to continue using current applications, meet your investors’ unique needs, or even help your team adopt a new approach to their work.

This is why Altvia partners closely with Salesforce to develop the most successful CRM platform for private equity firms and one that is continually evolving and improving.

How to Find the Right Private Equity Data Tool

Are you in the process of determining if your firm needs a technology solution for private equity data management? If so, our Buyers Guide to Private Equity Technology can help you find the partner you need to ensure your firm is on the right track for growth.

Read the guide to learn what questions you should be asking before you decide on a private equity data management tool.

Integrate Your Private Equity CRM Right to Your Email

Posted on December 2, 2020 by - Private Equity Technology

Integrate Your Email Inbox with Your Private Equity CRM

There is extremely valuable data sitting in your inbox, from contact information to details about meetings, deals, fundraising, and more. What’s the best way for you to accurately and securely integrate this valuable data with your private equity CRM?

Our platform allows you to seamlessly integrate your email inbox including Gmail and Outlook, straight to your CRM.

In our marketplace, private equity firms and managers are challenged with increasing compliance requirements, demand from stakeholders for greater transparency, and growing competition. Easily capturing and tracking information from your inbox should be an integral part of your day-to-day, but because email platforms are designed to function outside of CRMs, it can be challenging, time-consuming, and error-prone to transfer interactions and data manually from your inbox into your CRM.

8 Capabilities to Look for When Considering a CRM Email Integration Solution

1. Easy Access

Your time is valuable, so consider a solution that helps streamline your workflows with convenient and easy access anytime, anywhere.

2. Automation

We recommend looking for a tool that allows you to simply or automatically add new contacts and emails in your CRM and has auto-sync capabilities.

3. Stop Alternating Between Programs

When you stop trying to alternate between your inbox and CRM in order to enter or update information, you’ll notice a significant increase in productivity. Look for a solution that allows you to create and update CRM records without ever leaving your inbox.

4. Intelligence

The information stored in your inbox includes intelligence on how your contacts are interacting with your communications. Consider a tool with email open and website visit analytics.

5. Up to Date Accuracy

Before you make a call or attend a meeting, arm yourself with up-to-date information about the most recent interactions with your contacts. There are email-CRM tools that allow you to do this from your inbox.

6. Security

We’re operating in a digital age where we can access almost anything at any time, and security is becoming increasingly top of mind. One of the most vital requirements when looking for any kind of technology solution that integrates with your data is secure.

7. Product Integration and Compatibility with Other Solutions

This can depend heavily on your business requirements. Think about which email application you’re using (Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, etc.), your contact and data management system or CRM (Salesforce, AIM, etc.), and which types of devices you’re using (Mac, Windows, Mobile, Tablet). Make sure that the solution you’re considering is compatible with what you need.

8. Database or Hardware Maintenance

Do you have a team member dedicated to managing technology solutions in-house? If not, there are many options available where the technology or solution provider can maintain the system for you.

At Altvia, we’re focused on providing solutions that help you streamline your business, including a tool that allows you to sync your inbox with AIM, the private equity solution on the Salesforce platform. Easily capture data from your Microsoft Outlook or Gmail inbox and add it to AIM. With the complete integration, you can easily view, create and edit AIM data right in your inbox without alternating between systems, and without third-party contracting.

Why Out-Of-The-Box Salesforce Doesn’t Work for Fund Management

Posted on November 30, 2020 by - Private Equity Technology

The Private Equity and Venture Capital industry have taken leaps forward towards digital transformation due to the pandemic. While the interest in a centralized technology platform has been recorded through surveys for years, it is only recently that more firms realize the necessity of working remotely. The Altvia capital markets platform leverages the best technology to maximize fund management and improve investor relations. Salesforce is a one size fits all solution. While firms can directly install Salesforce, it lacks features that Private Equity and Venture Capital need to run effective operations.

We’ve summarized five significant points to consider before turning to Salesforce for Private Equity and Venture Capital.

1. Salesforce Objects and are Not Specific for Fund Management 

Salesforce out-of-the-box comes with seemingly familiar objects such as Accounts and Contacts but does not include specific, custom objects for fund management like Deals, Funds, Investors, etc. The Altvia product has these objects built into a template so that on day one your team has the pieces it needs to run a capital raise or manage a complex set of funds and investors.

Additionally, the terminology found on Altvia’s platform aligns with the terms most used in the capital markets industry. This was a thoughtful design feature from Altvia’s product team so users can pick up the software and quickly start using it in no time.

2. Salesforce Doesn’t Capture Investor Communication Preferences

Success in Private Equity and Venture Capital is based on the relationships built with LPs and other fund managers. Many of these relationships have special requests or nuances of which all employees at the firm should be aware of.

A popular feature of Altvia’s platform allows users to segment investor contacts into specific lists of funds, making it easy to launch fund-specific emails to recipients. If the firm is using  ShareSecure, Altvia’s LP Portal, investors manage their selections for receiving fund documents — email, portal, or both — and the investor relations professional spends less time managing these communication preferences.

This self-selection option is a favorite and sets firms apart because of the control offered directly to investors.

3. Salesforce Doesn’t Allow for Multiple Investments Under An Account  

Often LPs and GPs make investments into several funds at any one time. The Salesforce generic platform cannot seamlessly manage the one-to-many relationship of a firm making multiple investments in different funds causing the creation of redundant data.

Altvia’s product engineers designed a system that matches the firm’s hierarchy of data and relationships, creating the true ‘Salesforce for Private Equity’ platform.

4. Salesforce Limits Records of Committed Capital and Passed Investment Opportunities the Fund Management Data 

Before committing any capital, LPs and Fund of Fund firms typically review several investment opportunities in their pipeline, including ones passed. Out-of-the-box Salesforce lumps all opportunities into one funnel without giving the option of storing passed opportunities, restricting the ability to analyze data from partners.

With Altvia’s Pipeline feature, firms track funds under a Fund Manager even if the investment wasn’t initially considered. Additionally, because of the custom Fund object, managers are able to easily track both committed and uncommitted capital that is not tied directly to investment.

5. A Customer Success Manager that Understands Private Equity

Salesforce provides countless training materials–video how-to’s, articles, and an online community to ask others for advice or assistance. This works for those who enjoy being self-taught with technology; however, the reality is, most employees juggle multiple tasks and need to be up and running quickly. Altvia provides a named Customer Success Manager to help firms understand best practices and get the most out of the product.

A Customer Success Manager sets any firm up for success including pointing out dashboards for visibility on areas that matter the most, such as current fundraises, investors last contacted, or stages of a current deal. Additionally, during the implementation process, training sessions are set-up and recorded for both power users and specific teams to understand the key pieces to manage at go-live. Finally, ongoing webinars and a community to offer support on-demand.

Altvia’s fully integrated product suite is capable of optimizing the Private Equity firm’s life cycle for deal flow management, investor relations, and fundraising.

Altvia’s investor and deal management product is designed to capture interactions of investor investments, portfolio performance, and back-end systems to scale your growth. Successfully raise and deploy capital, ensure compliance, and deliver a trusted and transparent experience to stakeholders and investors.

View our client case studies to see how Private Equity and Venture Capital firms leverage the platform.

4 Benefits Using Salesforce for Your Private Equity Investor Software

Posted on November 23, 2020 by - Investor Relations & LP Experience

Salesforce is the world’s cRM powerhouse- here’s why that’s a good thing for private equity

There are common misconceptions about using Salesforce for your investor software. Firms find the platform intimidating to work with because of the robust features it offers out-of-the-box. However, that flexibility and level of optionality are reasons why Salesforce is the world’s #1 CRM according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) for the seventh consecutive year.

Forward-thinking firms understand there are many benefits to running their firm on a Salesforce-based platform. Here are four reasons why top tier private equity firms continue to choose Salesforce to power their tech stack.

There are some common misconceptions about using Salesforce for your investor software. Teams have found the platform to be complicated to implement and configure. Some have even decided they needed to build their own investor software CRM from the ground up specifically for the PE market.

Instead of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” many PE firms are discovering that there are many benefits to running their business on Salesforce, with some customizations for their unique needs. While a lot of people like to hate on it, there are significant benefits to implementing a CRM system that is the industry standard.

1. Best-in-class Investor Software security

The funny thing about the software world we work in today is that we rarely think about technology reliability and infrastructure security. We log in and expect programs to work instantly. But the reality is that a lot of sophisticated engineering goes into building applications that keep your proprietary information secure from external threats.

As the market leader, Salesforce employs the world’s top product engineers and information security experts to build and maintain the product we take for granted on the front-end. The fact that you have access to your data anytime, from anywhere, and has a proven 99.9+ percent uptime record for years is an astonishing feat.

The application security built into the product is rarely considered but is perhaps the most critical differentiator for private equity firms today. Think about the consequences of the possibility that a hacker might be able to gain access to your organization’s proprietary information. Information such as customer and prospect data and intellectual property can all mean a significant loss of competitive advantage and revenue for any firm.

2. Frequent Investor Software releases

Three times a year, Salesforce releases a new edition of its software and in between these major releases, is constantly updating code with features and functionality that matter most to its users.

For Altvia’s clients, this means that we’re continually applying these new and improved tools to the specific and unique needs of both Private Equity and Venture Capital. After each major release we also pull together the key insights to offer training and walkthroughs to our clients about how these new features make the Altvia product even easier to use.

3. Intelligence through integrations

Salesforce is built to combine the data that you need to differentiate your decision-making through add-ons and integrations with a wide variety of sources. Salesforce is the quintessential single source of truth or central data hub. Clients get robust reporting and dashboard features in Salesforce that allows them to pull data and trends simply and consistently. Integrations allow for deep insights to make sound, data-based decisions while limiting manual entry and speeding up time-to-insight.

Additionally, many products integrate seamlessly with Salesforce because of the power of the user base — over a million — on the platform. Meanwhile, other private equity CRMs must convince those companies to partner with them. The result is far less choice and functionality for their clients.

4. Easy-to-use and frequently standard

Because Salesforce has been powering organizations for many years, it’s hard to run into someone who hasn’t used Salesforce in some capacity before. There are more Salesforce power-users than any other CRM available on the market. As firms hire system administrators, it is much easier to find someone who knows how to use Salesforce over any other CRM.

Also, people are typically more willing to work with Salesforce than other CRM platforms. They know that Salesforce experience is a marketable skill for their ongoing professional development. They also know that there are far more resources available to them to learn how to use Salesforce. There are millions of articles, guides, videos, etc. documenting how to do just about anything in Salesforce.

Salesforce: limitless growth

Salesforce hosts live and virtual meetings and conferences on an ongoing basis. Users and vendors can learn about the newest features and functions and how to best leverage them in their organizations. The resources available for other CRM systems pale in comparison to what is available for Salesforce.

Don’t get caught up in overlooking the incredible benefits of ‘Salesforce because it seems a bit intimidating for capital markets–That’s why Altvia exists. We take the strong foundational platform of Salesforce and combine it with our decades of experience to provide the right mixture of bespoke and out-of-the-box. Learn more about the Salesforce power behind Altvia’s AIM CRM built for private equity.

Introducing a new way to send PPMs from AIM

Posted on November 11, 2020 by - Investor Relations & LP Experience

Altvia is built for Private Capital. One of the many features that make it great for fund managers is the ability to send PPMs. This solves a real problem: the platform maintains a copy of your PPM template and dynamically stamps each PPM you send with the name of who you send it to, as well as the number. This helps you manage the distribution, numbering process, and store an exact copy of every PPM you send.

We’ve launched some exciting changes to the PPM feature, the majority of which are the result of feedback you’ve given us. If you already use the PPM feature, there are a couple of changes to be aware of; if you don’t use the PPM feature, now is the time to give it a try!

Here’s a quick overview of the changes you’ll see next time you send PPMs through AIM:

  • The PPM wizard had been condensed and simplified. It’s now even faster to get through, and much more intuitive.
  • Seamlessly deliver PPMs to ShareSecure. Distributing PPMs to prospects via your LP portal is a great way to remind them to look at how well your funds are performing.
  • Use reports and filters to select the right audience for each send, add all Accounts with an active Fundraising opportunity associated, or on an ad hoc basis.
  • When you associate a PPM to an account or to a fundraising record, we’ll now show you a list of contacts we think you may want to send the PPM to. 
  • The new delivery report allows you to track PPM delivery. 

If you currently use AIM’s PPM feature, you know that it saves you time and helps ensure your PPMs are accurate and well managed. If you don’t currently use the PPM feature and you’re interested in learning more, click here to review the user guide.

Here at Altvia, we have developed an efficient, simplified experience for our alternative investment software users. We take your feedback seriously, resulting in a continually evolving and feature-rich set of products that are flexible enough to handle a wide variety of investing scenarios.

Please contact us for a free demo on our Private Equity Platform and see firsthand how our product can work for you.

Altvia Awarded Most Promising Capital Markets Technology Solutions Provider 2020

Posted on November 11, 2020 by - Uncategorized

CIO Review recognizes Altvia as one of the Most Promising Private Equity Solutions Providers 2020.

The private capital market industry is reaching an inflection point, with experts pointing out –’it’s now ripe for digitization.’ CIO Review noted that “The company that is steering the revolution forward in terms of how firms use data and new technologies in the most profitable way is Altvia.”

Altvia’s ability to empower the private capital markets stems from its 15-year long experience in the industry. Since its inception in 2006, the company’s focus has been to bridge the gap between the ‘providers of capital’ and the ‘managers of capital’. To this extent, Altvia recently formed a partnership with Denver-based private equity firm, Bow River Capital, to merge their nearly two decades of capital markets expertise and help the industry to evolve even further technologically.

Furthering the shared vision of reshaping the private capital markets of the future, Kevin Kelly, founder and CEO of Altvia, states, “Bow River Capital and Altvia are poised to become the epicenter of the sector’s next wave of transformation.”

Read the full article here.

Private Equity CRM: 3 Key Features for Future Growth

Posted on November 9, 2020 by - Private Equity Technology

In today’s fast-paced, digital world, a Private Equity CRM is essential for any firm, regardless of size.

As organizations come to grips with changing work dynamics brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, more firms are realizing they will need to transition from spreadsheets or an off-the-shelf CRM to an industry-specific platform.

What technology buyers find as they get serious about implementing a CRM are the many options out there. They’re also discovering that there are key PE-focused features that a solution must have in order to deliver the most value to users.

Essential Elements of a Private Equity CRM System

As you assess private equity CRM systems, be sure to look for these features:

1. Cross-team capabilities
Your private equity CRM must support your deal team, fundraising team, and investor relations team. You don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you require multiple separate systems to give everyone at your organization the tools they need.

Even if your firm is currently small, you want a system that provides the functions you’ll need as you grow. Your system should give all your internal stakeholders a holistic view of where deals are in the pipeline or what stage of fundraising you are in. Altvia’s AIM CRM provides that capability and won the 2020 Best Buy-Side Technology CRM award from WatersTechnology.

2. Investor or portfolio company reports
Success as a PE firm is largely from the consensus of investors. Limited Partners want to know how efficiently you manage and distribute information. Consequently, you need a CRM that empowers users to answer important questions quickly and clearly.

What stage of due diligence are we in? How many deals are in our pipeline? How many investors opened our fundraising email announcement? When was the last time we contacted business owners in a specific region? A well-informed team is best positioned to make next-step decisions and move confidently into areas of opportunity.

3. Easy integration
A private equity CRM is most valuable when it serves as the hub of your firm’s activities, integrating with other mission-critical systems. For example, your CRM solution should seamlessly sync with an email communication tool like Correspond Market Edition or MailChimp to streamline the creation and execution of email campaigns for fundraising, firm announcements, or other purposes.

Integration with a portal or data room like ShareSecure gives stakeholders real-time access to documents and media files from anywhere. And being able to pull in data from providers like DataFox, SourceScrub, Crunchbase, and Preqin can make life easier for your teams and accelerate their efforts.

Awareness of Often-Overlooked Private Equity CRM Features

Good CRM systems are robust, feature-rich platforms, so it’s easy to get distracted by all the bells and whistles and overlook the key features above. But now that you’re aware of their importance, you can ensure that they are on your firm’s “shopping list” as you do your research.

If you’re interested in seeing what an award-winning private equity CRM platform can do for your firm, we encourage you to request a demo below.