The Heritage Group
Alex Ray, Director of Business Development at The Heritage Group, talks through why they selected 4Degrees, and the improvements they’ve seen in operational efficiency and relationship management as a result.
“4Degrees has been very impactful from a sourcing standpoint for us as we proactively go after different targets and look for warm introductions to build those relationships.”
– Alex Ray
4Degrees streamlines sourcing, relationship building, and portfolio support –
tailored to the unique needs of private investment firms.
Challenges
Lack of automated systems and visibility, leading to hours spent on manual data entry and missed opportunities.
Goals
Reduce manual effort, and increase understanding of team connections and activity.
Results
Multiple hours a week saved per team member, while driving improved sourcing efficiency.
The Challenge
The Heritage Group’s Strategy + M&A team recognized their relationship network was a critical asset – particularly for sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities.
However, the systems they were using did very little upkeep of static records – which required hours of manual effort per week to upload meeting and email activity, track company and deal data, and to maintain accurate contact information.
As a result, data quality deteriorated due to the lack of automated systems and the cumbersome nature of data entry in the prior CRM. This deterioration made it hard to take advantage of the research and connections of other team members across Heritage to accelerate their own sourcing and investment decisions.
The Solution
The automation behind 4Degrees (email and calendar integration, alongside deal and
contact enrichment) meant that The Heritage Group team could meaningfully reduce the
time spent on data entry.
In addition, they saw the promise of quickly leveraging their connectivity to external
networks across their investment teams. What was historically a pain point, has now
proven to be a powerful tool.
The Results
One of the biggest benefits The Heritage Group team has experienced is multiple hours a week of time savings, enabling the team to spend valuable energy on more critical tasks:
“I save multiple hours every week from having to track activity and deal information. We flipped a switch with 4Degrees and got 90-95% of data entry completed about our interactions.“
In addition, 4Degrees creates meaningful internal visibility about where the firm has
relationships, expertise and who is working on what deals across team members,
without effort:
“The way it scores and categorizes relationships is super helpful. We’re a larger,
highly-matrixed organization, so the ability to quickly identify internal and external
experts and ensure we’re deploying capital in a thoughtful way is very valuable for us.“
About The Heritage Group
Founded in 1930, The Heritage Group (THG) is a fourth generation family-owned business managing a diverse portfolio of companies specializing in heavy construction and materials, environmental services, and specialty chemicals. Companies within the THG portfolio include Heritage Environmental Services, Heritage Construction + Materials, and Monument Chemical. With more than 5,000 employees and 30 operating
companies worldwide, THG aims to create a safer, more enriching and sustainable world by harnessing the power of family.
Visit The Heritage Group
