Lionpoint’s approach to technology and operations has enabled the firm to not just survive but thrive over the last year-plus. “Our firm has grown to over 140 consultants in seven offices across the globe, collaborating with each other so that the firm did not skip a beat,” says Jonathan Balkin, Co-Founder and Executive Director at Lionpoint.
In addition, becoming part of Alpha FMC has drastically increased Lionpoint’s breadth of services within ESG, benchmarking, data solutions and across public investments.
Data critical to business management
In recent months, data has been a critical asset that enables clients to better manage their business. “The need for data and its impact on business manifests itself in a variety of ways, such as better processes, structured systems in lieu of Microsoft Excel to capture and disseminate information efficiently, robust reporting solutions to enable self-service access to all stakeholders across the firm, and many others. In summary, a mature approach to data ameliorates inefficiencies and challenges experienced by everyone across the firm,” Balkin says.
The PE industry has also benefitted from technology vendors enhancing their solutions to provide better capabilities and user experience. The industry is growing very rapidly and there are scarce experienced resources, which is limiting the ability to effectively scale with manual tasks, redundant data entry and reconciliations, and complex calculations and forecasts managed in Excel.
“In this rapid growth phase within PE, we have been expanding our team effectively to serve as a true strategic and critical partner to many of the leading private equity, credit and real assets managers,” says Balkin.
Clients now wish to take a more holistic review of their organization. Lionpoint’s Target Operating Model assessment includes a review of an organisation’s people, processes, technology and data.
Balkin explains: “We partner with many of the leading solutions, such as DealCloud, iLEVEL, Chronograph, Allvue, Investran, eFront, Anaplan, Unqork, Hazeltree and several others – our clients are seeking a single partner to help them not only design the right organisational platform but also implement it and maintain it.
“We are the connective tissue to ensure that solutions are implemented and integrated successfully across the front, middle and back office teams,” he adds.
Over the next 18 months, Balkin predicts that the industry is going to continue to grow its allocation exponentially. He says: “‘Data is oil’ in our world and in order to get more data into the firm, develop more insights, speed up deal cycles, create operational alpha / reduce costs, clients need to implement technology and enhance processes.”
Attracting retail
Lionpoint also sees a convergence with traditional asset managers to attract retail investors further exacerbating the need to scale processes with efficiency and control.
As a result of such challenges and demands, Lionpoint has been expanding its services significantly during the last 12 months, mainly around business process management (workflow), data solutions (data strategy, governance, integrations and data warehouses), reporting (develop reports within PowerBI, Tableau and other solutions) modelling and forecasting (revenue forecasting, waterfall calculations, compensation and carry calculations) and modernisation of treasury management.
“Many of these areas have not been given much attention in private markets until recently,” Balkin concludes. 
Jonathan Balkin, Co-Founder and Executive Director
Jonathan Balkin founded Lionpoint to deliver market-leading technology and operations solutions to firms in the private markets industry. Balkin spearheads many of Lionpoint’s technology vendor partnerships, ensuring the business is at the forefront when it comes to innovative and streamlined solutions for client challenges. In his role, he oversees the delivery of transformational operations projects for global asset managers, including the successful implementation of technology solutions to improve data management, workflow, controls and transparency.
