Global Endowment Management (GEM) adopts Bipsync to centralize its public manager diligence and document management process

The Opportunity

Greater organization structure, scalability, and ease of use

Before adopting Bipsync, GEM initially used Tamale for research management and later moved to an in-house solution built by its IT department. While both of these solutions worked well for document storage, GEM found it hard to integrate their notetaking with either system. The team ended up taking their notes in Microsoft OneNote as a workaround.

The separation of the respective systems for document storage and notetaking made it difficult to develop a uniform system of organization. This led to unnecessary friction when the investment team needed to find important presentations and notes before calls – with team members operating in multiple systems at once to get a full picture of their previous research. As Sal Del Giudice, GEM Investment Manager, explains, “It was also taking up a lot of our admin team’s time because they were copying and pasting notes we wrote in OneNote and submitting them into our in- house system. It was just an unnecessary repetition of effort.”

GEM wanted to find a Research Management System (RMS) to streamline their manager diligence efforts. This process has three primary stages: sourcing (i.e., the discovery of potential funds to partner with), interaction with the fund (which may span years), and then internal decision-making. Their previous solutions did not have the functionality to effectively document and track these processes, which contributed to a lack of visibility across the team.

Above all else, GEM needed a platform that could integrate notes and document storage. Many of the materials used for calls and meetings overlapped, so the team needed a platform with systematic filtering and storage capacity to meet their needs. GEM also wanted a platform that offered a point-and-click level of accessibility to help drive adoption across all levels of the firm. The solution needed to be easy to use. “If you don’t have everybody across the organization from analysts to partners adopting a solution, then inevitably, you end up putting things in multiple places. So, we wanted something that could encompass that kind of organizational stack,” notes Sal.

Other important features GEM considered during the search included the ability to establish research management processes, audit trails to streamline recurring fund reviews, a CRM, and internal corporate uses.

The Solution

Bipsync as a single source of truth

To resolve the issues created by working in multiple systems, GEM launched a search for a new RMS. One of the company’s employees recommended Bipsync; he had used the solution at his previous place of employment.

GEM gathered references from industry professionals to learn what they were using. During the search, they heard a lot of positive feedback about Bipsync. Sal notes that reviews of other solutions were not as strong, “We heard feedback about other solutions people were using, but they weren’t using them enthusiastically. Overall, experiences were lackluster, and their comments were more along the lines of, ‘It works, but I tend to take my notes on Microsoft Word.’”

This feedback led GEM to perform due diligence and ultimately, to adopt Bipsync as its research management software. One of the earliest wins for the team was having a single source of information – they could switch quickly between entities and research during their weekly team meetings. For manager diligence stages, GEM could tap into a live feed of previous ideas and interactions to improve general awareness and efficiency.

The Results

Streamlined manager diligence and document management

GEM’s public investment team members are the primary users of Bipsync. “The biggest pain point Bipsync solves for us is having a research management system that functions in rhythm with the way we actually work. It’s natural. While we have had a sort of document repository system and various forms and functions over the years, accessibility on the road has always been a big issue,” shares Sal.

As a cloud-based and mobile-first system, Bipsync allows for easy access from anywhere. GEM is preparing to travel again a couple of weeks out of the month. The team can now submit material on the road and quickly pull the documents as needed.

The information has improved the depth of GEM’s internal conversations about upcoming funds in the pipeline. The data captured in Bipsync has also enhanced the team’s ability to track funds over longer periods of time. Bipsync’s pipeline feature and the visibility it provides into research flows has helped prevent things from falling through the cracks.

Now, GEM can better track companies over a long period of time to help make decisions. The team can document previous interactions and note when to follow up. As Sal explains. “There have been many times where I see a fund that has gone on to do well, and I remember that I talked to them back in 2014 and thought they were pretty interesting, but realize that for whatever reason, we didn’t check back on them. Bipsync’s functionality helps prevent this from happening by keeping everything organized and top of mind.”

Outside of sourcing and due diligence of new managers, the team also uses Bipsync to log interactions with their current managers, and document their thoughts and theses in real-time directly in the platform. The task management system allows them to easily set follow-up items. This change has expanded the amount of content GEM is able to create and consume internally. GEM recently added a new feature to track areas of research in Bipsync – grouping managers by a unifying theme to get a better picture of the opportunity landscape than is provided by evaluating each manager individually.