With the VIX topping 2008 market crisis levels this year and the Dow Jones posting the steepest single-day drop since the Great Depression, all eyes are on the public markets. But the not-so-visible alternative investment markets are also being tested.
For the asset servicing firms involved with alternatives, access to timely and accurate investment data is underappreciated until times like now.
Access to data to ensure fast and accurate client communications becomes infinitely more important during periods of high market volatility. So in times like this, investors looking to take advantage of and survive uncertain markets need timely access to data to make the most informed investment decisions.
For me, this is familiar terrain. As an allocator managing a few billion dollars during the credit crisis, a big part of my day was spent confirming and reconfirming data to ensure the information we used for investment decision-making and reporting—everything from capital allocations, position exposures, historic and expected returns and investor lock-up periods—was up-to-date and correct.
When the crisis hit, our client reporting demands suddenly changed from quarterly or semi-annually to daily or even intraday. Client questions spanned the gamut: What’s my portfolio returning today? How am I positioned? How’s this crisis going to affect me? What’s my exposure to X company, Y industry or Z segment? What are the opportunities we should be exploiting now?
Being responsive and answering these types of questions quickly has become more important than ever. All the data driving the answers are locked up in PDFs somewhere throughout your organisation. Using today’s technology makes insight instantly accessible whereas, only a few years ago, it might have taken hours, sometimes days to pull all the pieces of the puzzle together.
What I learned through that experience was the value of having instant access to high-quality data in a normalised format. In fact, this experience set the stage for launching Canoe Intelligence.
I realised then, as I’m reminded now, how essential data management tools are for enabling investment managers to quickly assemble the puzzle pieces needed to meet client reporting demands and make smart investment decisions on-the-fly.
Today Canoe’s clients utilise our cloud-based technology to quickly convert volumes of unstructured reporting PDF documents into normalised and accessible datasets that can be distributed to other upstream or downstream investment tracking, accounting, risk, portfolio management, reporting, and other systems.
While significant strides have been made improving process automation throughout the investments industry, the majority of businesses remain tethered to inefficient manual methods. These legacy processes entail digging for data in email inboxes or portals to try and get a clear picture for their firm and clients while leaving unanswered questions about what to do next.
The “what to do next” from our perspective is clear. Abandon the old ways of doing things and adopt a modern data management platform. Secure, cloud-based services are particularly valuable during crises as they enable people to work from anywhere with no loss of productivity.
Platforms that connect to email and other systems via API, and with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning improve workflows, can drastically reduce the time it takes employees to find documents and data—time that can make a world of difference today, both to a firm and its clients.
