Get Started with Compliant Data Sharing
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Explain data-sharing concerns in the investment banking domain.
- Define Compliant Data Sharing.
- Explain how Compliant Data Sharing handles role hierarchy–based sharing.
Say Hello to Cumulus Capital
Cumulus Capital is a leading investment banking firm and part of financial services giant Cumulus Cloud Corporation. The firm has two divisions, corporate investment banking (CIB) and capital markets. The CIB division provides mergers and acquisitions advisory, and capital raising through IPO, while the capital markets division handles institutional sales, trading, and equity research.
Now that we know about Cumulus Capital, let’s get to know its people.
- Deandra Olson is the compliance manager at Cumulus Capital. She’s responsible for ensuring that the firm and its employees conduct business in compliance with government regulations, industry standards, and company policies.
- Rob McDonald is the star associate who helps the managing director handle high-profile clients in CIB.
- Rob is accompanied by Charlie Melly, a trusted analyst in the team. He helps Rob create pitch books, analyze market data, and generate reports.
- Matt is the Salesforce admin at Cumulus Capital, and he takes care of fine-tuning the org so that it meets the complex requirements of the firm. He’s confident that he can handle any challenge, and there’s a new one on the way.
Meet the Acquisition Parties
There’s a buzz in the Cumulus Capital office. Northern Trail Outfitters (NTO), a retail giant that specializes in outdoor gear and apparel, is looking to foray into the food and beverages industry. The company is planning to acquire a popular fitness cafe chain, Dorjeling Kitchen. The California-based chain serves nutritious salads, protein shakes, and cold-pressed juices to the health-conscious. NTO wants Cumulus Capital to represent them and handle all aspects of the acquisition, from establishing fair value to drafting the agreement and everything in between.
Data Sharing and Privacy Woes
The CIB division is the “private side” of Cumulus Capital and handles confidential information regarding deals and clients. This kind of information is called material non-public information (MNPI) in the financial world. The capital markets division is the “public side” and handles research, sales, and trading in stocks on behalf of its clients.
Deandra calls Matt to her office. While she’s happy that NTO chose Cumulus Capital to handle the acquisition, she’s also worried. “If details of the acquisition leak out to the capital markets division, it could lead to insider trading,” she remarks with a concerned look. To add to this, Cumulus Capital has to comply with strict data privacy regulations and company policies to avoid being penalized by the authorities.
Bank on Compliant Data Sharing
While there are strict confidentiality rules around the acquisition deal, the deal needs contributions from several team members in the CIB division. Deandra must ensure that deal data is shared in a controlled and compliant manner. She shares the following requirements with Matt.
- Prevent deal data from leaking to the capital markets division by building a virtual information barrier, or an ethical wall.
- Enable Rob and his teammates to share confidential deal details without compromising data privacy.
- Enforce strict granular control over data sharing, like who has access and to what extent.
- Enable collaboration within the limits set by compliance regulations and company policies.
She knows the request is a complex one and could need custom code to be written. Luckily, Matt knows about a Salesforce feature that is tailor-made for such requirements.
“We don't have to write a single line of code. I can get everything set up for you in no time,” he tells her with a reassuring smile.
Deandra looks pleasantly surprised. “Really? Tell me more!” she exclaims.
Matt tells her about Compliant Data Sharing (CDS) and why it’s exactly what she’s looking for. CDS is an out-of-the-box feature in Financial Services Cloud (FSC) that makes it easy and secure to share confidential client engagement and deal data. You control which users have access based on their role in context to the specific client or deal. You decide whether they can modify deal data or view the details.
CDS makes sure that sharing is implemented based on the compliance regulations and corporate policies that Cumulus Capital follows. And the best part is that CDS comes with no extra charge for FSC customers. As the infomercial anchor would say, “It’s free, free….aaabsolutely free!”
“I knew I could always count on you,” Deandra says, breathing a sigh of relief. She stands up and extends her hand to shake Matt’s. “Now let’s see CDS in action. Good luck!”
Before we set up CDS, let’s find out how it works.
Note
While this module focuses on investment banking, CDS works equally well with other FSC subverticals like insurance, wealth management, and retail banking.
CDS and Role Hierarchy–Based Sharing
Role hierarchy–based sharing makes it easier to share data based on the organizational structure you define on Salesforce. Currently, role hierarchy for Account and Opportunity objects is enabled by default and can’t be turned off. So if Rob creates an Opportunity record, his manager automatically gets access to all the information on that record.
While automatic data sharing is fine in most cases, it spells trouble for Cumulus Capital, especially if the record contains MNPI. Deandra wants to implement stringent data sharing policies so that officials up the management chain don’t get automatic access to confidential deal data without prior compliance clearance.
The Financial Deal object in CDS is tailor-made for investment banking and its complex sharing scenarios. Using the object, Rob can record all the relevant details like deal type, confidentiality level, closing status, and much more. CDS makes sure that all these details remain private unless Rob decides to share them. And because role hierarchy–based sharing is disabled by default in CDS, Rob’s seniors can’t access any deal data unless he grants them access manually.
If your business use-case demands it, you can set up CDS to work with role hierarchy. Go to Deal Management Settings in Setup and enable Role Hierarchy–Based Sharing for Financial Deals.
A Note About Interaction Summaries
Rob has been talking to both NTO and Dorjeling Kitchen to chalk out the details of the acquisition. They talk on the phone, meet at Cumulus Capital office, and have business dinners occasionally. During these interactions, confidential MNPI is shared and crucial decisions are taken. Rob must track and document such interactions carefully, so he can share them with his teammates later.
Normally, Rob would use Activities (tasks, events, calendars) to track client meetings. But Activities don’t provide independent sharing as the sharing is controlled by their parent object. So if Rob adds call details for an Opportunity record, the details are shared up the hierarchy automatically. We certainly don't want automatic sharing to happen with Rob’s notes that contain confidential acquisition details.
Interaction Summaries to the rescue! This component enables Rob to take structured meeting notes and specify the confidentiality of those notes. And Rob has complete control over who gets to access them. He shares the meeting notes only with relevant stakeholders, according to the compliance regulations that Deandra has set. To learn more about Interaction Summaries, see Capture and Share Meeting Notes with Interaction Summaries.
We’ve discussed how CDS helps us share confidential data. In the next unit, we find out how Matt sets up CDS for the org. Let’s go!
