IR TECH TOOLS FIGURE 1 – INVESTOR RELATIONS FUNCTIONS AND TASKS IR Function
Report the company’s quarterly and annual financials and manage external disclosure of key metrics
Related Tasks
Inform the public Create earnings and annual reporting materials Track and disclose data
Manage sell-side relationships
Provide feedback and competitive intelligence to management and the Board of Directors
Attract investors and manage investor relationships Fostering an effective and compliant marketplace Monitor consensus and sell-side perception
Board communication and voting Benchmark peers
Identify targets, monitor investor activity, and manage target relationships
Manage compliant exchange and regulatory compliance requirements
Support custody and depository processes for efficient trading Create a narrative and disclosure for ESG goals and commitments Capture, analyze, and report ESG data
this information together to provide a unified source of truth. Tese solutions enable easier reporting directly to the SEC. While data is one piece of the puzzle, it also needs to be visually appealing. Several tools can help improve the appearance of work, including Adobe Cloud, Canva, and Vista, to name a few. Proofreading is important, and Grammarly is a tool that leverages artificial intelligence to improve grammar and streamline writing.
• Monitor consensus. Reviewing every sell-side analyst model to check their assumptions and key metrics is an extraordinarily time-consuming and error-prone task. Rather than spending time gathering the data, analyze the data to see if an analyst may have missed a piece of information you disclosed publicly. Consensus Metrix, FactSet, and Virtua are tools that can automate this process.
• Board communication and voting. Sometimes IROs are also tasked with serving as the Corporate Secretary. Board portals such as Diligent and Board Vantage are necessities when managing efficient and collaborative board communication.
• Benchmark peers. Benchmarking disclosure and business performance is critical to continuous improvement. But with all the information out there, it is impossible to search and scour every document to find information from company peers. Market intelligence tools that leverage artificial intelligence and sentiment analysis, such as Alphasense, Capital IQ, FactSet, Intelligize, IR Insight, Sentio, and Tegus make this easier.
3 0 WI N T E R 2 0 2 3 ■ IR UPDAT E
• Identify targets, monitor investor activity, and manage target relationships. Several partners can help identify targets through a hands-on service approach. CRM tools can help identify and manage target relationships. Irwin, Nasdaq’s IR Insight, and S&P Global Market Intelligence support tracking and targeting. After creating a target list, schedule meetings with those targets. Tis scheduling can be a challenge on its own, especially during the busy time after earnings reporting. Scheduling platforms such as Calendly and WeConvene help automate this process. It is helpful to monitor who is buying and selling stock and analyze “why.” Firms such as Innisfree, Morrow Sodali, Irwin, NASDAQ, S&P Global, and Q4 offer surveillance consulting services in this area. In addition to surveillance, some companies, such as ModernIR, also analyze the technical aspects of your stock trading. Tis provides helpful context and education.
• Manage stock-exchange and regulatory compliance requirements. In tandem with the external reporting and legal functions, IR must interface with the regulatory bodies (such as the SEC) and the exchanges (such as NASDAQ, NYSE, OTC, etc.). Checking in with these partners periodically and employing compliance software such as Intelligize or Workiva will help ensure that reporting requirements are met.
• Support custody and depository processes for efficient trading. It is critical to minimize trading friction and maintain well-managed shareholder records. That is why finding an
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