Success Story:

About Bandwidth, Inc.

Bandwidth is a global cloud communications software company that helps enterprises deliver exceptional experiences through voice calling, text messaging, and emergency services. Their solutions and their Communications Cloud are trusted by companies like Amazon Web Services(AWS), Cisco, Google, Microsoft, RingCentral, Zoom, and Uber. Bandwidth is the first and only CPaaS provider offering a robust selection of communications built around their own IP voice network.

Meet Bandwidth’s Vice President of Investor Relations

Sarah Walas is the Vice President of Investor Relations at Bandwidth. She joined the company in 2019 to build the internal investor relations function after the company’s initial public offering in 2017. Prior to joining the company, Sarah held multiple roles at Red Hat over her seven-year tenure in IR and then as the Chief of Staff, Office of the CFO, as well as over 14 years at Progress Energy.

Why Bandwidth Switched to Irwin

The IR team at Bandwidth inherited an IRsolution that the company received as part of their IPO, and it was frustrating to try to navigate the legacy tool:

“The biggest challenge was the ease of use–getting around, finding the right fields, building reports, it wasn’t intuitive.”

In addition to frustrations with the previous solution's user experience, Sarah also recalls a difficult support experience: 

“We found the support with our previous solution wasn’t always the most helpful or responsive.”

 Trying to get more insights from their previous provider, Bandwidth signed on for additional surveillance but didn’t find that it increased the level of insight or support:

“We hung on to our previous provider because we had added the surveillance capabilities. Unfortunately, the surveillance service didn’t end up being as helpful as one would have hoped. Once the contract ended, we weren’t really tied to them anymore so we started to explore our options.”

When it came time to look for a new provider,Irwin’s intuitive interface stood out for the team: 

“The ease of use stood out with Irwin. It’s more intuitive, easier to get around, and it’s much easier to find what you need and keep your CRM data updated.”

 An added benefit for the Bandwidth team as a small-cap company was Irwin’s NOBO integration: 

“With our position as a small-cap, we were hoping to get a little more insight into family offices and smaller holders that don’t have to file 13F’s. Irwin’s NOBO list integration was really appealing to us in that regard.”

A smooth transition

One of the most important elements when switching systems is ensuring that the new solution accurately reflects your historical IR activity. Once the Bandwidth team moved forward with Irwin, all of their data from the previous tool was moved over to Irwin in a non-disruptive way:

“The transition from our previous provider toIrwin was seamless, it was quick and easy.”

Integrated and intuitive–how the Bandwidth Team is using Irwin to support their IR program

Bandwidth uses several offerings from Irwinfor an integrated and informed approach to their investor relations program.

Tracking investor meetings and activity with Irwin’s CRM 

The Bandwidth team uses Irwin’s CRM to track and manage investor interactions and keep the management team prepared for investor engagements.

“We use Irwin to track our interactions when we have investor meetings and callbacks, and when we go to conferences to help prepare the management team before we go, but also to evaluate the success of those efforts in post-event reporting.”

Additional support for reporting 

With a small team, having engaged support is essential for the team at Bandwidth, and having a dedicated account manager helps to add some bench strength to their program:

“We’ve also really leaned on some of the reporting from the Irwin team to build up our board reports, and just knowing how helpful the team has been since we’ve had Irwin is really reassuring and helpful.”

Irwin + FactSet

The team at Bandwidth uses the Irwin + FactSet integration to access broader data sets.

“We’re really excited about the FactSet integration, the data is a lot more helpful than the data we had with our previous solution.”

Having a combined solution allows for simple and streamlined access to the most important IR data and workflows:

“Having access to both tools in a single platform is really useful, it’s nice not having to switch between platforms.”

Actionable insights about non-reporting holders with integrated NOBO data

The team at Bandwidth leverages Irwin’s NOBO integration to get deeper insights into non-reporting holders.

“Occasionally, you’ll get people wanting to engage or wanting to give feedback, and they say that they’re holders, but you don’t really know who they are or how large their position is. It’s difficult as an IR team to understand how much time and credence to give, but Irwin’s NOBO integration has given us insight in those situations. That was an unexpected benefit for us.”

Leveraging NOBO for support during proxy season

When the Bandwidth team first started to use Irwin, it was around proxy season, and having insight into additional non-reporting holders helped them ensure their holders were using their voting rights:

“When we first joined, it was right around proxy season, and there was some uncertainty about a vote. We actually were able to leverage the NOBO data in Irwin to proactively reach out to some medium-sized holders to make sure that they were placing their votes. So again,that was an unexpected benefit that turned out to be successful for us.”

Using IR website intelligence from Irwin IQ to get ahead of potential activists

The team at Bandwidth also leverages insights from their IR website using Irwin IQ, and Sarah finds it useful to get ahead of potential activist investors:

“We use Irwin IQ to keep an eye on any potential activists. With IQ we can see how much time a particular firm has spent on our website, and what content was viewed, so it’s really good proactive insight for us.”

Staying informed with Weekly Market Summaries

There’s a lot of noise when it comes to market information and important updates, so Sarah and her team leverage Irwin’s Professional Services team to keep her up-to-date on the most important developments with Weekly Market Summaries.

“Many times there are links to stories about our peers or industry in the weekly reports that I have not seen , so that has been really helpful. It’s also really nice to have a consistently updated perspective based on valuations and peer comparisons important to our company that I can carry around in my back pocket. It ensures that I’m always prepared in conversations with company leadership.”

High levels of quality support

As a small team, the Bandwidth team wants to feel a sense of partnership from their provider and feel assured that the team has their best interests in mind: 

“The team has been outstanding. I really do feel like the Irwin team takes the time to understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it and is proactive to provide ideas that we can implement leveraging the tool–whether it be a new feature or functionality or even just being more efficient with what we’ve got.”

“Even when we were paying extra money for surveillance with our previous provider, the support was slow and not helpful to our IR goals. Everything has been a step above with the Irwin team. We have been pleased with the quick turnaround and high quality content from all requests, no matter how big or small.”

Advice to IR teams considering Irwin:

“I really advise getting a trial of Irwin to see how helpful it will be for your team. The trial period was really insightful for us–being able to see how easy it was to use and how much more intuitive Irwin is than other products on the market.”

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