With the number of fund administrator firms growing by 10% since 2018, how can companies stand out in an increasingly crowded market to provide added value to their clients?
For Jessica Mead, Regional Executive North America at Alter Domus, the answer lies in successfully blending technology with human expertise, with co-sourcing an increasingly popular way to marry the two.
Jessica shared her thoughts during a service provider webinar Oct. 25 sponsored by investment data company Preqin, where she joined panelists Peter Naismith, a partner in law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel, and Meera Savjani, Fund CFO at Arrow Capital.
Co-sourcing model: integrating expertise and technology
While information has always been key to strategic decision-making, Jessica said that GPs are under increased pressure from their investors to provide more precise and transparent data, and to do it in real-time. Service providers who can meet those demands are going to be more successful, she believes, and co-sourcing may be a way to get there.
In the co-sourcing model, the GP maintains ownership of their in-house IT system and data while their service provider works in the environment alongside other departments. Co-sourcing helps GPs meet the shortened reporting timelines requested by investors yet maintain, or even improve, data accuracy.
It can also improve standardization, Jessica said.
“While LPs’ demands can make standardized reporting difficult to achieve, co-sourcing with an experienced service provider means GPs can still achieve industry best practice standards while meeting customized reporting demands,” Jessica explained.
As well as technological expertise, co-sourcing offers another important and complementary client benefit – systems and sectoral expertise. Marrying technology with this expertise, as well as finding the right culture fit, is at the heart of the co-sourcing concept.
In response to Preqin’s claim that AI is being included in due diligence questionnaires for fund administration services, Jessica said she hasn’t seen much of that so far. She noted that Alter Domus is already ahead of the trend by developing tools in-house across the company’s suite of services to streamline some of the more repetitive functions. She also noted that, by automating more and more areas of fund admin, firms will not only need to provide that data output in real time to clients, they will also need to offer value-added expertise to stand out from the pack.
Finally, looking ahead to 2024, Jessica predicted there will be further consolidation in both the service provider and the manager space.
Learn more about Alter Domus’ Strategic Co-Sourcing and Outsourcing services.
