Despite being a CEO, as well as the founder and developer of three successful technology services companies, Nancy S. Keddy does not talk a lot about herself.

But ask her about her latest venture, Touch Ahead Software LLC, and she gushes with information about the company’s revolutionary Web-based service known as “EquityTouch.”

Keddy describes EquityTouch as a uniquely intuitive, fast and customizable product that not only tracks “touches” or contacts with customers, but “all of the people and organizations involved in deals, identifying how they relate to each other.” It sounds like a giant step beyond customer/client relationship management (“CRM”) software.

The former technology developer for TA Associates, one of the world’s largest global private equity firms, notes that her cloud-based software service was originally developed to supply a rich and robust box of information to meet the sophisticated demands of the alternative asset community (private equity firms, venture capitalists and other asset managers). Deal-making professionals in this field can benefit greatly from having a Web-based tool at their fingertips which can shine a light on all the invisible gossamer threads that tie together the deal-makers in the world of asset management and investing, including lawyers, bankers, accountants, and investment advisers.

Thus, Keddy and her team developed a tool that can upload and analyze all kinds of targeted data from Web-based sources of information, such as Hoover’s, Dow Jones or LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media. EquityTouch can also tie the data – ranging from financial data to social relationship information – to targeted companies or individuals as well. It can also track a target company’s progress from private letter of intent to going public.

EquityTouch might just as well be called Legal Touch, HR Touch or Touch Them All because, as Keddy explains, “The ability to customize this program and upload data enables us to fulfill the uniquely simple or complex needs of any company or industry that must track and manage multiple layers of relationships.” She adds, “Our solution layers lots of pieces together and allows the customer to reslice them in any way they like, allowing them to track and view data according to need.”

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Leveraging Social Media

The study found that 10-15% of the 1,000 active Venture Capitalists own or contribute to a blog. Although previously taboo, openly discussing investment strategies can actually increase a firm’s perceived expertise and trustworthiness. Many investors are now turning to the blogosphere to learn from the experts to make better informed decisions.

Teten’s findings also pointed out that many investors use Facebook and LinkedIn as a way to keep in touch with their professional contacts.

Implementing a CRM

Although this may seem redundant, but not all PE firms use a CRM application. In 2009, EquityTouch surveyed 61 Private Equity funds and found that 37 % were not using a CRM solution. Implementing a CRM allows an organization to better manage its relationships, especially as the deal business is mostly based on relationships.

Implementing a Social CRM

Taking the findings one step further, organizations should implement a CRM that automatically leverages social media for them. Look for a CRM application that has LinkedIn, Twitter, and even Google built right in, so you can strengthen your relationships and better your deal sourcing capabilities.

To read more data from the research report, visit http://teten.com/deals.

With the latest update that was delivered on January 14th, EquityTouch^® users now have the ability to create a quick Follow-Up Touch.  Follow-up touches are another powerful function of the Touch System.  They allow you to schedule follow up tasks (phone calls, meetings, interviews, visits etc) related to each Touch that you are working on.  For example, you are in a Touch that you have created and you are taking notes, and during the conversation, a time and date is set-up for a follow-up meeting, you can now create the new follow-up meeting without leaving the Touch that you are taking notes in.  And the great thing is, you can do this from a brand new Touch or while editing an existing Touch.

Story

Clients explained to us that they were duplicating Touches to create a follow up.  For example they would be on the phone with a potential deal company, and the deal company was not meeting the qualification dollar amount at that time, but they thought they would be able to in six months.  The user was recreating or duplicating the exact information from the touch (Contact, Company, Subject, etc.) for a date 6 months in the future. 

The follow-up touch was created to save time, make the process simpler, and make the business flow work the way the user works.

New Custom Field Types

Another new feature in the new release from EquityTouch was the 3 new TYPES of custom fields.  These are three new extremely useful custom “LINK” field types for you to use and add to any of the custom field groups, grids and/or Touches.  We are extremely excited about these new fields!  There are no other CRM applications that allow you to create these types of custom fields.

They are:

1.  Linked (URL) Field
2. Linked Company Selector Field
3. Linked Person Selector Field

This new link URL field allows the user to enter an active web link including, Sharepoint^® document links and other web based document links and can have a corresponding label for that link.  The field acts as a link that opens the URL in a new tab in your web browser or in the same window (tab) you are working in.  You have the ability to configure how you want it to work.  You can add this new field to any custom field group, grid and/or Touch.

Linked Company Selector Field

This new Linked Company Selector Field allows the user to search (type ahead search works here also) select and link to any existing company in your EquityTouch system.  This will open the company record in a new tab in your web browser or in the same window (tab) you are working in.  You have the ability to configure how you want it to work.  You can add this new field to any custom field group, grid and/or Touch.

Linked Person Field

This new Linked Person Selector field allows the user to search (type ahead search works here also), select and link to any Person in your EquityTouch System.  This will open the contact record in a new tab in your web browser or in the same window (tab) you are working in.  You have the ability to configure how you want it to work.  You can add this new field to any custom field group, grid and/or Touch.

Story 

Clients explained to us that they wanted to be able to associate documents from web based files (e.g. Sharepoint) to the companies and contacts inside EquityTouch.  They also wanted to create custom grids that allowed them to link People and Companies to other People and Companies.  Touch Ahead created these linked fields to allow these requests.

How to chose and transition your new CRM

Cost

Before settling for the first CRM you come across, it is important to do research. Make sure that the functionality and efficiency is at value with the cost. Server hardware costs, database software costs, IT infrastructure changes (such as required upgrades to hardware, software, and networks, updating and maintenance), training, costs for ongoing system updates etc. can cause unforeseen spending; causing your firm to go over budget.

While this list is intimidating at first glance, a majority of these costs are avoidable with research and there is quite the payoff once the CRM is in place.

In Private Equity and Venture Capital it is often a necessary organization feature that is added to the success of the firm. Without it, unorganized leads and clients can lead to lost deals, which ultimately costs the company unmeasureable amounts.

In addition, quite a few CRM companies offer lump sum packages that will be heavily discounted from what these services would cost if purchased al le cart.

Requirements met

Once you’ve decided to use a CRM it is important that all requirements are available both financially and technically, this will make the implementation of your new CRM much faster. By having done the research prior to shopping for a CRM you are able to know what you can and can’t do. This saves time for you and the CRM providers you are deciding between during the buying process. There is no point in working with a company on a reasonable price if they do not offer the necessary features to have the CRM be successful with your firm.

Notify employees about the upcoming transition

If users of the CRM have time to prepare for the transition, excitement and anticipation will build rather than a strong resistance to the change. Meet with the management team and allow a chance for input and warning to the users. By introducing the idea early on in the search process, it allows for preparation time before the implementation. This allows management to maximize the product and the users time. Finally, overall the use of the product is expected and understood therefore increasing the return on the investment because the objective is clear, to implement and increase the connections with potential clients.

Training

First don’t be disillusioned into thinking that you can hand a CRM to your employees and they will be able to figure everything out without any trouble. While good CRM’s are easy to understand, basic training brings up the learning curve of your employees and offers an increase in the success rate. Training should be reflective of the specific process you expect the users to experience. Providing context for how you’d like them to use the product allows them no room for confusion.

If multiple departments are using the CRM, trainings should be specific to how the individual departments will be implementing CRM. Finally training is an on-going process, don’t assume that if people aren’t asking that they understand.

Although users will want to be receptive, if they do not have any follow up after the training they will be less likely to continue to integrate it into their day to day life.

What You Should Look for in a CRM

Integrated Database

The CRM should be equipped with a fully functioning database providing the organization with access to potential clients and resources. The database needs to be up to date with current contact information of the executives as well as a background on the company. This provides a competitive edge on competitors. It is extremely beneficial when the CRM is specific to private equity and venture capital because it allows the software architect to determine the goals and objectives of the user’s field.

Furthermore, this allows them to identify carious audiences and what future needs may be. In addition the user can access information including reports and analysis, providing the most comprehensive type of database. Overall the goal is to have a database that is as thorough as possible with access to the most targeted information for the user so that data and information can be readily available for decision making.

Customizable features

A CRM is only as good as its’ ability to organize and streamline the interaction between clients and the company. It is important to consider the factors such as research data, which needs to be accessed on a regular basis to monitor the progress of a company’s growth. One solution for this is customizable features that allow you to decide what is most important to track.

Managing Documents

Managing documents is a large part of what a CRM should be able to do. Associating legal documents, financial reports, emails and other correspondence is a necessary and highly beneficial feature. This way users can access the important information within moments while never having to leave the CRM.

One of EquityTouch’s clients is a leading investment company that provides capital for both recapitalizations in order to achieve growth, and for buyouts of smaller middle-market businesses. The investment company prides itself on its collaborative approach to making deals and creating successful partnerships. With a method that requires frequent and comprehensive communication, partners needed an effortless way to measure and share the interactions between employees, so, two years ago, they brought in EquityTouch.

“We were looking for the ability to link up a deal company with all of the people that were involved with that deal at a glance,” said one of the team’s leaders. Previously, they had a series of information in multiple databases like Microsoft Access and Outlook, and would have to refer to each individual catalog to get the full picture. With EquityTouch, all partners would be able to view the same, pertinent information on one organized screen.

“Regarding CRM systems in general, there were doubts on whether the integration of our other database systems into one would be done easily, and whether or not all of the information would be able to be saved and captured,” the employee said. “From the onset, people generally understood what a CRM does and how it connects and unifies all of your contacts and information, however, they weren’t all thinking that this was a ‘must-have.’ We’ve been doing it for over a year now and everyone has been swayed to the corner of ‘this is something that every firm should have.’”

When asked if they ever lost leads due to disorganized information or miscommunication between coworkers, the response was a resounding “Yes.” Through the implementation of EquityTouch, the deal team was able to meld four information database systems seamlessly into one. Disjointed information and communication – and resultant lost business potential – were no longer issues affecting the way the company operated. Now, if person A has a communication, person B knows about it immediately, creating a cohesive business process and significantly enhancing the firm’s goal of creating collegial and collaborative interactions, between both employees and the businesses they partner with.

“Now, we have better communication between partners. The ability to see the Touches on a company-wide scale rather than individually, and the ability to create relationships between people and companies has been extremely helpful,” said our client. “In EquityTouch, we can assign different roles to the people involved in deals, so we know exactly what each person’s role is in any given transaction, whether it’s a common contact, source, etc.”

The small firm was also looking for something that would fit not only the needs of their specific industry, but also their mission – to create business growth through symbiotic and detailed interactions. The employee said, “Some larger CRM systems, like Salesforce, require you to adapt to the way they have it set up – customization is just not there. With EquityTouch, you can customize it almost down to the umpth degree of what you would like.” EquityTouch adapted to the way the firm does business, not the other way around – a feature that has proved invaluable to the team.

During the EquityTouch implementation and transition from four databases into one, our client said, “Nancy [Keddy] was very helpful and knowledgeable through the whole process. The team of software engineers was also extremely knowledgeable, so once we bridged that gap we were able to get it all together and working properly.”

They also reported, “Using EquityTouch has lead to an increase in the quality of our leads, as well as the quantity of the relationships we are able to create and sustain.” At the investment firm, any noteworthy interaction is required to be recorded in a Touch, because it symbolizes the importance of that information – if it’s recorded, it’s crucial for all employees to see.  Inevitably, the management of the interactions between the team and outside firms is “significantly better.”

Because of the success and improvements in business the firm has seen as a direct result of their use of EquityTouch, they’ve “deemed it the blood of our company.”

To schedule an extensive tour through EquityTouch and an eventual trial of our product, please fill out this form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!

In our mission to create the most intuitive and manageable CRM software for the alternative asset community, we at Touch Ahead pride ourselves on knowing how these businesses operate in order to design a CRM solution – EquityTouch –  that addresses all of their needs.  And they operate fast.  In a rapidly changing, fast-paced industry – and world – businesses need software and tools that move at their speed, so we created our CRM with Superior Fast Searching.

Our Superior Fast Searching feature not only gives you immediate and easy access to your information, but also provides robust data searches, with customizable fields, saved searches, “Distance-From” searching and “Look Ahead” searching.

At Touch Ahead, our philosophy is all about understanding you and your business, which is why we created Simple Customization – to cater to your business’s specific needs. However, this feature would be nothing without the EquityTouch search component. Our superior searching allows you to create the fields you need – and get rid of the ones you don’t – making whatever data you import into custom fields immediately searchable. No expensive custom filters necessary.

Taking a cue from the biggest search engine in the world, EquityTouch features “Look Ahead” searching. Like Google, it generates a list of associated items based on the first few characters of your search, creating less work for you and saving time. Plus, we know the importance of incorporating tools you already use every day – making our CRM familiar to you before you’ve even used it.

In many businesses, especially in the alternative asset industry, traveling is part of the job; so if you’re going on a business trip, take advantage! Network with business contacts in the area you’re traveling to. The best way to get started… “Distance From” searching. This EquityTouch search feature allows users to conduct a search on all of their contacts within a certain radius of your destination, apply any other criteria, and export the results – so you have a targeted list of who to contact in the area. Having instant access to this list – without having to scrub your memory for which of your contacts works where – allows you to develop deeper, more personal relationships with all of the people you do business with.

Communication within any organization is vital to its survival – so we made our searches savable and sharable.  If you conduct a search with any given amount of criteria, you are able to save the results as a group (for example, “Key People” or “Hot Prospects”), and then share that group with your coworkers, keeping all employees up to date and in the know. In addition, saving your search makes it easy for you to pick up right where you left off, without losing information or needing to start your search all over again.

Having a robust search engine with multiple elements within our CRM makes it easy for EquityTouch users to achieve the business results they’re looking for, and puts our CRM one Touch Ahead of the rest.

To schedule an extensive tour through EquityTouch and an eventual trial of our product, please fill out this form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!

Swap Data Repositories are required to register with the CFTC or SEC and make available on a confidential basis all data obtained by the swap data repository…and to establish and maintain emergency procedures, backup facilities, and a plan for disaster recovery.

The Act also protects from public disclosure of any “proprietary information” of the investment adviser, received by the SEC to the same extent as facts the SEC ascertains during an examination.

Proprietary Information as defined in Title IV, Section 404, Subsection 10, Part B

• The investment or trading strategies of the investment adviser
• Analytical or research methodologies
• Trading data
• Computer hardware or software containing intellectual property
• Any additional information that the Commission determines to be proprietary

Compliance Program Requirements

• Document compliance policies and rules, including business continuity and disaster recovery plans and testing. PAVIS Backup Disaster Recovery
• Document the firm’s IT Infrastructure, such as e-mail and document retention systems.
• Document where all relevant data resides (paper, electronic, remote offices, off-site, etc.)
• Develop a compliance manual with the above items and distribute electronically to all employees, as well as all subsequent updates.
• Automatic system backups and system monitoring.

Electronic Record Keeping Requirements

• The use of e-mail or instant messaging needs to be retained and must be stored in a manner that permits easy location, access, and retrieval. All notes and attachments must be associated with the electronic record, as examiners may request a copy of the complete record.
• All electronic records must be secure from unauthorized access, theft, or unintended record.

The Dodd-Frank Act requires an adviser to maintain and be subject to SEC inspection for each private fund it advices. As a result, organizations are REQUIRED to establish a compliance program. As part of the compliance program, Private Equity firms need to have a Record Keeping and Physical Documentation system in place.

Record Keeping and Physical Document Requirements Include

A collaboration management solution will assist in:

• Maintaining a centralized contact and content management system – instrumental in easily generating and tagging compliance-oriented documentation and reports and ensuring retention requirements.
• Attributes include – contacts, companies, investors, deals, funds, fund raising information, and all related documents to these business activities.
• Ensuring a secure environment through the use of secure access and user privileges based on job roles.
• Automated email campaigns and the incorporation of internal and external portal software to ensure consistent messaging.

Electronic Record Keeping

• Tracking and storing e-mail communications in a secure environment.
• Ensuring all e-mail attachments can be associated with the electronic record.
• Searching email correspondence by advanced searching functionality.

EquityTouch® already has deal sourcing and collaboration tools in place that will assist in organizing and securely storing contacts, companies, investors, deals, funds, fund raising information (including emails), and all related documents to business activities.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) has been a buzzword for almost two decades now, ever since it popped up on the scene when Tom Siebel coined the phrase in 1993.¹ Since then, it’s become a somewhat infamous business tool – and by that, I mean that many feel the software didn’t deliver on its promises. I would argue, as others have before me, that this is because of the approach businesses took when implementing CRM software – seeing it as a one-stop IT solution, instead of a strategy.² It’s time to change that thought-process and start seeing CRM as a business tool, not a magical button that when pressed will increase sales and make you a billion-dollar company.

Asking the Right Questions

First of all, we must take into account the reason why businesses purchase CRM software in the first place: their bottom line. You wouldn’t invest money in something if you weren’t expecting a multi-fold return, after all, would you? Improved B2C/B2B relationships and a more organized business process are added bonuses – among many other helpful benefits that come along with having a great CRM strategy in place. In fact, a great place to start when thinking about what your CRM strategy will look like is by taking a look at your business process and asking yourself, and your employees, a few questions:

What is the communication process currently like? What methods are we using to communicate, and are those lines convoluted or barren?

What tools are we using to keep track of our daily tasks? Are they effective or just plain messy?

Sometimes we don’t realize how complex what we’re doing is until a simpler and more efficient process is forced upon us (hindsight is 20/20, as they say), so analyzing your business and educating yourself on all of the options out there is the best way to avoid getting stuck in a slow and arduous routine.

Evaluating your company will help you decide which CRM solution is the best fit and will actually deliver tangible results for your business. Do you need a system that tracks sales leads or consumers? Are you a large corporation with employees stationed nationwide? Do you do business with a multitude of companies, all in different industries or stages of development? If the answer to any of these questions was yes and you don’t already have a CRM, you might be losing business due to a slow process, which could be made faster through the use and strategic implementation of a CRM.

Best Practices

So, what exactly does this “strategy” look like? After diagnosing your business in terms of communication methods, processes and needs, then researching your CRM options, there are some overlying best practices, which Denise Holland details in her CRM Software Report, and it’s crucial that your organization is willing to commit to them before making a final decision:

“Strong executive sponsorship

A dedicated project leader

An active user community that is involved in all phases of the CRM system’s deployment and use

A phased implementation plan that delivers benefits quickly, while remaining true to the overall goals and objectives covered in subsequent phases

A balanced deployment approach that makes the right allocations of time, effort and investment among people, process and technology. Furthermore, the implementation project must balance the need to move with speed with the mandate to deploy the CRM system properly.

To provide continuous motivation, and an appropriate dose of realism, the right amount of help is required from executive sponsors, the project manager, the user community and the vendor, who should provide advisory assistance to validate the deployment approach, design choices, training methods and technical decisions”

And finally, a business best practice from me: be open and transparent with your employees. Tell them why you’ve decided to utilize a CRM and what’s in it for them. It’s one of the most important steps in administering change in an organization, and, when combined with the above steps and practices, will make your CRM strategy return unbeatable results.

1. CRM Best Practices
2. CRM Software Report: Best Practices for Implementation

Staying true to our mission to develop software that is intuitive and easy to manage, EquityTouch includes the Reports feature. This feature allows our users to run reports based on the input they’ve so diligently been adding into the software day by day, giving your business a visual representation of the progress it is making as well as where there is room for improvement or changes. Because EquityTouch caters to the private asset community, these ready-to-run reports are perfect for monitoring the progress being made on different deals or keeping track of businesses that could lead to potential deals.

Using reports through the EquityTouch CRM is a great way to deal source by keeping tabs on the user’s network and trusted contacts, web scrubbing social media and industry sites for insight on the latest game-changers, and tracking any interactions they may have with entrepreneurs or other business contacts that may be looking to strike a deal. We understand you are busy, so having a tool that readily exports this data into an intelligible Excel, Word or PDF file to analyze your deals will help you make more informed business decisions.

Part of what makes a business great is its ability to look at the past and use that information to shrewdly calculate future business. For the alternative asset community, we’ve coined the term “Deal Forecasting” for this – predicting the number and size of future deals you expect to make and the subsequent cash flow and levels of production based on that information. With EquityTouch reports, you can evaluate current and past deals and cash flow, and use that data to determine what future deals may look like, areas of business you should alter, expand upon or improve, and more.

EquityTouch reports support the vast majority of alternative asset CRM needs because they pull a massive amount of data into one comprehensive report in the format that works best for you. And if you can’t find the specific report you need, we’ll design a custom report tailored to your precise needs – delivering you the best support and ultimate business solution.

To schedule an extensive tour through EquityTouch and an eventual trial of our product, please fill out this form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!

What are you using to organize all of your contacts and their corresponding companies? If you’re stuck in the Stone Age and still use Excel spreadsheets, chances are every time you add a new contact you’re adding every little piece of information about them to numerous columns – job title, company, phone, etc. If you’re using a CRM with a “flat” database, you probably have to go through a similar process. We know that you don’t have time to import the same information over and over again for different data fields under the same parent company (e.g., same company info, different employees). This is why we created Parent-Child Relationships, or Intelligent Relationship Management, within our CRM database.

EquityTouch makes storing and retrieving company information simple. Any time you add a new employee to the database, you can easily add them to an existing company, creating a hierarchical table rather than a linear or flat database. This makes referencing information cleaner and more efficient. All information is stored under the parent company.

For example, if you’re working with Company XYZ, you’ll import the corresponding information about that company into EquityTouch, along with whatever contacts from Company XYZ you’re working with. Any subsequent interaction you have with those employees will be stored as a Touch – with the employee included as a participant. Because of Intelligent Relationship Management, adding any employee to a Touch will result in their company being included as well. Now, access to that information is streamlined and simple. Conduct a “people search” on the contact involved in the transaction and the resulting information will include that Touch. It will also be included on the company profile page in EquityTouch.

This process cuts out multiple steps necessary with spreadsheets and some other CRMs. It keeps all of your data organized in a fashion that makes sense to you and your employees. And best of all, the information is available and searchable for all employees, keeping everyone up to date and creating open lines of communication – which is essential to organizational success.

To schedule an extensive tour through EquityTouch and an eventual trial of our product, please fill out this form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!