As a long standing SS&C Advent client, Avalon Advisors put its trust in Advent Outsourcing Services (AOS) and it immediately paid dividends. Avalon is a Houston based, independent RIA with $8 billion in assets under management. When torrential rain flooded the Houston area, AOS was instrumental in providing business continuity and proved itself to be imperative to the firm’s ability to conduct business as usual.
Jose Medina, Managing Director, describes the chaotic weather that crippled the city merely two weeks after Avalon migrated to AOS, “We were flooded everywhere. We couldn’t come to the office. Everything was down. We couldn’t access to computer service. But we were able to run the business because we were already on AOS. So everybody just took a laptop, went home and kept working as always. For us, that showed we had made the best decision.”
Prior to AOS, Avalon utilized a third-party vendor for outsourcing services, but was no longer satisfied with its performance. Moreover, after many years, the firm was now experiencing limitations to its ability to grow with Axys, and needed to upgrade to a more secure and flexible solution. By implementing Advent Portfolio Exchange (APX), as well as electing AOS for cloud-delivery and operational services, Avalon now has improved system security and compliance readiness.
AOS provides Avalon enhanced hosting and 24/7 support for its SS&C Advent solutions that includes APX, Moxy® trade order management system, and Advent Revenue Center. Also, Avalon has direct access to AOS team members, as well as a dedicated resource who is fluent and knowledgeable in Avalon’s business. The AOS team takes ownership over a lot of the mundane, timely workflows and operational tasks, including performance reporting and daily reconciliation. This frees time for staff to work on higher priority task, as well as ensures that reports are completed and finished on time each business day.
For Avalon, the benefits of AOS include reconciled data delivery before the start of trading day, faster production of performance reporting, opportunity to redeploy in-house staff to more productive, valuable activity, and reliable service and support from a dedicated team. “Working with the AOS team has improved our workflows and efficiency tremendously,” comments Medina, “We check data received from the AOS team upon receipt and we’re getting our downstream processes done earlier and more quickly.” There is a historically and mutually beneficial partnership between SS&C Advent and Avalon Advisors that will continue to grow in the years to come.
We are gratified to serve clients in adding value to their business. To learn more about the advantages Avalon has realized in Advent Outsourcing Services, read the full case study.