One of the takeaways from the collaboration between the firms is that using the platform cuts the need for manual intervention for inputting data into systems, and makes systems more robust. In simple terms, this reduces mistakes that can compound into millions of dollars or more.

Some firms in the wealth and investment sector still rely on inputting data manually either using a spreadsheet or other function. This leads to mistakes which can be costly.  

And while this is not a new problem, it is becoming ever more urgent with the use of relatively illiquid and complex alternative investments such as private equity and credit increases. The stakes are large, as the alternative investments sector accounts for about $22 trillion in AuM and appears to set to go on rising. 

Last week, US-headquartered SEI expanded its relationship with Canoe Intelligence to give family offices more tools for alternative investments such as private equity, venture capital and hedge funds. The collaboration is designed to benefit users of the SEI Archway Platform. 

The firms’ combined offerings are designed to help single-family offices that have traditionally been hobbled by dated and manual data management workflows â€“ also increasing risks of making mistakes.

The new integration with Canoe automates the transmission of private equity and hedge fund valuations, as well as private equity capital call and distribution data, for SEI Archway Platform users.

“The reliance on manual data entry introduces significant human error and inefficiency risks for family offices, as this consumes time and resources that could be better spent – such as with clients or on revenue-generating activities,” SEI told Family Wealth Report about this collaboration. 

“This, combined with the lack of standardized data formats, further complicates the integration and analysis of siloed data sources – a common challenge in alternatives data management. By reducing the need for manual intervention, this not only reduces the risk of errors, but also diminishes latency through automation to ensure data integrity, reliability, and timeliness.”

Asked about the target audience for this new offering with Canoe, SEI said the SEI Archway Platform is a family office solution. The integration is available to all mutual Canoe and Archway platform users, regardless of market type.

Asked to elaborate on what sort of asset classes are covered by the expanded collaboration, SEI said the integration between SEI’s Archway Platform and Canoe is “primarily focused on private equity and hedge fund activity.”

According to UK-based Landytech, a tech-driven investment platform founded in 2019, more than half (55 per cent) of asset owners are “still using spreadsheets for manual data consolidation, wasting as much as a week every month – time that could be better spent optimizing the portfolio.”

“And for those who have some level of automated data flows, just loading it is the comparatively easy part. Consolidating, classifying and reporting remains a huge challenge,” the firm said on its website. (The site did not specify whether the asset owner data is global or European; even so, the point is indicative of how many firms still rely on manual processes.)