AFTAs 2023: Best new technology introduced over the last 12 months (data & data services)—SS&C Aloha

Overview

SS&C Aloha is a cloud-native platform built to transform the front-to-back operational needs of the global asset and wealth management industry. It provides firms with a single user interface and data layer to manage the full scope of their investment management operations, from trade order management to performance measurement and portfolio accounting, all from a single interface/solution without requiring any traditional data extract, transform and load (ETL) processes. Aloha is designed to simplify complexities and eliminate siloed operational processes.
 

We want to provide clients with a consolidated view of their investments, a wide pool of potential investments, and a great user experience. SS&C Aloha’s single database supports this consolidated view, and its advanced API service built on open architecture will let us connect with varied investment providers and sources. The system’s automated real-time method to keep everything in sync means clients will always have the latest information

Ryan Bessemer, CEO, Trustees Executors

What problems was it developed to solve?

Investment and wealth managers are required to achieve scale and enhance profitability using an array of disparate solutions to run their operations. Aloha’s unified data layer is designed to drive efficiency gains—overnight data processes are replaced by a real-time, event-driven platform that innately distributes data across six core modules. Deployed in SS&C’s private cloud, Aloha offers a zero-footprint operations solution, reducing costs and simplifying clients’ technology landscapes/stacks. 

What makes the new technology/product so groundbreaking?

The innovation around SS&C Aloha’s data and data services is best illustrated by its unified data model approach. The firm is clear in its mission—revolutionizing what it means to offer a single platform to address wealth and asset managers’ front-, middle- and back-office operational needs. Aloha’s unified data model means firms are no longer required to extract and load data from across the organization in order to manage operations, thus driving efficiency and delivering real-time, actionable insights to decision-making personnel.

Future plans

SS&C’s Aloha platform is focused on technologies that will drive tangible improvements across the buy side, including:

• Improving data quality
• Automating manually intensive tasks
• Providing transparency/insights to users

These insights will be used to drive efficiencies, manage interdependencies and interoperability, and interact with users in a more human way. To that end, SS&C plans to continue leveraging natural language technologies, large learning models, machine learning, and generative AI.

We are excited to see investment and wealth managers worldwide adopting SS&C Aloha as their innovative investment operations engine. SS&C Aloha streamlines investment operations and dramatically reduces overheads. The result gives asset and wealth managers the agility to manage and compete more efficiently in today’s complex market

Christy Bremner, general manager, SS&C Institutional & Investment Management

Why they won

Any platform that improves operational efficiency and throughput while simultaneously reducing complexity is sure to gain traction across the buy side, especially in the institutional market where asset allocators and trustees are increasingly expecting/demanding evidence of operational robustness and transparency. This is a market that SS&C knows intimately and one that it has served with distinction for decades through its stable of mature buy-side-specific offerings. There is little doubt that Aloha will appeal to large numbers of buy-side firms seeking operational simplicity and clarity, especially those that already have SS&C-delivered technology supporting various aspects of their business. Expect to hear a lot more from Aloha in the months and years ahead.