Success Story:

About Shift4 Payments, Inc

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE: FOUR) is boldly redefining commerce by simplifying complex payment ecosystems worldwide. As the leader in commerce-enabling technology, Shift4 powers billions of transactions annually for hundreds of thousands of businesses in virtually every industry. The company went public in 2020 and has experienced stellar growth since then.

Meet Shift4’s EVP, Strategy & Investor Relations

Thomas McCrohan joined Shift4 shortly after the company went public to build the internal IR function. He brings more than two decades of sell-side experience to the role, which allows him to strategically manage the IR program, navigate the company's exceptional growth, and grow the team. 

Building an IR program with the right partners

Building an IR program is a lot of work, and one of the biggest challenges is creating a system of tools and processes that makes sense for the organization's current and future state. Thomas explains:

“When I joined the company, I inherited a suite of software tools that were largely a result of our initial listing. I was familiar with the tool and had used it for two decades as a sell-side equity analyst. When it came time for renewal, it was a good time to review our offering and figure out what made sense for us.” 

The team at Shift4 evaluated several options as part of their process, but what stood out for them was Irwin’s focus on IR and partnership with clients:

“I really wanted to work with a company that was 100% focused on IR–that matters. It’s important that we’re not just a number, and our previous firm made us feel like our business was inconsequential. That was a big driver for us to switch.” 

Getting the full value from their IR solution

With their previous solution, Thomas was able to get the information he needed, but navigating a cumbersome and less intuitive interface meant they were never able to get the full value from the solution: 

“I had to wrestle to get the information that we needed out of the platform, but over time you learn to get what you need out of it.”

When it comes to the team’s experience with Irwin, Thomas explained how the ease of use and modern interface allows him to get what he needs faster:

“There’s none of that wrestling with Irwin. It’s pretty self-explanatory most of the time, and if not, it’s just an email away.”

Thomas is able to get the full value from the solution, and it has become a key part of his IR workflows:

“It’s always open. I’m always in there looking at people or logging an activity, it’s just part of my daily routine.”

Support and service excellence

Irwin clients receive a dedicated account manager and a commitment to service excellence which means they consistently feel supported and enabled to make the most of the solution.

“The customer service is great, my account manager is fantastic and checks in all the time. I feel like I know more about Irwin in the short time that I’ve used it than I ever knew about our previous solution.”

It was also important for the team at Shift4 to work with a provider who values and implements product feedback from the IR community. 

“The Irwin team is very open to feedback on how to make the solution better, and you actually listen and implement changes.”

Time saved with Irwin Assistant

Irwin Assistant allows IROs to spend less time uploading and managing data and more time on strategic work–something that is essential when you’re building an IR program from the ground up:

“Irwin Assistant is so helpful. I first saw it when we were evaluating Irwin, and it was a really attractive offering. It makes my life so much easier. Especially when I was a team of one, the last thing I wanted to do was enter 40 meetings into a tool—that’s just not going to happen.”

With Irwin, managing uploads is simple. Either forwarding emails or directly through the app, IROs can simply send their meeting schedule, notes, or other data and have it uploaded into their CRM by Irwin Assistant. 

Automated calendar management

Managing IR for a company that draws a lot of investor and analyst interest can cause hectic schedules and make it more difficult to log activities, leading to a less accurate CRM and historical record:

“We have a lot of investor engagements and 23 covering analysts, which is a lot for a $7BN market cap company, so there’s a lot of interest in the company,” 

Thomas and the team at Shift4 regularly use Irwin’s Calendar Integration to log investor meetings easily and simply without having to update records in multiple places. 

“The product is easy to use, I’ve been using more and more of the integrated features, especially the calendar integration which is super helpful. Any time we have an upcoming call with an investor, I put it in the calendar, and it’s really nice to have it logged automatically.”

Access to integrated market data with FactSet

Having worked so extensively on the sell-side, Thomas has a lot of experience working with the FactSet workstation:

“During my time on the sell-side we always had FactSet at our desk, so I have become very familiar with it throughout my career, there’s a lot of helpful data you can get from FactSet.”

Having access to an integrated solution allows Thomas and the team at Shift4 to stay on top of market news, access transcripts, and much more. Leveraging the Irwin + FactSet solution allows him to easily stay up-to-date: 

“I use FactSet every day for market news and stock price information, and we consistently use the Excel plugin to pull pricing data in. FactSet totally fulfills the need we have from a market data perspective.”

Advice to IROs considering Irwin

“Think about what the major pain points are that you have, and make sure the tool you choose sufficiently addresses them. I wanted to be comfortable with the thought the company was committed to the journey that they’re on, and with Irwin that was pretty clear. It’s very clear that the team is passionate about building this tool, which means a lot. The Irwin team has been great, and we’ve been very happy with our decision to switch.”