A smartphone can be an IRO’s best friend but app innovation has slowed. Laurie Havelock investigates which apps IROs swear by in 2023
The modern working world requires being online 24 hours a day and IR is no different. Though many devices tie us all to the web during our waking life, none is quite as pervasive as the smartphone. In fact, while 84 percent of us use our phones for personal matters during working hours, 68 percent use smartphones for working during our leisure time, a Deloitte survey finds.
With that in mind, IR Magazine asked readers to name their favorite apps, whether being used to analyze their competitors, keep ahead of the latest financial news or just helping them collect their own thoughts. While many of them are innovative and boundary-pushing, others may have just come bundled with their devices.
Apple StocksThis humble software that comes packaged on all iPhones as standard may not set many pulses racing but it was mentioned by several IROs when asked which apps were indispensable to their daily lives. For some, such as Charlotte Thuot Kucyi, senior manager of investor relations at Canadian real estate firm Tricon Residential, it’s the only app they use.
‘It’s unoriginal, but I love this good old-fashioned app for checking stock prices and financial news,’ she says. Thomas France, investor communications partner at DS Norden, agrees. When asked why he uses it, he replies: ‘It was already on my phone.’
Bloomberg: Finance Market NewsSimilarly, this news app is mentioned by several IROs as their primary source of market updates – after IR Magazine, of course. In addition to the site’s news articles and analysis, the app provides access to its suite of podcasts and Bloomberg TV, a favorite for time-starved professionals to get abreast of the headlines while grabbing their morning coffee. Jean Benoit-Roquette, senior vice president of IR at Ubisoft, says it is one of his most-used apps, alongside Twitter and Outlook.
WeChatWhile some IROs have not had much success when migrating their investor communications to social media, those with a significant shareholder base in China or Hong Kong often count messaging app WeChat among their top tools. The social media app is China’s largest by user base, and stories and rumors regarding listed companies spread quickly.
It’s also a valuable investor targeting tool, according to Suki Wong, senior director of investor relations at Anta Sports. ‘There are lots of little tools within it – such as contact saving, event invitation sharing, surveys – that you can use to promote your IR activities,’ she says.
DiscordThough this chat application is best known to gamers searching for buddies to tackle Fortnite together, Discord has become a hub for retail investors. Like its older cousin Reddit, lately Discord has become the home of investor groups that have contributed to movements like that behindGameStop’s surge in trading.
But some IROs are using it to foster their own communities, such as Bitcoin mining firm Hut 8, which picked up awards for innovative communications and best use of social media for IR at the IR Magazine Awards – Canada 2022. The firm’s vice president of corporate development Sue Ennis makes frequent checks of this app on her smartphone.
OneNoteVarious note-taking tools are mentioned by those IR Magazine speaks with but prime among them is Microsoft’s OneNote app. Though its functionality is relatively simple – allowing you to organize your notes in sub-groups and link them together with clickable words or phrases – the main attraction for time-starved IROs is that it syncs between a multitude of devices.
‘It means I can access everything I do on my laptop on my phone,’ says Jennifer Kretzmann, manager of stakeholder communication and corporate access at Sobi. ‘It’s got various tabs for organization and – unlike Word – you can doodle, add notes or pictures. Aesthetically that helps me to remember things and ‘sections’ them for ease of finding whatever I need later.’
ingageThis is one of several CRM systems preferred by IR teams but ingage has the virtue of being the app mentioned by IR professionals most often when it comes to corporate access. Fans say it streamlines the process of conducting direct activity with investors and has several snazzy tools to easily and comprehensively collect feedback after events and track any insights over time. Frequently mentioned is the mobile app’s flexibility and ability to fit into the aims of various IR programs with different requirements.
QuartrRelatively new on the scene, Quartr is a free app that scans the capital markets for first-party information made available by public companies. It offers other IR functions like the ability to stream live earnings calls and distribute documents to viewers, but most users cite the ability to track other firms in the same sector or ecosystem as its prime attraction. Among its fans is Martin Dahlgren, head of finance at Swedish educational tech firm Albert. ‘It’s a must,’ he says. ‘I use it on a daily basis, both professionally and personally.’
Holdings/Monitor These are two of the most popular apps made by Swedish developer Modular Finance. Holdings offers users a clear and unpolluted view of their ownership among the Nordic stock markets – no worldwide version is available at the moment – as well as various tools for analyzing and exporting that data.
Monitor sends the user notifications of large changes in ownership, share price and other selectable data. The lightweight nature of these apps is attractive among users and, for Laura Lindholm, senior adviser at communications consultancy Miltton, they are particularly useful when managing multiple IR programs.
FactSetThough it requires a subscription, FactSet is one of the IR world’s most popular ways of keeping track of the capital markets. It collects up-to-the-minute market data, news and research across the investment universe, in a familiar fashion. This is bolstered by its StreetAccount platform, which provides analysts’ takes on those events written into succinct bullet points. For many IROs, it’s the best way to get a quick take on consensus when on the move.
Shawn Alcaraz, former director of IR at Weber and executive vice president for NIRI’s Chicago chapter, says he has been saved by the app on more than one occasion when he needed research or consensus quickly.
AlphaSenseRounding out the ‘market intelligence’ app offering is AlphaSense, cited most often by IROs as an invaluable tool in discovering information about their peers and industry that they may not otherwise have discovered.
AlphaSense can scan the markets by keyword to unearth research, articles, filings and even earnings transcripts, with analysis that is increasingly informed by AI technology.
Fans say it is best when preparing for earnings, as it can speed through a whole market’s worth of analysis in a few minutes. While users say it is important to tweak your search terms in order to get the platform working as well as it can, with just a little work you can make it a ‘very helpful’ tool in the IR arsenal, says Thomas DeBourcy, senior director of strategy and investor relations at Natera.
