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Kenneth L.

co-founder

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

11/20/2020

"Backstop CRM as a solid choice for private equity shops"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Backstop Solutions Suite?

Backstop hits the sweet spot between features and extensibility. Out of the box, the platform meets 70-80% of our business requirements. Our firm fortunately has the know-how to use API and Excel Toolkit (ETK) to cover the last mile. Most importantly, the product team listens to its customers and continually enhances the platform based on our input. You would unlikely get such feedback loops from the likes of Salesforce, Oracle or Microsoft. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstop Solutions Suite?

Compared to a CRM startup that has unlimited flexibility to innovate, Backstop may seem more mature and risk-averse. The UI/UX seems a little dated, and mobile-responsiveness and mobile app have room for improvements. The labeling of different data entry screens should be more standardized as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Backstop Solutions Suite Reviews & Product Details

Backstop, a service of ION Analytics, has a mission to help clients break down the barriers to data access and deliver better decisions. As part of ION Analytics, our industry-leading services redefine the way firms operate in private markets, reshaping the institutional investment industry at the intersection of human insight and machine intelligence. Our core strength lies in developing technology that serves as a definitive source of truth, empowering clients with actionable insights, and seamless institutional knowledge sharing, while optimizing day-to-day success. Backstop is an investment management platform for consultants, OCIOs, pensions, funds of funds, family offices, endowments, foundations, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, and real estate investment firms.

Seller

ION Analytics

Discussions

Backstop Solutions Suite Community

Languages Supported

English

Overview by

Matt Lardner

Value at a Glance

Averages based on real user reviews.

Perceived Cost

$$$$$

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Backstop Solutions Suite Media

Backstop Solutions Suite Demo - Portfolio Management

Monitor all portfolio activity, performance and related research via a single source of truth across multi-asset class investments.

Backstop Solutions Suite Demo - Research Management Insights at Your Fingertips

Conduct “pulse checks” at a moment’s notice with research management intelligence brought together on Backstop Home Base.

Backstop Solutions Suite Demo - Client Service Insights at Your Fingertips

A new way to start and end your day with key insights into your top investor interactions, opportunities, activity, and more on Backstop Home Base. Showcase all the efforts you and your team bring to the firm.

Backstop Solutions Suite Demo - Backstop Pipeline Manager

Analyze and explore all elements of your pipeline in real-time - effectively track, monitor, and manage fundraising efforts by slicing and dicing data by team member, geography, lead source, expected close date, opportunity stage, probability, and more.

Backstop Solutions Suite Demo - Work on the go with Backstop mobile

Transform your work away from your desktop with our new Backstop Mobile app. Access crucial information, manage contacts, connect to Google Maps, and add meeting notes all from the convenience of your smart phone.

Backstop Solutions Suite Demo - Backstop Client Portal

Optimize investor relations, business development and more while securely sharing sensitive fund information with your clients.

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Kimberly B.

Portfolio Administration Leader

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

8/19/2022

"Configurations & flexibility to meet our internal processes & based on industry standard practices"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Backstop Solutions Suite?

Backstop is a wonderful CRM system that allows us to track important documents and contacts and keep data that meets our business needs at the same time and reports to support deliverables. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstop Solutions Suite?

Backstop is a small CRM with strengths for the financial investment industry, perhaps could support more customer/client community to increase shared business practices to help one another grow. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Backstop Solutions Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

Backstop CRM software allows us to customize data fields to meet our needs. There are many standard out-of-the-box solutions to meet simple needs and with the right contributions of individuals in your own business, you can configure the software or create custom data fields to track other data that might be important to your business such as Due Diligence or onboarding new managers or funds to your business. Show your pipeline and share information across your enterprise. It helps create transparency within your organization. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Mark Q.

Director of IR

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

9/21/2022

"Powerful CRM, difficult UI"

4/5

What do you like best about Backstop Solutions Suite?

It is very powerful - for an asset manager, it does everythign you could possibly need Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstop Solutions Suite?

The UI is clunky - it look old and takes much longer than is should to do anything. It moves very slow. Customer support need to be improved - there is a seperated site with different log in and it can be diffiuclt to get someone on the phone Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Venture Capital & Private Equity

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

8/3/2022

"Top Notch Client Relationship Management System"

5/5

What do you like best about Backstop Solutions Suite?

Backstop was built specifically for the investment industry. Many other CRM systems are flat and require a lot of customization. Backstop provides you with a relevant and useful tool out of the box but also allows you to create your own customizations. The Outlook plugin and relationship functionality are so helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstop Solutions Suite?

Creating reports and using some of the tools like the Excel Toolkit can take time to master. I have found recently that it is difficult to get useful assistance from the helpdesk on matters like this. I also wish they offered a plugin similar to Outlook but for Gmail users. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Backstop Solutions Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

Tracking interaction and communication with investors and prospects. Centralizing reporting details on funds and investor accounts. Providing reporting summaries for accounts in aggregate based on relationship. A useful email blast tool to disseminate information quickly and easily. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Avery Champion of Backstop Solutions Suite

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Thank you for your feedback! We are happy to hear that Backstop provides relevant and useful tools for your team. We have flagged your comment about offering a plugin similar to Outlook for Gmail users for our product team to review and consider.

Verified User in Printing

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/13/2021

"Backstop is a great partner. Excellent solution for institutional allocators."

4.5/5

What do you like best about Backstop Solutions Suite?

Backstop offers an easy-to-use CRM/RMS. Our team can streamline due diligence and portfolio performance monitoring, track contacts, documents & meeting notes. The client service and support teams are great partners. Backstop has consistently invested in product enhancements. IntellX is a helpful new service offered to collect and retrieve documents from our manager emails and portals. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstop Solutions Suite?

There is not much we dislike about Backstop. In 8+ years, we have raised occasional enhancement request ideas and minor bug fixes. Our requests are always promptly reviewed. They don't always make it into production. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Backstop Solutions Suite:

A great partner for any institutional allocator. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Backstop Solutions Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

Backstop provides our team with a centralized source of data for our portfolios. Notes, documents, and reports are shared efficiently and retained securely. It is a helpful tool to track our portfolio planning, liquidity terms, and due diligence process. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Investment Management

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

7/31/2022

"Streamlines process of documenting / accessing information but the search function needs work"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Backstop Solutions Suite?

Posting notes and sharing them with colleagues is much easier on this platform. It is simple to learn and train incoming team members on how to use it. Other platforms have a steeper learning curve and it's harder to find specific entities. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstop Solutions Suite?

If a firm uses an acronym such as SGC and I want to search for it, I must type Star Growth Capital to access the entity. This process is tedious and often involves googling firm names. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Avery Champion of Backstop Solutions Suite

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Thank you for your feedback! We are happy to hear that Backstop is easy and simple to learn for your team. Have you tried using the “*” key to help populate more expansive search results within the platform? Please reach out to our client care team to learn more if this is something you’d be interested in getting complimentary training on.

Tia H.

Senior Administrative Asst.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

2/18/2022

"Backstop is very User-Friendly"

5/5

What do you like best about Backstop Solutions Suite?

I have been working with Backstop for over 8 years and I feel the updates have been great! I am an Administrative Asst in the investment office and find it very helpful in assisting with my tasks. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstop Solutions Suite?

I find the report function a bit tedious but is improving. Also, my co-worker is unable to enter the values after the update on the Income and Expense tab. We were not sure if this was due to the update but she prefers the previous version that gives the option to just enter. Previously we had issues entering the values the updated way which caused issues with the returns. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Sam Bolda of Backstop Solutions Suite

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Thank you for your feedback! We are happy to hear that Backstop is flexible and user-friendly for your team. We have flagged your comments about reporting and the update to your Income and Expense tab for our product team to review and consider.

Maria S.

Vice President, Investor Relations

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

2/17/2022

"Best CRM/Portal"

5/5

What do you like best about Backstop Solutions Suite?

It's easy to use, flexible, intuitive and has unlimited Support/Education. I've used many CRMs and Backstop is the only one I have ever recommended as all others pale in comparison. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstop Solutions Suite?

In 10+ years of using the system, I haven't had any deal breakers. There's been an occasional "it'd be nice if..." but either that gets added or I missed a way to do that task. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Backstop Solutions Suite:

Make sure to ask to speak with a user for your specific needs. The last reference I did was for a company that wanted to build data rooms in Portal which I've done. Having that specific a reference helps in evaluating properly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Backstop Solutions Suite solving and how is that benefiting you?

At the most basic level, a relationship manager with document permissioning flexible enough for finicky investors and an investor portal that can be built out as desired. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Sam Bolda of Backstop Solutions Suite

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We appreciate working with your team, Maria! Thank you for this feedback. We have noted the importance of finding users that can speak to specific needs for reference calls. Your input on product and user experience has been extremely helpful.

Verified User in Investment Management

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

8/19/2022

"Very responsive to all inquiries and very helpful during CRM implementation process."

5/5

What do you like best about Backstop Solutions Suite?

Backstop is very intuitive to use and navigate. The team was very helpful in setting up our CRM system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstop Solutions Suite?

Nothing I strongly dislike - if there was anything I would say is that implementing a CRM system can be challenging to work through. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Financial Services

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

2/23/2022

"Top Tier CRM Solution for Hedge Funds"

5/5

What do you like best about Backstop Solutions Suite?

Backstop Solutions provides an adaptable, ever-evolving product suite. Their customer service is fantastic and the products meet my needs as a Hedge Fund Investor Relations Professional. I have been a Backstop user for nearly 7 years. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstop Solutions Suite?

There aren't many things that I dislike about Backstop but there are certain reports that I have wanted to run but have been unable to access the data in the way I prefer. This is not a frequent issue though. I am on the product improvement list for these types of requests and can attest that Backstop does consider these improvement requests and often integrates them over time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.