How one company is making money by making Advent Axys data portable
Empaxis outsources to India and some of its customers use the service before they choose to switch providers
3 min read- Empaxis Clarify service converts Advent Axys data for platform migrations.
- Addresses Axys data errors that newer systems like APX won't allow.
- Early data conversion allows firms to fix errors before new software install.
Empaxis Data Management has started offering a conversion service called Clarify specifically for Advent Axys users who want to update their data – often to move to Advent Portfolio Exchange.
Empaxis Data Management, launched in 2004 to host Axys for clients that want to use the software online, originally developed the conversion process for its clients and has now started offering it a la carte to non-clients as an alternative to Advent’s in-house conversion service.
This involves a long process of discovering data problems and fixing many different errors that newer systems won’t allow. “It’s not as simple as just hitting a button and having the system fix them all,” says Stephen Van de Wetering, CEO of Empaxis.
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His company services hedge funds, multi-family offices and wealth managers with combined assets of $25 billion.
Van de Wetering says that most of the seven conversions they’ve done since launching Clarify at the end of 2011 have been because Axys users wanted to convert their data in advance of actually changing platforms.
“Doing it way before you even buy APX gives you a big window of opportunity to fix it. When you’re buying new software you just want it to come and be installed, be up and running and start using it.”
The reason to have data massaged is that Advent Axys doesn’t hold the data to as high a standard as APX does, he adds.
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Big bucks
Since Advent only handles conversions once an advisor signs on to APX, firms that want to do the conversion ahead of time have to take it on themselves. Because of this, Van de Wetering says the firm has even had one client referred to them directly by Advent.
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Chris Flynn: Determining factors can include
length of transaction history, functional requirements
and operational workflows, training requirements and
custom requirements.
Van de Wetering allows that some advisors might see the service as a way of keeping conversion costs lower. He didn’t have knowledge about Advent’s pricing, but guessed that Clarify’s price – $2,000 for the initial analysis and $50 per hour for the actual fixing of data that follows – is generally lower than what firms have paid for Advent’s conversion service.
Van de Wetering characterized Advent’s prices as ranging from tens-of-thousands to hundreds-of-thousands of dollars, depending on the size of the firm.
Chris Flynn, vice president of product management for the investment management group at Advent, says its conversion costs vary so widely because of the different levels of customization firms ask for.
“The scope is typically dictated by what will best fit the client’s needs and how much customization they choose to implement. Determining factors can include length of transaction history, functional requirements and operational workflows, training requirements and custom requirements.”
He adds that Advent “prices the conversion service competitively so that our clients have an excellent experience.”
Empaxis keeps its prices low by locating 12 of its 16 employees in India. The other four are in El Segundo, Calif.
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