Advent of Change: Karen Geiger, co-general manager at SS&C Advent, talks to Lucy Carter about how the company works with its clients and the challenges facing the industry
September 6, 2023 | Asset Servicing Times
“We’re in a very complex, ever-evolving industry,” Geiger begins. “What makes Advent stand out is the depth of our domain expertise.” With decades of industry experience, long-serving employees and the backing of SS&C, the company’s credentials certainly inspire confidence. Advent was founded in 1983 under the name Advent Software, and was acquired by SS&C Technologies in 2015. Providing financial technology services and solutions to asset managers, wealth managers and clients in the alternative investment space, its range of products has made it a well-known presence in the industry. Geiger joined the firm in 1999, has held multiple leadership roles in product development and currently serves as co-general manager.
What Clients Want
A collaborative approach to operations, taking into account customers’ evolving needs, allows the firm to build out the breadth and the depth of coverage around asset types and structures, Geiger explains.
“The reciprocal relationship that we have with our customers is really second to none in the industry, and it’s reflected in our products.”
While client relationships are always important, with Advent, “these translate into functionality. It really makes a difference that we actually understand the real-world application of our products.”
In regard to what clients want, “it really depends, because we serve different sectors in the market,” Geiger says.
“On the alternatives side, [portfolio and investor accounting solution] Geneva continues to be very much in demand, particularly with the growth in credit and the sophistication around fund structures.” In response to the popularity of this use case, “that’s a huge area of investment for us within the Geneva suite.”
With traditional asset management, the focus is on Genesis, Geiger reports. “The product is really designed for a very client- centric, personalised approach to portfolio construction and rebalancing. In the past couple of years, we’ve seen an uptick in demand for that type of solution that then directly integrates with our back-office products.”
Overall, though, “clients are coming to us wanting more than just the technology,” Geiger reveals. “They want to know what services we can offer on top of that.” Outsourcing to a technology provider allows them to offload non-core operations to an experienced specialist, “so that they can focus on client relationships and generating alpha.”
In order to generate alpha, the most important thing is “trust in the data”, she affirms.
“The accuracy of the data for decision support is of the most importance, but the timeliness of data is also vital.” As it moves to offer a front-to-back solution, expanding from its back-office origins, Advent allows firms to streamline their communications. Feeding off of back-office calculations, the service provides quick access to data for “those responsible for assessing risk and generating alpha want the trustworthy data at their fingertips” — and Advent provides that.”
In, out or both?
The platform “includes a service console that allows firms to take on managed services,” Geiger explains. “They continue to get the transparency and the governance that they need in order to feel comfortable that a third party or vendor is taking on some of the operations.”
Although outsourcing has been the industry trend over recent years, “I think that a hybrid of in-house and outsourced operations is going to be a common model,” Geiger predicts. This is something that Advent is preparing for, “setting [themselves] up for optionality. It’s not either-or,” she assures; “Coming up with that hybrid approach is our sweet spot.” As a part of SS&C, Advent is connected to a broad range of services and solutions. “We aim to be able to support whatever operating model works for a firm, allowing them to choose the aspects they want to insource and maintain control over.”
Trust in Technology
“Technology bloat is an issue facing many firms in the industry, as they deal with incompatible systems, legacy technology and oversized technology stacks. “Every customer — and ourselves internally — is looking at rationalising technology footprint, technology spend, and the number of vendors being used,” Geiger notes. “I see it happening with all different sizes of institutions, and I think it’s a healthy process.”
Again, SS&C can help clients get through this potentially tumultuous phase. “We’re a very experienced, very stable enterprise and provider of software and services,” she says, and “can provide many things to any given customer of ours — beyond what some may even be aware of.”
Problems around talent acquisition and retention are no secret to those in the financial sector, but once again, Advent and SS&C are ready to help. “Everybody is under this pressure, and technology and automation is certainly an aspect of solving for that,” Geiger states.
SS&C recently acquired Blue Prism, a provider of digital workers. “The repetitive tasks, where you’re going into multiple different systems, doing checks and taking actions, is what Blue Prism is really well-suited to do,” she explains. Proving their trust in the system, SS&C is “leaning into leading by example” when itcomes to their new service.
“We’re looking at where we can take advantage of this digital worker approach to our own workflows and operations,” Geiger says, “before offering them to our customers for similar types of work.”
Of course, not everything can be automated. “There are pieces of the workflow that are never going to be replaced, but can be helped by technology,” Geiger explains. “In the front office, for example, Genesis can help with efficiency.” Primarily, digitisation and automation is being implemented in the back office.
Keeping up with the Regulators
Another major challenge for firms is how to keep up with ever- evolving and constantly increasing regulatory pressures. “They need a technology provider that is also keeping up with the changing environment,” Geiger maintains, a provider that is actively preparing for and getting ahead of upcoming events.
“For example, we’ve worked very closely with the Loan Syndications and Trading Association and others to ensure that Geneva in particular is ready to move away from LIBOR ahead of the cessation date.” Getting ready for T+1 is, inevitably, a priority. “Clients are going to want access to their data on an even more timely basis than they do today,” she says, and are hunting for providers that can meet their requirements. “Figuring out which of their partners are effectively tracking the evolution of regulatory changes is vital for firms.”
Future Focus
There’s much in the pipeline for Advent, Geiger reveals. “One huge focus of ours goes back to technology bloat and the value of a single vendor approach,” she details.
“Clients want best-of-breed services and a front-to-back suite,” and that’s exactly what the organisation intends to provide them with.
“We’ve reorganised within SS&C, and have brought together front-, middle- and back-office solutions under a single organisational umbrella. We’re really focused on streamlining, interoperability and API-based integration.”
The company is investing in interoperability between their products, allowing clients to be able to pick and choose the exact services they want — “all seamlessly delivered to them as an SS&C product.”
SS&C Advent has demonstrated itself to be a powerful player in the service provider space. As the industry becomes ever more crowded and fast-paced, a streamlined, all-in-one service is certainly an appealing concept.”
