AlphaSense is a market intelligence platform used by companies and financial institutions. Since 2011, their AI-based technology has helped professionals make business decisions by delivering insights from public and private content—including company filings, event transcripts, news, trade journals, and equity research. The platform boasts users among 4,000 enterprise customers. Headquartered in New York City, AlphaSense employs over 1,000 people across offices in the U.S., U.K., Finland, and…
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FactSet Workstation
Score 8.5 out of 10
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The FactSet Workstation is a dynamic platform designed to empower financial professionals with seamless data access, advanced analytics, and technology. Integrating over 800 data sources across asset classes and markets, it consolidates crucial insights and elevates decision-making. Its AI-powered tools include smart search and chat features. The workstation simplifies complex workflows, enabling users to uncover insights quickly and improve collaboration. From research and portfolio…
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FloQast
Score 8.9 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
FloQast offers their financial close software to streamline accounting month end close, simply providing automation around reconciliation and eliminating human error, and visibility via a close status dashboard, as well as providing a complete audit trail.
AlphaSense has the best search / smart search functions. Refinitiv has more equity research reports, but AlphaSense has more than FactSet or BBG. All 4 databases do a comparable job of providing financials. FactSet has an impressive feature that allows you to jump within …
I really like AlphaSense but it's not a stop shop. For broker research / keyword search, its the best. But it doesn't have private company info, debt info, or the level industry metrics that PitchBook, Bloomberg, and CapIQ have. Additionally, it doesn't have financials at the …
AlphaSense's smart search functionality is a huge differentiator versus these peers, particularly its ability to easily search through broker research (versus just filings/transcripts). In addition, AlphaSense makes it much easier to review multiple documents at once, and the …
All of them are better than AlphaSense. However, Bloomberg is over twice as expensive, and people are just paying a premium for Chat (which I don't want). I have not used FactSet for over three years. When I last used it, I would say that it was slightly better than AlphaSense …
Compared to FactSet and PitchBook, AlphaSense is a good tool to fill my suite of financial analysis. PitchBook is superior for private company and transaction data, as well as screening for similar companies (the sourcing feature of the job). FactSet is superior for financial …
PitchBook has much better private company data. FactSet i find has more financial insights. Gartner has more reliable market research and studies. I would say AlphaSense i more well rounded and excels in research reports and current events
They all provide different solutions that cater for specific needs. Crayon is the general purpose software - better at general CI than AlphaSense. WideNarrow is another version, and provides a glossy output, now backed by Infodesk.
AlphaSense has better document search but is otherwise vastly inferior in every other way. If doc search isn't important to you, I wouldn't bother with AlphaSense.
AlphaSense is one tool I have in my analyst toolbox that helps me dive deep into the research process. It isn't the first place I go when I begin the research process, but it's one area where I spend more time the deeper I get into the process.
As compared to Refinitiv, AlphaSense is easier to use off the shelf (has less of the codes to find exactly what one's looking for) and provides more detailed insights a lot quicklier.
As previously mentioned, CIQ and Bloomberg are better for market data (broker estimates, NAVPS data, etc.). The main difference is access to broker research and the excel plug in
We do not have an alternative to AlphaSense right now and have previously gone directly to Edgar or the company websites to search for filings, company press releases, or presentations. I am not aware of any similar products myself right now unfortunately.
Very solid. Superior in many respects. The greatest distinction / "barrier" relates to users (be it myself / teammates) strengthening familiarity with continued experience.
PitchBook is better for private company data and getting contacts. It is also more useful for capital raises and data AlphaSense is great for more targeted searches which FactSet is very bad at. FactSet often makes it hard to do searches and then once you get to a specific …
AlphaSense is very well suited to investing teams that need a research management system that has a robust database behind and rich content management features for note-taking. AlphaSense may not be well-suited to individual investors who want data access but don't need to be sharing notes to a wider team. The sharing features are what make AlphaSense most useful.
FactSet works for all my IR needs. I do not see a function for which I use it for that it would be less appropriate. I believe that the tool's efforts towards becoming more integrated with AI are strong and that in time the Mercury offering will be just as competitive as some of the other AI offerings out there today such as AlphaSense
I used another vendor for close management before, and comparing the two, FloQast is easier to use and the site navigation is much easier. The looks and feels of the site are more engaging and pleasant. As mentioned before in the previous question, their Journal Entry posting functionality is not suited for a company with multiple entities since it only allows you to book an entry when debits and credits are hitting the same entity
I believe the AI agent could be improved to answer more detailed questions and provide better data.
Access to real time financial data in a similar vein to Koyfin.
The ability to easily search across all company decks to be able to quickly gather all relevant slides for a specific topic, similar to what Quartr offers.
The user interface on stock monitor needs work - sometimes I wish to clone the same fields to another tab/watchlist and it appears the best way to do so is recreate it form scratch
transcript to be more timely and more accurate
on the consensus financial forecast tab, have more segment breakouts like Visible Alpha
A setting to allow for attachments to automatically be opened within the app (Adobe, Excel, etc.) rather than as a separate tab in the browser
Some of our tasks are quarterly or annual so assigning a very specific date would be helpful
Eliminate the need of "closing" review notes. Once we change the status to Resolved, that should be sufficient. Make Resolved and Closed one and the same
AlphaSense is a very useful tool and is reasonably priced for our organization. While I may not be a hyper-active user, it's a great resource when I need to quickly do a competitive landscape survey, review publicly available documents (transcripts, etc.), or review Wall Street research
We need the FactSet data and capabilities to complete 75% of the financial analyses that we complete for both internal and external purposes. It is invaluable and I am not aware of any other provider that would be able to fill this gap that FactSet does
It has proven to enhance our procedures with closing. It is an effective tool that I would recommend to create a more efficient closing procedure and get the team more aligned. It increases the accountability among the staff and helps to keep us on task and on time. It is easy to sign into and has reminder emails for tasks that are coming up or late.
AlphaSense has a very intuitive user interface, and I can tell they have been focused on expanding their product breadth and continuing to innovate on current products. Some basic features are missing or I can't find (I can't just sort expert calls by only the ones that are applicable to that ticker, most relevant is the one that works best, but I want just the ticker)
It does everything I need. It is pretty user friendly and easy to work with whatever technology interface I am using (desk top, notebook, tablet, or mobile phone). I am able to get work done whether I am in the office, at home, or traveling. The user up time is very good. They are rarely doing maintenance when I need to use the platform
FloQast is incredibly intuitive and easy to use. The only reason I don't give it a 10 is that the Flux Analysis feature is not great in terms of getting the information into the system. Once it's in, fantastic! But some work is needed
The availability of Alphasense is great. I have used the software for multiple years and cannot remember ever having an outage issue. This is surprising actually, as I use other software applications that do not have regular outages, but still have outages periodically. Alphasense, on the other hand, never seems to have any outages. Good sign if I can't remember the software not working :).
We have only noticed a slight slow down in accessing FloQast on a couple of occasions (near the beginning of a month when many people were likely trying to get online to close their books). The issue has always resolved itself with three to five minutes, so it's never been a hinderance.
Loading or performing searches on AlphaSense platform is reasonably fast for most of the time. However, it is sometimes unacceptably long for me to load PDF files (earnings presentation, supplementary financial report) on AlphaSense. Certain features might also take very long time, such as loading for "similar tables" across EDGAR filings, or downloading tables from EDGAR filings
FloQast's performance is great. The pages always load quickly, and reports are completed fast! I've never noticed any slowdown in our ERP from the interface with FloQast.
Customer support is very prompt. I get personalized support for search recommendations and content that I could not find in my own search. Support checks in with me on a bi-monthly basis to keep me informed of the many different feature additions, I cannot find a more kind, understanding, and supportive team.
They are rapid in their response. If they can't immediately offer a solution, they continue to keep in contact with you to let you know where they are in resolving your issues. The staff is friendly & speaks to you in layman's terms, not so high-tech that you can't understand
The person was prepared, attentive, understood the nature of my questions, was willing to work through any difficulties or misunderstandings, was patient, and super pleasant to work with. Great customer service.
The FloQast team members are just so personable. FloQast has clearly done a great job hiring people who are not just good at what they do, but are also fun to work with! They have placed people in the right roles and the customer benefits from this. I have enjoyed every opportunity I've had to work with a FloQast team member on training.
Our online training was led by a AlphaSense representative. The training is always good. The bigger issue is our time availability to remember the training and utilize it. The trainers will show us examples and then ask us for real industries or companies of interest to use so that the training is most relevant.
The online training is good. But like all online, pre-recorded training, it is never quite as good as in-person or live training where one can ask questions or get clarification. That said, FloQast has an extensive training library and most of the time, if one finds they need help on a topic, it can be answered by going to the online training and watching appropriate recording.
Implementation occured before I started with the company (but despite the instruction to skip the question if I did not participate, the site required I put in a rating in order to move on to the next page)
Special features of AlphaSense that made us decide on this CI platform: - US-based market and competitive intelligence platform with various premium content (broker information, expert calls, earning transcripts, original company documents etc.) - AlphaSense is a trusted CI platform by world’s leading corporations and financial institutions - AlphaSense’s proprietary AI stack has been meticulously engineered over a decade so that their AI accelerates speed-to-insight so clients can act with confidence when making critical decisions - Private and public companies, therapeutic areas and products can be monitored - Datalog is available up to 15 years, and advanced search is supported for them - Curated newsfeed is available from more than 3,500 top news publications, client requests and hand-picked vendors for premium subscription - Very advanced company profiles are available by default with newsfeed, original company documents, expert calls and reports - Newsfeed and alerts can be also set by admins and individual users
Product is magnitudes more affordable and provides 80% of the functionality that Bloomberg has and is working to build out the remaining. The workstation is more user friendly than bloomberg but still not perfect. Not as robust as a Bloomberg Terminal and doesn't have the chat/trading features.
At the time we picked FloQast, they were the most cost effective and easiest tool to use. Fast forward a little bit, and Numeric has come to market. I really lie Numeric to be honest and feel that their pricing is better and for that lower pricing, they include more functions. However, we continued with FloQast for ease of continuity and my team is time strapped. What that said, FloQast is great - nothing wrong with it other than it could be cheaper.
It has been very simple. Contract terms are standard for an online portal. Of course, I would like unit pricing to be lower so I could get more users on the license or to rotate seats to get more value out of each license. Billing frequency has been standard as well. This could be more significant for a larger customer.
The sharing features provides by AlphaSense mean that it can be readily scaled for teams within an organization and, subject to compliance requirements, with client organizations. The ability to share annotations of transcripts and investor releases is valuable, and facilitates collaboration between analysts.
We started using it with one client/customer and now use it with fourteen entities and plan to add two more in the next couple of months. It has made it possible to grow our business without hiring additional personnel. We can do more work with the same number of people
AlphaSense has allowed us to generate deeper competitive insights. For example, we conducted an in depth analysis of the aerial data analytics (drone) industry, and AlphSense helped us narrow in on the market leaders and their various strengths / weaknesses.
AlphaSense has improved our team's overall efficiency. With Stream in particular, we are able to pinpoint insights in a matter of minutes through the transcript feature as opposed to having to conduct a series of calls ourselves. This is a significant time saver.
AlphaSense has allowed us to make more informed decisions on our public holdings by providing us with unfettered access to equity research analyst reports.
Floqast has reduced our closing schedule by roughly 15-20% of the time it took us beforehand.
The product has been very beneficial for us during audit time when we can easily demonstrate our control workflows on reconciliation and task approvals.
I can update our CFO at any point in time how we are trending towards close and can coordinate with finance as to the moment journal entries have been completed
