Recently, Altvia CEO Brie Aletto and Chief Strategy Officer Jeff Williams were joined by Cendana Capital Partner Kelli Fontaine for a webinar on effective data and technology strategies in today’s LP market. Titled Today’s Differentiated GP: Modern Data & Technology Strategies, the live, online event was attended by more than 250 people and provided a wealth of insights in key areas.
Data Models
The panel starts by discussing the surprising fact that two-thirds of institutional investors surveyed believe that GP information is “less than good,” and 92% feel it’s “less than excellent.” Kelli makes the point that given those numbers, organizations shouldn’t be targeting “industry standard” leveraging of data, as that’s a very low bar today. You can (and should) stand out by exceeding that standard.
The panelists agree that fund management is a business, so you have to think about how you want to run it. And as a GP, you’ve got to understand not just how individual companies are doing, but also how your portfolio is performing in general.
As Jeff says, the overriding issue is that failing to fully leverage your data to offer a superior “customer experience” is a missed opportunity. And Kelli adds that you can’t know “what’s going right and wrong” with a portfolio if you don’t use data wisely.
Systems & Infrastructure
The session continues with Jeff explaining Altvia’s “PEriodic Table of Technology” (including joking that the slide title should probably be trademarked!) and Kelli agreeing that it’s problematic when the functional groups within an organization don’t share data effectively.
She also explains that Cendana is small in terms of headcount but is able to manage billions in assets thanks to having the right technology and properly structured data. That requires putting time and effort into assessing what information is available to you and how you’ll gather, manage, and utilize it.
Kelli also shares and describes an interesting slide with sample Cendana data sets and emphasizes the importance of proprietary data. She then explains Cendana’s data ingestion process, use cases, and data flow.
She goes on to talk about her challenges in finding a technology partner that understands both Salesforce (as the foundation of a data management system) and her firm’s specific need—and how Altvia meets those critical criteria. She mentions products like AIM and Altvia Answers, with both being critical to her firm’s operations and the latter being a “game-changer.”
An Informative Demo
The session continues with a software demo, starting with actual data in the Altvia Answers product. Kelli explains how Cendana uses Answers to its advantage, noting that users can generate the data requested by any stakeholder in seconds.
Jeff then switches to a demo database to show more Altvia capabilities.
Great Questions and Insightful Answers
We’re grateful that an engaged audience asked excellent questions throughout the session. Their participation allowed the panelists to share essential insights on the Altvia suite of products, what integration capabilities it has, and how firms can leverage data and technology effectively.
We encourage you to check out this information-rich webinar. And if you have questions about Altvia products and services, contact us today to request an informative demo.
