Case study: How Nishkama Capital grew its operation with Eze Eclipse

Nishkama Capital, a long/short equity fund based in the US, became one of the first adopters of Eze Eclipse, SS&C Eze’s born-in-the-cloud investment management solution, in 2017. Thanks to the platform’s adaptability and continued support from the Eclipse team, Nishkama’s operation was able to get up and running quickly, and has grown ever since.

The firm onboarded to SS&C Eze’s Eclipse system after a selection process in which Eric Salzman, chief financial officer and chief operations officer at Nishkama Capital, focused on adding new structures and processes to the firm’s operation.

Eclipse is a born-in-the-cloud investment solution that supports a fund manager’s full investment process – from pre-trade compliance, to order management, portfolio management, execution, accounting and reporting – on a single unified platform through a secure web interface. Launched in 2017, it was developed in close collaboration with clients to ensure maximum usability and efficiency in operations management.

Nishkama selected SS&C Eze due to the ease of implementation and an impressive demo. “I knew that I, with a focus on middle and back offices, would want to look at different screens than the portfolio manager who was focused on trading and real-time profit and loss (P&L) and exposure reporting,” said Salzman.

A December 2018 study from Ernst & Young found that 75 percent of fund managers struggle with finding the right technology for their trading and portfolio management needs, with 45 percent planning to invest in new technology over the next few years. Of those asked, 62 percent reported that their data systems weren’t integrated, which can lead to inefficiency in investment processes.

According to Salzman, from selection to the go-live Nishkama Capital received “a tremendous amount of support from the Eclipse team, in terms of setting up connections and brokers and devising and executing a plan to load historical information.”

Post-implementation there were daily calls with a primary liaison on the Eze support team to discuss any issues. “I have always rated Eze’s support process as excellent. They have systems in place to triage and properly escalate problems that need quicker attention,” said Salzman.

Nishkama has expanded its offerings since go-live and has relied on Eze support along the way. “Eze has been extremely helpful in listening to, understanding and solving our requirements. In fact, they have been very proactive in seeking feedback surrounding process improvement,” said Salzman. “Our needs have grown together with the evolution of Eclipse. As our business got more complicated with a series of managed accounts and differing trade allocation needs, Eze was quick to build out the required functionality.”

SS&C Eze helped streamline Nishkama’s process for onboarding new accounts, setting up the platform to ensure new funds can be launched quickly. Managed accounts can launch more efficiently with advanced modeling capabilities. Moreover, SS&C Eze streamlined allocations and reconciliation processes. Eze simplified delivery of end-of-day transactions and built out interfaces with third party administrators and primes to ensure all data Nishkama uses can be reconciled within the system automatically. Thanks to Eclipse being in the cloud, the capabilities added zero footprint to Nishkama’s infrastructure, and the team can access the functions from anywhere via the Internet.

For Salzman, SS&C Eze has “proven continually” that it is committed to having Eclipse be a revolutionary product by building out any functionality required for front, middle and back office needs.

“As an early user, I’ve had access to top management, software and product specialists across the Eclipse team. There is a common attribute about the commitment to the product and meeting or exceeding my needs. They’ve always been behind product success, which I believe will continue to develop to meet our future requirements.”

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