• Reduces our dependence on the internal development of customized systems to support unique products, and
• Keeps our teams from being beholden to maintenance and support of outdated technologies interconnected with our systems.
Hortz: How did your tech platform perform during the pandemic?
Martin: With the Covid pandemic at the forefront of the industry, our technology strategy already had the capabilities in place to manage the impacts of the pandemic and provide a highly stable and secure operating environment for our clients’ funds. Our processes and procedures have only required slight adaptations as opposed to large-scale changes to meet the increasing regulatory pressures, Covid market volatility, and the global work from home environment.
The pandemic often caused major shifts in the market, causing large market swings from day to day. This volatility resulted in higher volume of data verification such as price verifications. Our uSUITE technology was designed to handle large volumes of data and easily scaled with the increased data needed to be verified.
As a result, while the rest of the industry was working on getting up and running in accordance with extreme volatility and work from home orders, we were already working to provide a higher level of servicing to our clients and continuing to reduce the cost-of-ownership for their funds.
Hortz: What kind of client facing technologies have you recently developed for your asset management and RIA clients?
Martin: Capital allocations have been set aside to augment our core systems workflow processes. We are making these allocations to further enhance the quality and integrity of our systems. Client Facing Initiatives include:
• Interactive data visualization—Click-through dashboards (graphs, charts, cards) embedded within our external-facing technology. This enhancement will provide advanced insights and analysis into datasets.
• uCONNECT—A proprietary investment manager-facing application, uCONNECT links firms with their data, reports, dashboards, and provides insights into their funds. Using numerous APIs, it aggregates data from several underlying systems and applications to deliver consolidated, actionable data information in a single, easy-to-use solution, allowing fund managers to access their data when and how they want.
• External Facing Technology—within the uCONNECT application an external-facing web application will utilize state-of-the-art technology and advanced UX (User Experience) design. It will provide an interactive experience with access to things like fund accounting workflows, data visualization, analytics, reporting, and data feeds.
• Introduced a digital asset allocation tool with the ability for fund manager clients to build internal model portfolios for investors. It also allows investors the ability to customize their own asset allocation by answering specific questions to help select a customized investment portfolio—a self-serve investment platform.
Hortz: Any other thoughts or recommendations you would like to share?
Stevens: It is vital for investment managers to align their business with strategic partners committed to positioning their business for long-term success. We are committed to be a strategic technology partner with our asset management and RIA clients and we are committed to continuing to invest in technology. I’m proud that Ultimus was recently presented with the Innovation in Data Analytics award from Global Custodian during its Leaders in Custody event.