Hedge funds are unique in every way as a financial and business concept. Still they share a lot of layperson’s tools, like Customer relations management systems, for example. But what is a perfect CRM for a hedge fund? How do you manage investor relations with its help? What features can help General Partners, brokers, auditors, legal advisors keep effective communication with the investors and between themselves?
Before we proceed with scrutinizing the intricacies of the best investment a hedge manager can do – getting a CRM subscription of course – let’s quickly check out the hedge fund management software market.
Later we’ll deep dive into how a hedge fund CRM software can complement the industry-specific tools and take the investor relations management to a new level of efficiency, professionalism, and responsiveness.
With $3.11 trillion of assets managed globally by hedge funds and the industry-wide common 2/20 fee structure, there is no arguing, professionals from this industry can afford a tool or two to make their lives easier.
New York alone accounts for 591 institutional investors and $1.24 trillion in managed assets.
According to the SEC there were 9,486 hedge funds in the USA in Q2 2019 [with 1,784 of them being qualified hedge funds with minimum assets of $500 million].
With that much competition in the States alone to share that much money to manage at those incentive fees, one would strive every force on your side, right?
The most boring part of this article though is that the tool we are reviewing is capable of sorting/stacking/organizing / tightening your day in a manner bordering on a miracle.
But.
It’s pretty legit and intuitive – too simple and too straightforward for a complex mind like that of a broker of the hedge fund manager. But it works, saving on average 90 minutes a day to its users in saved efficiencies.
Before introducing you to Nimble – let’s quickly check the tools every hedge fund professional used or heard of at least a few times: the hedge fund software systems.
Fund Management Software Overview
The Hedge Fund tech stack is sophisticated and cutting edge, with lots of functions that allow a team of professionals to convert their knowledge of the economy, legislation, and finance into lucrative profits for investors and themselves.
Let’s review some of the main functions and examples of the Hedge Fund Software.
Key Features of the Hedge Fund Platforms
- Portfolio management
- Investor reporting
- Portfolio analysis
- Compliance management
- Investor accounting
- P&L Calculation
- Performance analysis
- Partnership accounting
- Risk Research & Analysis
- Research Management tools
Best Hedge Fund Software: For GPs, For LPs & Co.
With a wide variety of hedge-fund-specific features, these fund management solutions help financial gurus of the realm navigate the intricacies of the stocks, corporate bonds, futures, equities, and more.
Many of them offer an investor-facing portal that allows the LPs to check the state of their portfolio at any given minute, helps exchanging documents, approve investments, and provides access to investors accountants.
With all of these amazing tools designed specifically to address the everyday challenges of a hedge fund manager and their team, let’s see how they are different from universal CRMs, that are used in all businesses.
Fund Management Tools vs Customer Relations Management Systems
Customer Relations Management tools are used in pretty much any industry world over. So they don’t have specific industry-related functions but they do have lots of general use ones.
While the disadvantage of the CRM is pretty obvious in this light – it cannot be a full-fledged replacement for a hedge fund platform, there are several advantages that prompted many investment fund managers to adopt this tool.
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Advantages of Using a CRM For Hedge Fund Management:
- CRMs are universal. They are designed to fit many industries and be useful for any type of business model. So by utilizing such a tool you automatically get exposure to the ways things are done in other economy sections that you may learn from.
- The high degree of customization. Due to the fact that these tools are to be used in a wide variety of segments, they are the chameleons of the software. They adapt to anything. Their features are developed in a manner that allows them to create a custom field in any of the features: contacts, pipeline, deal, tasks.
- Symbolic price per user per annum. While hedge fund risk management software and other industry-specific tools may cost thousands of dollars per annum per user, CRM for fund management starts as low as 20 bucks per month per user if paid annually. Nimble, for example, is just $25 per month if billed monthly and $19 if billed annually.
This low price is possible due to the fact that the addressable market of such software is enormous, unlike with narrowly-specialized investment fund tools. - Powerful leverage for sales and marketing. Too many professionals don’t feel like selling. It’s just they find their skills are too rare and too precious to waste on selling. Which is so true for the hedge fund management team.
But without the legal possibility to advertise, this niche market needs promotion to survive. The more assets you manage the bigger cut of it you are getting at the end of the year. Investment fund CRMs are an amazing tool to boost the marketing efforts of your team, read on for details below.
CRM For Hedge Fund Managers: Features
So what are the features that Customer relations managers offer to their users?
- Contact Management
- Task Management
- Deal management
- Pipeline management
- Calendars module
- Scheduling tools & reminders
- Profile enrichment extension
- Integrations via API, Zapier, etc
- Email Marketing
- Social Insights
Now, that we have gone through the specific characteristics of the fund management systems as well as CRM key features, let’s see how those can help investment professionals manage their investor relationships better.
Hedge Fund CRM: Practical Tips How To Apply the Tool to Ease Your Days
Investor Relations: The New Heights
The pinnacle of the hedge fund manager’s job is getting more HNWI on the phone. Networking and word of mouth mean a lot when your business cannot be legally advertised, right?
The way to get more clients and increase your AUM is by providing outstanding service to your current pool of clients – accompanied by outrageous returns, of course.
CRM contact management module is the ultimate tool for sustaining meaningful timely professional relations due to an array of functions one can do from a contact screen:
- send an email,
- add contact info / notes,
- enrich profile,
- schedule/ postpone/remind about a meeting,
- comment in social media,
- add a recurring event in the calendar,
- assign a task to a colleague,
- create a deal and more.
Create And Share Templates
Nimble can be integrated with as many as over 2000 apps via Zapier and other 3rd party services as well as via API with any software that is also equipped with API.
If your team prefers DropBox, GDrive, or Office 365, you can use any of those file-sharing systems to keep your team on the same page in WIP files or distribute firm manuals to newcomers.
Templates can be attached to contacts, tasks, and deal for better convenience and quicker access.
Enrich Profiles With Nimble Prospector
Nimble Prospector allows you to add contacts to your database by clicking on the Twitter account, minimizing the manual input.
The extension can enrich profiles with dozens of data points available on the net. It works not only inside the CRM itself but also outside: in email, on the web, on social media.
Send Mass Emails
Sending congrats on New Year and updates on the bullish markets may get pretty tedious. This is why mass emails are loved and obsessively used by our clients.
Email marketing services may get expensive and will get costlier with more sent emails. Not the case with Nimble, you only get your fixed per-user rate.
Schedule Your Days Full Of Action
The calendar is available in 2 views: list view and calendar one.
Users can schedule repeat actions, send meeting invites, and set automated reminders.
A bit of a control freak? Managing your team’s day is easy with Nimble’s task, deal, and pipeline management modules. Create, assign, and monitor tasks according to your access levels.
Segment To Drill Into Big Data
Segmentation and tagging features allow users to assign any contact, task, or deal to any category.
Create a custom field and tag your contacts/deals as registrar, custodian, broker, attorney, LP, GP; prospect or active investor; event-driven, merger arbitrage, long-short equity, and so on, you get the gist.
Once you have a tag attached to a contact/task/deal, you can apply mass actions to it: send an invite or a mass email, for example.
Create Reports
Big Data provides actionable insight into how to make your business better, faster, cheaper, more revenue-driven.
Analytics at Nimble is graphical, so they are easy to read and the answer pop out with the right questions asked.
Nimble: Investor Relations CRM That Completes Your Hedge Fund Software
Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates once said:
“He who lives by the crystal ball will eat shattered glass.”
We couldn’t agree more. Moreover, the wisdom of this quote applies to every business, not only an alternative investment. This is why Nimble believes in technology, experience, and expertise. This is why many hedge fund managers favor our product.
Nimble CRM is one of the best Customer Relations systems according to independent review sites like Capterra. Read over 1500 genuine reviews to see why our users like organizing their working days with Nimble CRM.
In Ernst & Young’s Global Alternative Fund Survey 4% of surveyed respondents placed front office technology transformation as their top priority, but every 5th puts it in the top 3 strategic priorities.
Similarly, when it comes to enhancing middle – / back-office processes and technology, 3% put it as the top priority, and the total of 40% placed it as the top 3 most strategic things to do in a hedge fund.
Are you among the 82% of hedge fund managers that prioritize the employee’s productivity and engagement?
It isn’t as simple as paying a $19-dollar monthly fee per your employee, we are not claiming that.
But.
It’s a pretty good start to save them over an hour daily in saved efficiencies.
Start your free 2-week Nimble trial with just an email to make your own conclusions!
