Learn how the BlackBerry Partners Fund created a publicly accessible website to promote the fund to applicants around the world and a private online community for the investment committee to vet potential partner fund submissions.
This case study describes how the fund committee members securely store, manage and retrieve materials and collaborate during the due diligence process, while portions of the community remain open for public access. The case study also describes how the Blackberry Partners Fund adheres to stringent regulatory guidelines using detailed audit trails and version control wrapped in a secure, cloud-based computing environment.
Community Success Story
High Tech
The BlackBerry Partners FundT is a $150 million venture capital fund focused on applications and services for the BlackBerry® platform and other mobile platforms including mobile commerce, vertical and horizontal enterprise applications, communications, social networking, location-based applications and services, media and entertainment, and lifestyle and personal productivity applications. The Fund considers all stages of development and is co-managed by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners.
The Challenge We are sitting at a The BlackBerry Partners Fund follows the investor model which requires submissions very interesting time to be subjected to a rigorous due diligence process to assess an application's or services' in the evolution of commercial viability. technology. There is a The aim of the Blackberry Partners Fund's due diligence process is to ensure that critical critical mass of smart business considerations are made, as a strong business case plays an important role phone handsets in in improving a technology's likelihood of adoption down the road. For that reason, the process-from submission to committee review and final approval or denial-is the mobile space, a collaborative effort which ensures that applicants demonstrate the managerial, which is providing the business planning, financial, strategic and technological expertise required to bring their catalyst for what we innovations to market. think will be an even The BlackBerry Partners Fund needed to create a publicly accessible website to promote bigger revolution in the fund on a global scale to potential partners building applications for the world computing, the likes leading BlackBerry device. They also needed to set up a private online community for the investment committee to coordinate, manage and collaborate on potential partner funding of which we've never applications and competitions. seen before.
The IGLOO Solution - Kevin Talbot, Managing The BlackBerry Partners Fund uses an online community to manage all aspects of its Director for RBC Venture multi-phased "stage and gate" process of due diligence and decision making. An IGLOO Partners and aonline community provides a comprehensive solution by delivering an integrated suite of Co-Manager of thecontent management, collaboration and Web 2.0 social software services-allowing for the BlackBerry Partners FundTsecure storing, management and retrieval of materials before Fund committee meetings and supporting the collaborative processes that take place in between meetings.
MarketplaceCOMMUNITYPowerful Content ManagmentEntrepreneurs make an initial application which is submitted to the online community where it is securely stored and then evaluated by the BlackBerry Partners Fund investment committee. On online community supports this structure with portions of the community open to public access and other areas restricted to permissioned access only.
Powerful content management allows authorized members of the Fund to store and organize information, upload documents from anywhere and notify other members automatically when information is added or updated.
The BlackBerry Partners Fund uses The BlackBerry Partners Fund community maintains an archived record of all online an online community to manage discussions, submissions and supporting documentation, policies, meeting minutes, its due diligence process agendas and more. All information can be searched, bookmarked, commented on, rated and subscribed to (by email or RSS) by any authorized fund member.
With regulatory compliance to adhere to, the ability to audit information is critical to the BlackBerry Partners Fund. Detailed audit trails ensure that submissions and related information are secure and easily traceable. All content and contributions are monitored within the community, so any unauthorized access or content can be tracked. Blogs promote peer-to-peer communication and collaboration Version Control gives fund members the ability to manage the history of any document, set the number of versions to keep, and view profiles of members who added versions.
Confidentiality and protection of all information is assured with industry standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL), password verification and role-based security. All activity within the community is captured in a rich set of logs, protecting the Fund from liabi... [download for more]
