How alternative asset managers and family offices can use IQ-EQ Cosmos to counter COVID-19 challenges
Bas Horsten, Sales & Business Development Director, Caribbean and Latin America, IQ-EQ
The COVID-19 outbreak is changing the way that businesses around the world are operating. How can alternative asset managers and family offices leverage the right technological platforms to weather the crisis?
Before the outbreak, we were seeing LPs and GPs increasingly inclined to use technology to keep abreast of the changes in the regulatory landscape, simplify processes and create efficiencies. The rationale for using technology is even greater in a post-COVID context where people are working from home, from split sites or on split shifts to help control the virus.
Challenges in a post-COVID context
Industry commentators have begun to advise organisations to think past the immediate repercussions and implications of the COVID-19 crisis into how technology can be leveraged to accelerate programs and push priorities that can help position the business to succeed when the downturn ends.
A McKinsey report notes that technology leaders are now starting to think beyond the first wave of crisis management and recommends that organisations invest in capabilities for the ‘new normal’ in the form of more remote work, more online interaction and more automation. It also emphasises expanding the use of technology that supports effective collaboration.
Meanwhile, a report by PwC recommends that wealth management and asset management firms should re-evaluate their enterprise risk management framework to address the new and enhanced risks that COVID-19 is creating, and suggests that in a situation of extended volatility with uncertainity in the decision-making process, such organisations might need to consider how to reduce costs through new efficiencies in a cost-oriented environment.
In terms of introducing new process efficiencies, alternative asset managers and family offices could be well served by implementing data visualisation tools such as interactive dashboards that help both the buyer and the seller by providing a single, unified view of data and facilitating personalised simulations with the possibility of setting up automated alerts for capital calls, redemptions, and stock and cash distributions.
How IQ-EQ can help
The launch of IQ-EQ Cosmos, an innovative visualisation tool that allows investors access to real time data across multiple asset classes, comes as a timely solution for family offices and asset managers looking for an efficient technological platform to meet their reporting needs.
IQ-EQ’s cutting edge reporting tool offers up-to-the-minute data partnered with genuine expertise. Key benefits include:
- Single point of truth, accessible anywhere and at any time
- Fully customisable end-to-end solution
- Side-by-side assessment of different asset classes, portfolios, funds and investments
- An online platform that is both user-friendly and secure
- Environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting capabilities
- ‘Plug and play’ with no need to buy, implement and dedicate resources to expensive software.
IQ-EQ’s service offering is unique in the market as a multi-asset solution supported by a dedicated client onboarding team with fund industry experience and knowledge, as well as expert in-house technical and technological support teams. Family offices and alternative asset managers would be well served to explore the power and potential of this unique offering that seeks to propel their organisations into an exciting new era of investment intelligence.
Preparing for the ‘next normal’
As family offices and alternative asset managers settle into the new normal of a life involving COVID-19, it is important to use the coming months to plan for the ‘next normal’ – a future in a post-coronavirus future where enhanced analytics capabilities and new lenses on risk, with an overarching ESG-focus, will be critical to success.
The only thing currently clear is that, however long it takes, the COVID-19 crisis will eventually end. Whether or not organisations shall endure the crisis depends on how well prepared they are to transition into the digital economy, with a strong operational infrastructure and the right technological tools put into place well before the crisis blows over.
About IQ-EQ
IQ-EQ is a leading investor services group that brings together a rare combination of global technical expertise and deep understanding of client needs. We have the ‘know how’ and the ‘know you’ to provide a comprehensive range of compliance, administration, asset and advisory services to fund managers, multinational companies, family offices and private clients operating worldwide.
IQ-EQ employs 3000+ people in 23 jurisdictions across four continents and has assets under administration (AUA) exceeding US$500 billion.
Bas Horsten
E: bas.horsten@iqeq.com
T: +599 9 461 12 99 (ext 715)
M: +599 9 566 1914
