Alpine Peaks Automates Investment Operations From Day One With Eclipse
Eze Eclipse equips Alpine Peaks, a start-up hedge fund, with a best-in-class operational framework.
About Alpine Peaks Capital, LP
Launched in 2018 and based in New York, Alpine Peaks Capital is a long/short equity hedge fund focusing on a concentrated portfolio consisting of high-quality, domestic SMID cap equities. Alpine Peaks narrows their investable universe to track approximately 250 companies and using thorough, well-tested fundamental analysis, concentrates their portfolio to roughly 50 names. Alpine Peak’s portfolio concentration supports a high-conviction portfolio construction model, resulting in 75% of the Fund’s exposure allocated across 15 names on each side of the book. With a single investment strategy, Alpine Peaks strives to create a simple, focused business, aligned with its investors.
The Challenge
From inception, Alpine Peaks was an intentionally lean firm, consisting of a highly experienced four-person team. They wanted to take advantage of the best FinTech available to build a best-in-class operational framework. For Alpine Peaks, it was critical that any platform would allow all users to work and connect seamlessly to all counterparties including an outsourced trading desk, fund administrator, and prime brokerage relationships. As a new firm, they were also upfront about the necessity of any solution being cost efficient.
“When doing my due diligence on software solutions, I was looking for an elegant solution that could provide operational efficiencies across the fund. Specifically, we needed a platform that could handle all of our trading needs, provide the ability to view and monitor our P&L, and meet my in-house reporting requirements.” - Venera Giannetto, CFO/COO Alpine Peaks Capital.
KEY PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
The Selection Process
Alpine Peaks went to the market to see if they could find a solution that could scale with the firm’s growth and was accessible from anywhere. Venera had been familiar with SS&C Eze, having leveraged Eze solutions at previous firms. During their search, it became clear that the other solutions providers were not able to provide them with the proper tools and functionality to satisfy both Alpine Peaks’ front-office needs and back-office reporting requirements in a single platform.
Eclipse provided them with the front-to-back office solutions they needed to manage their fund from a single, unified platform – from trading, to portfolio analytics, and to their accounting and reporting needs.
“Eclipse nailed it. The solution was able to provide us the best offering and one that can grow alongside our business,” said Venera.
Solution & Implementation
Alpine Peaks used Eze Eclipse from day one of the strategy’s launch. The SS&C Eze client service team put together a game plan to make sure that all of Alpine’s trading, portfolio management, accounting, and reporting needs were in place from the start. Integration points with their fund administrator, outsourced trading desk, and prime broker were fully configured and ready to go so that their investment operations were fully operational.
“The services team invested a great deal of time to understand our business, our workflows, and how we operate at Alpine,” Venera added. “They have been a true partner to us, and we appreciate the efforts and support that they have provided. Not only did they get us up and running quickly, they remain extremely responsive whenever I request assistance”.
Eze Eclipse Overview
Eze Eclipse, a born-in-the-cloud investment solution, supports your full investment process in a single unified platform through a secure web browser interface.
Eclipse Commission Management
Eclipse Commission Management provides full transparency and flexibility in an environment of increasing complexity for the buy-side and sell-side alike.
The Results
“There were no manual processes from the day we launched the fund. Right out of the gate, we were automated. With Eclipse, there is an abundance of features, functionality, and workflows that are available right out-of-the-box,” said Venera. Investors are increasingly enhancing their due diligence to verify that their investments are in the right hands. “Eclipse institutionalizes our infrastructure, which allows us to optimize our day-to-day activities, mitigate risk, and maximize efficiencies.”
As a boutique investment firm, Eclipse gives Alpine Peaks the flexibility to do their jobs from wherever they have internet access. Jennifer Ralph Oppold, Alpine Peaks’ Founder and CIO, is often on the road visiting management teams as part of her investment process. Eclipse gives Jennifer the ability to view, manage, and monitor their fund wherever and whenever she needs to.
Venera adds, “We’ve been delighted with Eclipse and look forward to seeing the platform evolve as more features are added. We have nothing but exceptional feedback regarding the Eclipse services team. They are extremely responsive and professional - we consider them an extension of our team.”