How Linedata helps fund accountants, operations leaders, finance executives, and technology teams streamline back-office processes, reduce risk, and scale operations.
The back office has undergone significant change, but challenges remain as firms face greater complexity and cost pressure. Michael Galvin, Global Product Manager for Linedata’s fund accounting platforms, discusses how Linedata helps clients address these challenges.
Q: Costs are continually squeezed, and firms need to carefully manage operational risk as fund structures and asset types become more complex. How does Linedata help asset managers and fund administrators address this?
The back office has always been viewed as a cost center and has been squeezed in recent years with teams expected to perform more complex tasks faster and more cost-effectively. Organizations can no longer simply “throw accountants at the problem”. Operations leaders need solutions that are cost-neutral and in many cases, cost-negative.
Technology helps solve these challenges, and that is where we come in. We work closely with our clients to understand their pressures and expectations around completing tasks quickly and accurately. Our advanced Business Process Management solutions, delivered through our fund operations platform, Linedata Optima, work seamlessly with our core fund accounting solutions to streamline and automate investment operations. This, in turn, helps our clients control costs, mitigate risk, and run their businesses more efficiently.
Our workflow management solutions allow clients to double the number of funds managed per accountant while replacing manual quality checks with automated controls. Some clients run up to one million automated checks each day. You could never build a big enough team to do that—and if you could, you would still have issues with manual errors and the lack of a digital trail to support audits such as SSAE 16. Beyond audit satisfaction, workflow management and operational dashboards help users quickly identify and resolve errors that could otherwise lead to an inaccurate NAV.
Q: What major challenges do asset managers and fund administrators face when it comes to investment and fund operations?
From evolving regulation to increased investor expectations, challenges abound. On the transfer agency side, investors are becoming much more demanding, expecting real-time web-based access to their information with the ability to self-administer their profile settings and process orders themselves. Technology must provide the tools to match these expectations while maintaining tight controls as mandated.
Q: What new capabilities are firms looking for when changing their fund accounting systems, and how is Linedata addressing these?
The digitization of operations is critical. Some form of distributed workforce is now a reality for most firms. For technology leaders, legacy systems can create inefficiencies and data security risks. Linedata’s cloud-ready Optima platform modernizes infrastructure while seamlessly integrating with existing accounting systems. Our operational dashboards enhance oversight, making it easier for firms to manage hybrid and remote workplaces. We also deliver an analytics tool, Linedata Analytics Service, through the Optima platform. It analyzes and presents relevant data in an easy-to-interpret format so users can focus on what’s important at any given time. It provides an easy-to-digest connection between your accounting data and what is happening in the real world.
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Q: So, what is exception-based processing and how does it help firms rethink how they run their back offices?
Exception-based processing allows systems to generate alerts for operations teams to resolve instead of requiring them to manually review reports for potential errors. This improves efficiency, reduces risk, and harmonizes workflows across remote and hybrid teams. For CFOs and finance teams, exception-based processing reduces operational errors that could lead to costly NAV misstatements. Automating oversight ensures compliance and transparency while keeping fund administration costs predictable. We’re very much on the pulse of what fund administrators and asset managers face in a rapidly transforming environment. Thanks to close collaboration between Linedata and our clients, our solutions add value on a daily basis.
Q: Why is a modernized back office critical for different stakeholders at Asset Managers and Fund Administrators?
- Heads of Fund Accounting: Fund accountants must ensure accurate NAV calculations while meeting increasing compliance demands. Linedata Optima automates reconciliations, reduces manual errors, and enhances audit readiness, allowing teams to focus on high-value activities rather than tedious checks.
- COOs and Heads of Fund Operations: Operations leaders need to scale efficiently while maintaining control. With Linedata’s automated workflows and dashboards, firms can double the number of funds managed per accountant, streamline exception resolution, and ensure operational transparency.
- CTOs and CIOs: Technology leaders require secure, cloud-ready solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing infrastructure. Linedata’s platform modernizes fund administration without disrupting operations, reducing tech debt while improving agility and cybersecurity.
- CFOs and Finance Leaders: Finance leaders must balance cost efficiency with compliance. Linedata Optima provides predictive analytics and automated oversight, ensuring financial transparency, minimizing risk, and optimizing fund administration costs.
Q: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) capabilities are making their way into the back office. How significant are these developments, and where do they fit into Linedata’s offering?
AI/ML in the back office is about using data to identify patterns and trends and turning those into actionable insights that save time and money. Most use cases we deploy are focused on increasing efficiency and reducing operational risk, which means catching questions or concerns before they become real problems. Our Analytics service leverages clients’ data to predict potential operational issues. For example, it can analyze historical data to detect conditions that previously led to NAV publication delays and issue proactive alerts to mitigate risks. Additionally, AI/ML enhances workflow automation by intelligently routing exceptions to the right team members based on historical resolution patterns, ensuring faster issue resolution and optimized resource allocation.
Q: How could AI disrupt back-office functions from an efficiency and cost perspective?
We’ve already talked about how AI/ML will help improve operational workflows. AI will enable intelligent data querying. Traditionally, identifying back-office data required experience and time to run reports and inquiries. AI will allow users to query data using natural language and chatbot-style interfaces, instantly returning valuable insights. For instance, users could ask, “What workflow is best for this scenario?” or “Who should handle this exception?” AI will streamline operations, enhance decision-making, and further reduce the burden of manual processes, allowing back-office teams to focus on higher-value tasks.
About the author, Michael Galvin
Michael Galvin is Global Product Manager for Linedata’s fund accounting platforms. With 25 years in the industry, he has led the development of core applications, surround technology, and process management solutions for fund administration and investment management firms. Michael began his career as a fund accountant at JPMorgan Chase.
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