Purpose-built fund management software is essential for any private equity firm or fund manager that wants to be successful. Not only does the right fund management software enable users to handle all the tasks necessary to engage with stakeholders effectively and track those efforts, but it also empowers them to do so with maximum efficiency.
In other words, implementing a well-designed fund management software solution can help you get more done with less effort! However, the key there is “well-designed.”
If in your eagerness to get a system in place you make a poor decision, you may do more harm than good. Many low-end fund management software systems are sitting idle today at private equity firms around the country because they were hard to implement, use, maintain, or all of the above.
And as a result, many fund management software champions are licking their wounds and wishing they had never promoted the idea of buying a system.
6 Key Considerations for Finding the Right Software
To ensure that the solution you select meets your needs and will be used to help your firm achieve its objectives for years to come, it must be:
- Easy to implement. If it takes months and months (or more!) to get a fund management system up and running, enthusiasm for it will decline or disappear altogether. This isn’t to say you want to hurry through an implementation. It means you need to find a system with a great design that makes it simple to get it up and running.
- Customizable to your needs. Forcing people who will use the fund management software to completely overhaul how they do things to align their processes with the system’s features is not going to go over well. You may find processes that should be changed, but your fund management software should also have some flexibility.
- Easy to use. People are much more likely to use a system if it’s intuitive and user-friendly. If there’s too much mental “heavy lifting” required, there is a good chance they’ll simply do things the old way, and your adoption rate will suffer.
- Secure. There’s no worse feeling than to arrive at the office in the morning and be told not to log into your fund management software because it’s been hacked. The thought of all that important—and often sensitive—information in the hands of cybercriminals, and all the damage that may be done to relationships you’ve worked so hard to build, can be crushing. You need a system that’s well-protected from unauthorized access.
- Open to integration. Your fund management software likely isn’t the only mission-critical application at your firm. Being able to share data between and among systems is vital to efficient operations. Implement a system that doesn’t have this characteristic and you can look forward to lots of double-entry of information.
- Well-supported. You will have questions about how to use your software most effectively. You must be able to get answers from friendly, knowledgeable experts who know both the product and the industry. There should also be self-help resources available.
The Risks and Rewards of Buying Fund Management Software
There are tremendous rewards to be had from implementing advanced software. If you’re not using the right system, now is the time to find it and make the switch. But you need to be clear-eyed about the risks of putting just any system in place.
If you are, you can look forward to a huge increase in both the quantity and quality of the work your teams can produce. Interested in seeing the right system in action? Contact us today to request a demo.