• Salesforce gives investment banks a flexible foundation for managing relationship and pipeline data, with additional banking functionality available through the Financial Services Cloud and further customization.
  
• MadeMarket adds a ready-built environment designed exclusively for investment banking, with capabilities to help manage data and workflows throughout the lifecycle of a deal, including during live transactions.
  
• By integrating both platforms, firms can keep Salesforce in place while adding more transaction-focused functionality for bankers without having to build those workflows from scratch inside Salesforce.

How bankers often use Salesforce to manage their data and workflows

A number of investment banks use Salesforce to manage client and relationship data, and the platform is often among the options firms consider when evaluating a CRM.

The platform was originally built around general sales and relationship management, and for the investment banks using it, that often maps most naturally to a platform for managing relationships and their business pipeline.

Firms can use Salesforce to structure data around contacts, accounts, activities, opportunities and other records, with those records linked together to create a history of a client relationship and the business associated with it.

Over time, Salesforce has also added a degree of deal functionality through Corporate and Investment Banking for Financial Services Cloud and Financial Deal Management, allowing firms to capture more transaction-specific information within the same broader data environment. Depending on the implementation, that can include deal records, stages, tasks, call reports, client meetings and other transaction activity.

This functionality, however, isn’t part of the standard Salesforce CRM out of the box. It’s available through Financial Services Cloud and, in practice, firms often configure or customize it around their own data structures, workflows and reporting requirements.

That flexibility is one of Salesforce’s main draws for firms that want a highly customized CRM environment. Rather than adopting a largely fixed operating model, investment banks can configure the platform around their own data structures, workflows and reporting requirements, often with additional industry-specific functionality layered on top.

MadeMarket approaches investment banking data from a different starting point. The platform is built exclusively for investment bankers, with its data structure organized around the workflows bankers use to source, manage and execute transactions.

That includes opportunities and live deals, but also the more detailed information generated inside those processes: target lists, buyer activity, deal milestones, tasks, distributions, files and relationship histories. Instead of adapting a broader CRM structure to investment banking, MadeMarket organizes those workflows around the way bankers already run them.

Why some investment banks use Salesforce and MadeMarket together

For firms already using Salesforce, replacing it may not be necessary or practical. Salesforce may support other teams, reporting requirements or existing firmwide processes that extend beyond investment banking.

MadeMarket’s Salesforce integration allows those firms to keep Salesforce in place while giving investment bankers a system built more specifically around their workflows without extensive customization. Contact and firm data can sync between the two platforms, and key MadeMarket deal and relationship information can be surfaced directly within Salesforce.

The integration doesn’t require firms to manage Salesforce and MadeMarket as two isolated databases. Instead, they can set rules for how specific contact and firm fields sync between the platforms, including whether Salesforce takes priority, updates flow both ways or certain data doesn’t sync at all.

Using both systems doesn’t mean they have to serve the same role. A firm can keep Salesforce as the broader repository for contact and firm records, firmwide relationship data and reporting, while using MadeMarket as the working environment for the investment banking activity built around those relationships.

In practice, that means bankers can manage opportunities, live deals, target lists, buyer activity, process tasks, distributions and other transaction-specific work in MadeMarket, while Salesforce continues to support the broader CRM structure the firm has already built around its clients and contacts. MadeMarket can then surface relevant deal and relationship information back inside Salesforce, giving users there visibility into that activity without requiring the two platforms to duplicate the same job.

Why the integration matters

Connecting Salesforce and MadeMarket lets firms preserve the systems and processes they’ve already built while giving investment bankers a platform designed more specifically for their work.

That can be particularly useful for firms that already use a relatively streamlined Salesforce environment for relationship management, reporting or other firmwide needs but haven’t built an extensive investment banking layer on top of it. Salesforce can be extended with Corporate and Investment Banking functionality and additional customization, but doing so means adding investment banking workflows to a broader platform that wasn’t originally built around the transaction lifecycle.

For firms that don’t need that broader functionality inside Salesforce, MadeMarket provides another option: keep Salesforce in place and add an integrated platform where the investment banking data model and workflows are already built around sourcing, managing and executing transactions.

That difference becomes more tangible inside a live process. MadeMarket includes ready-built environments for opportunities and deals, along with target lists, buyer activity, deal milestones, tasks, distributions, files and relationship histories. Its workflow and project management tools are organized around the steps bankers actually move through during a transaction, while automated reporting turns the activity captured throughout that process into deal and client updates without requiring firms to design those workflows from scratch.

The integration also means the rest of the organization doesn’t have to move with the banking team. Functions that continue to rely on Salesforce can stay there, while relevant MadeMarket deal, opportunity, activity, task and file information remains visible from within Salesforce.

The practical benefit is that firms can add a more transaction-focused layer for bankers without creating a completely disconnected second environment, replacing Salesforce or investing the same level of time and customization required to recreate those workflows inside a broader CRM platform.

Want tp learn more about the MadeMarket-Salesforce integration? Read Why Investment Bankers Are Integrating MadeMarket with their Salesforce CRM

And to learn more and explore what MadeMarket can do for you, connect with a member of our team to get started with a demo!