BST Awards 2018: Best Buy-Side CRM Platform—Tier1CRM

The revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid II), which went live in January, has placed greater pressure on asset managers in terms of how they treat research payments. They now have to think more broadly about how to better facilitate as well as justify discussions with companies they invest in, known as corporate access. As a result, there is greater demand for more streamlined event, data and operational workflow solutions.

Relationship management specialist Tier1CRM wins this year’s best buy-side customer relationship management (CRM) platform category, displacing last year’s winner, Satuit Technologies. Tier1’s flagship product—the Tier1ACE suite—is a suite of tools that provides a seamless flow of information across financial institutions’ banking and trading desks. It provides both buy-side and sell-side counterparties with secure, anywhere, anytime access to all relevant business information, allowing them to evolve their relationship management capabilities.

In the last 12 months, Tier1CRM expanded its capabilities to address the corporate access challenge, allowing its clients to meet the regulatory parameters under Mifid II. “Since most CRM systems do not have a real-time flow of data to ensure information is available across the firm, buy-side firms must be able to extend their systems and plug-in additional capabilities,” says Mark Notten, CEO and co-founder of Tier1CRM. “We’ve invested the time and resources to ensure our users are equipped to evolve, and we’re already seeing the results in clients’ improved relationship-building and robust workflow processes.”

Tier1CRM’s model is constantly being updated to ensure that both buy-side and sell-side users are able collaborate using unique tools and workflows with the connectivity they expect. It is currently finalizing a module that will be added to the Salesforce Financial Services Cloud (Salesforce FSC) platform. It will leverage a number of components offered via the Salesforce FSC and several core features from its product suite to streamline workflows.

Moving into 2019 and beyond, Tier1CRM will focus heavily on artificial intelligence (AI). It will launch Tier1ACE on the Salesforce FSC platform, with more focus on analytics and AI. 

As for buy-side products, Notten expects to see more automation in the event management space, which will seamlessly connect the sell side with the asset management industry. Tier1CRM is also looking to gain more exposure in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, where it sees opportunities to help those markets move forward in relationship management. “That being said, we still have plenty of wood to chop in our foothold markets, with a solid pipeline of new European and North American clients onboarding in the coming months,” Notten says.