Investment banking software sounds like one market and is five, and a small desk already owns four of them without thinking of them as software: a spreadsheet, a document store, email and a data source. The fifth is the one that is usually missing and the one whose absence costs a deal rather than an afternoon. This page names the five and says which to buy first.
The four a desk already has
A spreadsheet for models, a document store for materials, email for outreach and some source of company information. All four work, none of them was chosen deliberately, and replacing any of them is a project with no obvious payoff. This is why software conversations at boutiques stall.
The fifth: the mandate record
Which processes are live, at what stage, with which buyers approached and where each got to. It is the thing a spreadsheet covers adequately right up until the week its author is away, and it is the only one of the five whose absence loses a deal rather than an afternoon.
Why a general sales CRM does not fill it
A sales CRM models a contact, an account and an opportunity with one amount. A mandate is an engagement with a client, a fee basis, a stage, and a buyer list of thirty to three hundred names each at a different point. Somebody has to build that, and the question is whether that person exists.
What to buy first, and what it should cost
The mandate record. On this site it is $69 a month for the whole desk rather than per seat, because per-seat pricing charges most for the analyst who does the recording, which is the behaviour the record depends on.
Questions people ask about investment banking software
What software does a small desk actually need?
It already has four: spreadsheet, document store, email and a data source. The fifth, the mandate record, is the one usually missing.
Can a general CRM hold a mandate?
Only if somebody builds the objects. A sales CRM models one counterparty and an amount; a mandate has a buyer list of dozens at different stages.
What should it cost?
Here, $69 a month for the whole desk. Per-seat pricing charges most for the person whose recording the whole record depends on.