Voss Capital Scales Business & Institutionalizes Infrastructure with Eze Eclipse
Voss Capital was able to scale its business and institutionalize its infrastructure with Eze Eclipse's cloud-based solution and mobile capabilities.
About Voss Capital, LLC
Voss Capital, LLC is a long/short equity fund based in Houston, Texas. Investing mostly in small-cap domestic equities and options, Voss focuses on companies with deep value, solid management, and identifiable catalysts – with doubling potential over 3 years. As the firm continues its growth, Voss seeks to move up the market cap spectrum for impactful positioning that will ultimately allow greater firm liquidity. Founder and Lead Portfolio Manager, Travis Cocke, launched the firm back in 2011.
The Challenge
Cocke was managing both the portfolios as well as the firm’s operations, which were growing increasingly more complex. He sought to unload his non-investment related activities so he could scale the business. In 2017, Voss brought aboard Kelli Walter, CPA as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Walter took over all non-investing related activities such as treasury and cash management, business and trading operations, information technology, marketing, and compliance. Increasing investor due diligence requirements and investor demands coupled with inefficient, complex, and manual processes led Voss to begin the search for a robust investment management system.
KEY PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
The Selection Process
In 2019, a large institution made a sizable investment in Voss. The investment came with a few stipulations including a requirement that Voss institutionalize their infrastructure with a robust investment technology platform that could create efficiencies around the business. Voss also needed a system they could access from anywhere as they were already a very mobile firm. “We began looking at a variety of platforms but were adamant about leveraging a cloud product. Travis was constantly on the road and we had another employee working 100% remotely,” said Walter.
“We were far along in the sales process with an SS&C Eze competitor but quickly realized issues with their product and client service model,” said Walter. The Voss team felt the other vendor did not seem as invested in learning their business or dedicated to partnering with them to foster success. Walter conducted additional research and based on a recommendation from their prime broker, she reached out to the Eze team, “within days I was absolutely sold on Eze Eclipse.” After an extensive demo with Eze, within days Voss had signed on for Eze Eclipse.
Solution & Implementation
From the first point of contact to go-live, Voss needed to be onboarded quickly without sacrificing quality. Eze’s implementation team partnered closely with Voss to design effective, institutionalized processes across the business. “The Eze Eclipse team not only proved they could solve our investment operational inefficiencies, but they were truly invested in partnering with us to improve and grow our business.” Leveraging decades of experience onboarding clients, the Eze team expeditiously implemented Eclipse at Voss in a few short weeks.
Voss was especially impressed by the speed of innovation with Eze Eclipse as well as Eze’s ability and flexibility to quickly add new features and functions. According to Walter, “The Eclipse team helped us build out the views and workrooms we needed from go-live so we could continue tracking our investments the way we needed to. Two weeks after our go-live, Eze had already updated Eze Eclipse with new functionality specific to our request.”
The Results
After onboarding Eze Eclipse, Voss quickly realized a wide array of new, measurable efficiencies across the business. One of the most critical benefits Eze Eclipse provided is the ability for Voss to be broker-agnostic. “We can trade with whomever we want, effectively cutting our trading cost in half and giving us better access to achieving best-execution,” said Voss. Eclipse also automated manual accounting processes for Voss, such as daily position and cash reconciliations, helping shadow their administrator, attribution, exposure and position reporting, and other month-end processes around marketing, analytics, and reporting.
Prior to the pandemic, Cocke was constantly on the road, logging in from various places. But Voss was not expecting to run the entire organization remotely for months at a time. Having Eze Eclipse in place when the pandemic hit, allowed Voss to seamlessly transition to working remotely and they were able to confidently assure investors that there were no disruptions to their operations. Voss’ users can log-in to Eze Eclipse from anywhere with just a web browser – no application downloads required. The user experience and workflows are the same whether they’re at home or in the office.
Eze Eclipse also gave Voss real-time insights into their P&L, ADV, volume, and other key data points. Prior to Eze Eclipse, Voss wasn’t able to check compliance across trades and positions. Now, Voss can easily configure the rules they need to run pre-, intra-, and post-trade, simplifying their process for ensuring they comply to regulations and investor mandates. “I love that we can configure all of the fees, the broker schedules, compliance rules, etc. We have control over the settings to configure exactly what we need, and it is extremely easy to use. We don’t have to keep going back to the Eze team for help, although they are always happy to lend a hand when needed.”