What distinguished success from failure during the past two years?

Everything changed in 2020. Finance was no exception. Deal-making in 2020 was divided into two halves: the first half collapsed at $971 billion, with a value decline of 6.6% and a deal count decline of 15.5% year over year. In contrast, the second half of the year saw the highest level of deal-making since 2007 ($2.2 trillion in total M&A activity).

The financial crisis of 2007–2008 taught us that deal-making is not extinct in an economic depression. According to Harvard Business Review, businesses that made significant acquisitions during a recession performed better than those that did not.

1. First-party data is being used to manipulate growth

Many investment banking firms in India get started with technology at an early stage. However, once a company has a modest team of corporate finance and M&A managing directors looking for business, the company begins to receive thousands of potential deals every year. It quickly becomes difficult to keep track of all these connections and businesses, and how well a company manages all of its financial information becomes a competitive advantage for entering and dominating particular markets, sectors, and industries.

Your own first-party data gives you the most control. Your most valuable technological asset is the network of essential relationships that each banker has that spans industry groups, product groups, and financial sponsor coverage teams.

This is so that technology can analyze calendar meetings, email traffic, social media connections, and more to create a rich tapestry of ties. Technology can also be used to intelligently (and automatically) create new relationships and contacts.

2. Network resources are being used to find new opportunities

Investment banking firms in India get a tonne of exclusive first-party information about relationships, business finances, target industries, deal multiples, anticipated offer ranges, and other topics. Firms use these data points to generate insights and direct top line growth strategies after thorough examination. There are various ways to gauge the size and activity of an investment bank's network, even though operating partners and senior managing directors may disagree on the relative worth of these datasets and how valuable they are for assigning personnel assignments or maximizing deal value.

Each of these groups of deal influencers is closely monitored by organizations with solid governance around enterprise relationship management, which also uses technology and automation to help dealmakers and coverage officers set their keep-in-touch reminders, power industry mailing lists, power social strategies, and over time, highlight the value of their relationships.

3. Big data is expanding

With data lakes or master data management (MDM) architecture on the roadmap, many of our clients have started their digital transformation initiatives for a good reason. When an investment management firm can operationalize the data it has collected about its most important clients and business connections, the mountain of data that results becomes a tremendous resource for extracting client insights, developing new market corporate strategy advisory, and launching new products.

When third-party market data sources are coupled to Salesforce, bankers can identify new opportunities and save significant amounts of time spent completing data entry—and time spent keeping it updated—in addition to the requirement for first-party and second-party data integrated at the ready.

Conclusion
We are encouraged by all the ways businesses are investing in advancing their technological capabilities as we take stock of our work collaborating with investment banking customers to establish their digital transformation roadmaps.

Pantomath takes its responsibility as a knowledgeable service provider very seriously as businesses aim to increase their analytics and data science capabilities to manage and analyze their portfolios better. Our mission is to offer expert knowledge in cutting-edge technical fields, industry insights, and practical advice on how to get results quickly. The long-term client relationships we value most are founded in the culture of collaboration, which enables us to develop and implement novel technological ideas that give dealmakers and investors an advantage.