2 page Case Study - Posted 10/16/2008

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Sinco International Investments

Investment Firm Gains Competitive Advantage with Mobile Phones and Financial Software

Sinco International Investments (Sinco) staff needed a way to access financial information during laborious investment negotiations. They were also looking to shorten the expensive deal resolution process. After deploying Windows Mobile® phones equipped with Liquid Scenarios Mobile 2008 financial software, Sinco gained an important competitive advantage, shortened the process, saved money on legal fees, and improved employee work-life balance.

Business Needs

Founded in 1979, Sinco International Investments (Sinco) is a small, boutique investment firm in Boulder, Colorado. Much of its business involves sophisticated venture capital investments and other financial deals. When

We’re saving $20,000 to $40,000 on each deal just because our financial software is on our mobile phones, and we don’t need to keep going back to the lawyers to figure it out. Sina Simantob Founder, Sinco International Investments

Structuring a deal used to take weeks, or even months, partly because the information and expertise were not available during the meetings. “One person at the table would say, ‘I’m not willing to make this concession,’ or ‘I can’t figure it out,’” says Sina Simantob, the founder of Sinco International Investments. “So we’d go back to our offices, talk to the lawyers, recalculate everything, get consent from higher-ups, and another week or two would pass before we could meet again. By that time, somebody might have run out of money or changed their mind.”

Sinco staff needed a faster process for resolving deals and more immediate access to decision-making tools. “It’s like a live tennis match—if somebody hits the ball into your court, you’ve got to hit it back, right then and there,” says Simantob. “We need to have the information with us because once people walk out, that session’s over. Everybody’s working on multiple deals, and the attention goes elsewhere.”

The company also spent a significant amount on legal fees related to deals. “With each deal, the lawyers would spend days and days looking at spreadsheets and tables, trying to figure out what was going on—at $450 an hour,” says Simantob. “And after the deal closed, it would cost another $20,000 for them to put together the package that tells everybody what they own.”

Solution

About a year ago, while attending a meeting, Simantob noticed a presentation being given next door where someone was demonstrating how to price options on a mobile phone. “I was really shocked to see that they could change any factor, have it sync instantly and re-price everything on the spot,” says Simantob. He was so impressed that he decided to buy the software for his company. 

The software was Liquid Scenarios Mobile, created by Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner bpCentral, a Boulder, Colorado–based company that specializes in solutions for processing and analyzing financial information. Liquid Scenarios uses proprietary algorithms to instantly model all the variables in a financial scenario that affect a deal’s potential, including warrants, options, dividends, and thousands more. It calculates each investor’s financial returns under various scenarios in a fraction of the time it would take using traditional spreadsheets.

Built using the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 programming model, the solution runs on computers that run Windows Vista® and Windows® XP operating systems, as well as on Windows Mobile® phones. “Microsoft technologies give us seamless integration with Microsoft Office programs, so customers can export their information to Microsoft Office Excel®, Office Word, and Office Outlook®, and use it as easily as they would any other data they handle daily,” says Lorenzo Carver, Chief Knowledge Architect for bpCentral.

Sinco also outfitted six staff members with Palm® Treo™ 750 Smartphones
equipped with Liquid Scenarios Mobile 2008, arming employees with a powerful mobile financial modeling tool that they can use anywhere. “Liquid Scenarios doesn’t strain the Windows Mobile operating system,” says Carver. “In fact, users can run programs in the background, such as Office Outlook Mobile and even a media player, and do not have to worry about their system’s performance or stability.” In addition to the mobile phones, Simantob installed Liquid Scenarios Enterprise 1.0 on the company’s desktop and portable computers.

Benefits

Sinco International Investments has gained a competitive advantage by using Windows Mobile 6 phones with Liquid Scenarios Mobile 2008. Instant access to financial information shortens the process, saves money, and helps employees balance work and personal life.
 
Competitive Advantage with Mobility
Using Windows Mobile phones with Liquid Scenarios helped Sinco gain a competitive advantage in the deal room, and on the road. “The ability to reduce a process that could take a hundred hours to just one or two clicks on a Windows Mobile phone is obviously a great benefit,” says Carver of bpCentral.

Simantob’s style is to bring everyone into the deal room and close the deal. “This phone is like a magnifier. It focuses everybody’s attention on where the deal stands at that time,” he says. “If someone doesn’t like a deal, I can say ‘give me a moment and I’ll give you the next version of it.’ I just look at the phone, and within 10 seconds, I have what I need. You don’t let somebody walk out of the room. It lets you drive the process.”

Access to Information Saves Money
The ability to make calculations on the spot during negotiations has helped Sinco save money on legal fees. “I would say we’re saving $20,000 to $40,000 on each deal just because our financial software is on our mobile phones, and we don’t need to keep going back to the lawyers to figure it out,” says Simantob.

Improves Work-Life Balance
Instead of being tied to his office, Simantob is able to balance work with play, and take advantage of his Colorado location by hiking in the mountains with his Windows Mobile phone. “You never know when you’ll get the call that says, ‘Short of this one change, we’re willing to go,’” says Simantob.