Insights

SEI and Canoe Forge Path to Further Advance Alts Data Management for Family Offices Using the Archway Platform℠

Since 2020, collaboration and a desire to solve complex financial problems have been at the core of SEI and Canoe Intelligence’s strategic partnership. Throughout the years, SEI’s experience working with nearly 600 ultra-high-net-worth families through the Archway Platform (Archway) has made them acutely familiar with the challenges family offices face when it comes to collecting and reporting on alternative investment data. Coupled with Canoe’s innovation and vision in the alts technology space, where the Canoe platform covers 42,000 active funds across $8T in Assets Under Management or Advisement for its 325 alternative investor clients, our teams knew early on there was an immense opportunity to streamline alternative investment data management within the family office space.

Recently, the two teams have been working on the next iteration of our partnership as we develop a more robust integration between the Canoe and Archway platforms.

This integration between Canoe and Archway automates the transmission of private equity and hedge fund valuations, as well as Private Equity Call and Distribution data. Moreover, Hedge Fund subscriptions and redemptions extracted from Canoe can be effortlessly imported into Archway.

In this article, we share how the two technologies are teaming up to test and build this expanded integration—and how we believe it can level up the operational efficiency for our mutual family office clients.

Common Challenges in Alts Data Management:

Alternative investors, particularly family offices, navigate a complex landscape fraught with challenges when it comes to managing alts data. Among these challenges are data silos, where crucial information is scattered across multiple systems and platforms, making it difficult to obtain a comprehensive view of investments. Additionally, the reliance on manual data entry introduces a significant risk of human error and inefficiency, consuming valuable time and resources. Compounding these issues is the lack of standardized data formats, further complicating the integration and analysis of disparate data sources.

In response to these challenges, SEI Family Office Services and Canoe Intelligence are expanding their strategic partnership and integration methods. By automating data transmission and ensuring data consistency, the integration streamlines the process of accessing and integrating alts data. This not only enhances operational efficiency but also mitigates the risk of errors, empowering family offices to make informed decisions with confidence.

How Canoe Enhances SEI’s Archway Platform:

For Archway Platform users leveraging Canoe’s advanced technology, the integration offers the following benefits:

Automated Fund and Allocation-Level Data Extraction: Canoe’s integration with the Archway Platform facilitates automated extraction, validation, and delivery of fund and allocation-level data. This streamlined process helps ensure accurate and reliable data for reporting, analytics and accounting systems, enhancing overall operational efficiency.
Pricing Updates: Canoe seamlessly updates pricing information in Archway, providing alternative investment valuation data extracted as soon as received and processed. This ensures that clients have access to up-to-date and accurate pricing information, enabling informed decision-making.
Effortless Management of Capital Calls and Distributions: Canoe automates the process of updating Archway with capital call and distribution transactions, reducing the need for manual intervention. This not only saves time but also reduces the risk of errors, ensuring data integrity and reliability.
Streamlined Subscription and Redemption Transactions: Canoe generates extracts of subscription or redemption transactions, which can be easily uploaded directly to Archway. This streamlined integration simplifies the management of subscription and redemption processes, improving overall workflow efficiency.

SEI’s Archway Platform at a Glance:

SEI’s Archway Platform serves as a comprehensive wealth management technology solution tailored specifically for family offices. With Archway, family offices gain access to a wide range of benefits, including:

360-Degree View of Clients’ Wealth: Archway provides a holistic view of clients’ wealth, allowing family offices to gain deeper insights into their financial portfolios. By automating accounting records across various functions and layers of ownership, Archway enables family offices to effectively manage traditional and alternative investment transactions, cash movements, bill payments, fee calculations, and capital distributions.
Enhanced Operational Efficiency: Archway streamlines day-to-day operations, allowing family offices to operate more efficiently and effectively. By automating repetitive tasks and processes, Archway frees up valuable time and resources, enabling family offices to focus on strategic initiatives and client service.
Improved Data Accuracy and Reliability: With Archway, family offices can rely on accurate and reliable data for decision-making purposes. Archway’s robust reporting capabilities and data validation features ensure data integrity, helping family offices make informed decisions with confidence.
Robust Operational and Client Reporting: Archway offers comprehensive reporting across asset types, portfolios, and custodians that ranges from client financial summaries to detailed holdings, transaction, allocation, performance, and risk reports. Using flexible parameters to render tailored results along with automated report preparation, scheduling, and delivery tools, the Archway Platform’s reporting capabilities provide valuable financial insights to inform critical decision-making.

Bringing the Integration to Life:

Prior to launching beta testing for the integration in late 2023, the SEI and Canoe teams worked in concert to automate data flows, normalize values, and define accounting rules and transaction mapping across systems. The teams collaborated on extensive internal testing to validate the effectiveness and reliability of the integration, with the intent to not only automate the transmission of alternative asset data between platforms, but to simplify the complex nature of accounting for alternative investment transactions.

Through rigorous analysis and learning, the team identified and addressed potential challenges, fine-tuning the integration to meet the unique needs and requirements of family offices.

Now in its beta testing phase, the team continues to collect invaluable real-world perspectives, helping to guide iterative improvements and ensuring alignment with client expectations.

To date, Canoe has processed 150,000+ documents on behalf of SEI’s clients. Additionally, this collaborative effort has positioned two dozen mutual clients to automate the transmission of data across 3,400+ alternative investments, underscoring the substantial impact of the integration on operational efficiency and data management accuracy.

What’s Coming Next:

Looking ahead, SEI and Canoe are finalizing the initial integration offering with plans to expand the universe of data available to mutual clients seeking to automate the transmission of their alternative asset data. This next phase promises to unlock new levels of efficiency and value for family offices leveraging the combined power of the SEI’s Archway Platform and Canoe Intelligence.

As SEI continues to leverage Canoe’s capabilities, clients can expect further enhancements that drive continued scale and elevate client satisfaction. With a commitment to innovation and excellence, SEI and Canoe are poised to shape the future of alts data management. Stay tuned for more updates as the integration nears launch later this year.

Disclaimer: All statistics as of March 31, 2024.