SS&C GlobeOp: Best Fund Administrator (GP’s with assets >USD30bn) – Private equity firms’ trend to partner with third-party service providers was well underway ahead of the Covid-19 crisis. The pandemic has accelerated the consideration for many PE firms to outsource a number of aspects of their operations and form strong alliances with service providers who can engage and integrate with their business.
“Firms continue to focus on how to drive operational excellence. Part of that includes assessing what firms do well and what are their core competencies. Through this process, managers also identify where they can take advantage of service providers and partners who can assist them. In the past six, 12, 18 months, this evaluation has yielded different results than it had if a firm had last done it five or ten years ago. Firms are being thoughtful and creative in assessing service provider partnerships. These are broad strategic considerations across many firms and not just binary outsourcing decisions,” says Joe Patellaro, Managing Director, SS&C Global Head of Private Equity Services.
“The way investors think about diligence, operational capabilities and infrastructure of the firms they’re investing in is also evolving, particularly in a fully remote environment,” Patellaro notes. “We are a strong partner in this regard, managers can focus on deal flow, generating returns while being able to trust SS&C to provide the back-office support and infrastructure”
He also identifies the growing need for access to data: “The need to access, share and integrate data for Private Equity managers only continues to increase, particularly as more firms expand into different areas and need to bring together different, sometimes disparate sets of data for both internal consumption and external reporting purposes. This trend drives the search for partners like SS&C to be able to provide tools and resources that allow for data aggregation, mining and reporting across a broad spectrum of types of funds and investments.”
As a large global firm, SS&C has both seen and been a part of this change in momentum. Patellaro comments: “We have broad and deep experience both within PE as well as more broadly across alternatives and funds in general. So, when a large asset manager or investor is contemplating who can help, scale and global footprint are important as is the breadth of services a firm can provide.”
Though bringing unwelcome disruption, the current environment has proved to firms they can work well with the right external service provider. SS&C has been proactive in reaching out to clients as the coronavirus crisis broke out to see what they need help with. “This went far beyond fund administration. As a large, global service and technology firm across a wide variety of segments, we were able to pivot quickly to the current environment and lend our support to many clients around the world,” said Patellaro.
SS&C Technologies has struck a balance between being responsive to what the market dictates while making the most of a trend in growth already underway within the PE outsourcing sector.
Joe Patellaro
SVP, Managing Director, Global Head of Private Equity Services, SS&C Technologies
Joe is an SVP and Managing Director and has been with the SS&C Private Equity Services business since 2002. As the Global Head of the Private Equity Services business at SS&C Joe is responsible for global strategy and evolution of the Private Equity Services business, and interacts with many internal and external constituents worldwide in staying current on industry, technical, and regulatory matters.
Joe has been in the professional services industry since 1987. Prior to joining SS&C, via the SS&C acquisition of Citi’s fund services business in 2016, Joe spent over 15 years at Arthur Andersen, last as an audit partner and the partner-in-charge of the emerging markets practice in the Stamford, Connecticut office.
Joe is a graduate of Hofstra University and serves on the Board of Trustees of Family and Children’s Association, a Long Island-based non-profit organisation, and the global Board of Trustees of Help for Children.
