Capstone Partners ·Customer story

From Manual Excel to Automated Data Integration

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Capstone Partners Customer Story

About:

Capstone Partners is one of the largest and most active investment banking firms in the US. Headquartered in Boston, the firm has 175+ professionals in multiple offices across the US. 

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Solution - a new cloud data warehouse

  • Takes data from multiple sources and pushes to data warehouse
  • Captures and archives all changes in data
  • Consolidates financial and CRM data for better accuracy

Industry
Investment Banking

Size
175+

Region
North America

Challenges
  • Integrating multiple CRMs and financial systems
  • Consolidating different Excel files without manual, time-consuming work
  • Needed better visibility for collaboration
Results
  • Accurate historical data records
  • Improved collaboration with a more accurate central database
  • Eliminates time-consuming manual data integration
Consolidating CRM platforms, financial systems and multiple Excel files for more efficient, accurate data processes.

When two leading investment banking firms joined forces, it not only created one of the largest independent investment banks in the United States, but acted as a catalyst for them to completely overhaul their data management and CRM capabilities. 

“Having two separate CRMs for this one company sounds like a nightmare, and it was” explains Kellen Blackman, Associate of Data Analytics for Capstone Headwaters (now Capstone Partners).

Not only did they have two separate CRMs, but other information on closed deals was housed in separate Excel files. A big part of Blackmans’s job was, as he describes it “...getting all of the data that was in different Excel spreadsheets into a consolidated location.”

It was a time-consuming process that gave little visibility into historical data - something that was often needed by the financial firm’s clients. 

Blackman explains “If I pulled a report for a client and then we wanted to see what the data looked like last week, I’d have to see if I happened to download that data anywhere, or alternatively do a lot of calculations to get to the data where we were a week ago.”

Documenting changes to the data was a process that the team had to do externally, and manually, meaning it was time-consuming and error-prone. 

They needed "a better tool
with more visibility"

To manage their data processes they were hand-coding in Python - which worked to a certain extent, but was limiting the data analytics team’s capability to collaborate with their co-workers.

They weren’t able to share any of the process outside the technical team, and weren’t able to pass off the management of specific data integration points to someone else. To do that, they realized, they needed “a better tool with more visibility”

A new central database to improve processes

Following the merger which created the new firm, the company decided it was time to radically overhaul their CRM capabilities and improve their data processes.

Kellen Blackman

Associate of Data Analytics at Capstone Partners

“Since it’s in the cloud, we can work on data integration with our financial system too. We can capture changes in the data, and archive everything”

The firm decided to move from their two Microsoft Dynamics CRMs into one new DealCloud instance, to create, in Blackman’s words, “a central database for all our users, all of our employees, to access our data. And since it’s in the cloud, we can work on data integration with our financial system too. We can capture changes in the data, and archive everything.”

He explains that essentially, the role of CloverDX is “..taking the data that’s in our CRM, integrating it with different systems and archiving it."

The advantages of a cloud data warehouse

Kellen Blackman

Associate of Data Analytics at Capstone Partners

“Since we made such a big investment in this new CRM initiative, we wanted to make sure the data in it was accurate and that we were presenting it in the best way. CloverDX is a big part of that”

From manual Excel consolidation to an ETL tool

With CloverDX, the firm can now take in data from all the different tables that are in the CRM, process it, write it to a CSV and push it to a Snowflake data warehouse. Which means that it’s far easier to work with their data more effectively, and it’s also possible to then push the data to Tableau so they can visualize it.

Saving time and increasing accuracy

From the pain of integrating data manually and trying to piece together historical information, Capstone Partners is now saving significant time thanks to automation with CloverDX, and they also have the reassurance of knowing their data is accurate.

Blackman explains how CloverDX has helped this change:

“The biggest pain point its relieved is bringing our financial data into the CRM. Previously it was once a month, I’d get the information from our VP Finance, and then I would do my prep, import that into the CRM, give it back to him, and he’d go through the financial system and make sure it was correct. The problem was if anything changed from a month or two months prior, then our data would be off and we’d have to try and figure out where that was."

Kellen Blackman

Associate of Data Analytics at Capstone Partners

"The biggest pain point its relieved is bringing our financial data into the CRM. If anything changes in the financial system it’s going to reflect in the CRM. It reduces the time it takes to get in there and it definitely increases the accuracy."

"But now since we integrated it with CloverDX, if anything changes in the financial system it’s going to reflect in the CRM. It reduces the time it takes to get in there and it definitely increases the accuracy.” 

The end of manual, error-prone data integration

With CloverDX as a key part of the firm’s systems, the small data team has been able to free up their time from manual, error-prone data integration to something that’s accurate, transparent, and scalable. The central CRM database is now integrated with all their systems, and enabling better analysis, better historical data tracking, and a better service to Capstone Partners' clients.  

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From Manual Excel Spreadsheets to Automated Data Integration (PDF)

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