Blum Capital Partners Uses Salesforce for Client Reporting and Portfolio Research Automation


Challenge
  • Blum Capital Partners, L.P. , an investment firm specializing in strategic block and privately negotiated transactions initiated in the public market, wanted to streamline performance reporting for clients.
  • To augment its research process, the company decided to integrate financial data, portfolio tracking, and measurement in one easy-to-use location for investment professionals.
  • Investor conference attendance data needed to be tracked and measured for efficient investor relations activities.
  • The company also required a solution to track internal help desk cases.
  • The company wanted robust functionality and integration capabilities an existing Outlook-based system didn’t provide.

Solution
  • Blum Capital chose Salesforce Enterprise Edition and rolled out client reporting capabilities in 6 weeks.
  • Subsequent phases included conference management, internal IT case management, and tracking of potential investors and portfolio companies.
  • Salesforce consulting partner Bluewolf provided support for integration with the Advent Axys portfolio accounting system and IntraLinks portal, which included configuring s-controls to display custom-formatted Reuters financial data. 
  • Salesforce AppExchange partner Informatica provided data integration system and services to facilitate system integration between internal and external sources of data.
  • Campaign management was deployed to provide tracking and results analysis for investor conferences and events.
  • Blum Capital uses Salesforce SFA to track leads and manage interactions with investors in the company’s funds.
  • Salesforce Call Center’s email-to-case feature streamlines internal help desk administration.
  • Force.com Connect for Microsoft Outlook keeps communications in sync for investor relations and portfolio management activities.

Results
  • By building an ecosystem on Salesforce, Blum Capital has automated many processes of its investment professionals, information technology, and investor relations groups.
  • In addition, the automation of client portfolio performance reporting provides clients quicker access to their data.
  • Blum Capital investment professionals view reports and custom-formatted financial data on current and potential portfolio companies from one convenient place.
  • Salesforce enables the administration, monitoring and management of investor conferences events.
  • Internal help desk cases are tracked and monitored to resolve issues as quickly as possible.
  • The information presented above is not an endorsement of Saleforce.com by Blum Capital Partners, L.P. (“Blum”) nor is it an advertisement for Blum or its affiliated investment funds. The information presented above is not an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell the securities mentioned herein.
 
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