Why Use Deal Management Software in Investment Banking?

Deal software is designed to assist teams in the initiation, planning, execution, and closure of deals.

Deal management software also helps teams manage diligence, integration, and deal pipelines.

Why do investment banking use deal management software for M&A deals? 

Managing mergers and acquisitions can take a lot of time, effort, and paperwork.

Using an investment banking deal management software during an M&A process can help investment bankers keep everything organized and integrated within one program instead of multiple. 

Since an M&A transaction typically brings two companies together, there are many things happening and a large amount of people involved.

With due diligence, financial statements and other tasks all happening simultaneously, it helps to use a management software to assist with managing the entire deal lifecycle.

How does deal software helps manage different deal phases? 

There are 4 phases of m&a project management and deal software helps with each of them!

• Initiation
• Planning
• Execution
• Closure

1. Initiation

In the beginning stages of managing a deal, investment bankers have to gather everything required for due diligence. Figuring out the problem and solution are just a portion of the tasks needed during this stage and thanks to deal software, you can keep it all neatly organized and together in one place.

2. Planning

After the deal has been approved, you can move forward to the planning process. Next, you create a statement of work and break down your project into smaller tasks, while bringing on the other members of the team.

Deal flow software allows investment bankers to work together on one platform where they can communicate together, delegate tasks, prepare a schedule for completion and work together to achieve their goals within a set timeframe.

For example, with deal software, team leaders can assign their team members specific roles for individual tasks such as reviewer, assignee, and follower. They can also set due dates and priorities for each task.

3. Execution

Turning your plans into action and getting work done is what this phase of deal management is all about. Deal software allows you to track document usage, manage timelines and creating workflows that are conducive to a successful deal. 

By being able to monitor the documents and your team members within the software program, you can see who is keeping up with their tasks.

You are able to know where the bottlenecks and faults in the deal may be and can work to correct any situations before they become major issues and risk your deal falling apart.

4. Closure

After all of the planning and hard work has been applied to the deal, it is finally time to provide the deliverables and see the fruits of your hard labor.

This is also when the investment banking manager can shift through all of the work that has been done. The team leader can also use this phase to evaluate the deal and reflect on which workflows worked, and which ones did not.

This includes analyzing the project performance, team performance and conducting reviews on how it went. 

What are Common Investment Banking Deal Management Software Features? 

Different deal software programs have different VDR & deal management features, so it’s really important to think about your bank’s needs and goals.

After all, you’re paying money for a program, so you want to make sure that you are getting the value you need. You don’t want deal software features that won’t be used and you don’t need anything overly complicated.

Some great features to have include heat tracking for document usage.

Being able to easily spot what documents were last viewed or what is viewed the most often can help you with knowing what tasks have recently been worked on or what is considered important at the moment. 

Smart search is another important feature to have.

When you’re in a hurry and need to use a specific document and can’t recall enough information to find it, a smart search engine in your deal room can help.

Simply type in what you know, either an exact phrase or some keywords, and the software program can pull up the documents and give you a visual preview of the document. 

Additional features include:

• Drag and drop bulk upload
• Requests Import
• Live Link Documents
• Bulk Users Invite
• 4 Level Permissions
• Built in Document Viewer
• Data Indexing
• Detailed Audit Logs

Why it is important to have an organized deal pipeline?

Having an organized deal pipeline is a great way to stay on track and maximize potential profits. One of the best pipeline management practices is to have an organized and well-managed deal pipeline for these purposes.

When you have an organized pipeline, you can track and monitor the current situation of your deals and know of any and all roadblocks as they occur.

This allows you ample time to rush in and correct everything so that you can resume business as usual and return to your profits.

You can also see past, present, and forecast future sales quotas and trends. 

Conclusion

Innovative deal software helps investment banking eliminate common deal inefficiencies and be more connected. They can communicate and manage documents within one centralized M&A platform, while having a holistic view of the entire deal.