ROBOTS IN THE FAMILY OFFICE?

NOT AS SCI-FI AS IT SOUNDS

With today’s robotic process automation (RPA) technology, a “digital workforce” could easily take over many family office processes that are still being performed manually, freeing up staff for higher-value work. This article explores opportunities for RPA in family offices and a painless path to increased automation.

In conversations we’ve had with dozens of family offices, many acknowledge that they would like to operate more efficiently, but that they are somewhat set in their ways. They have people on staff who have been with the office a long time and are used to doing things a certain way. As a result, a lot of their routine, everyday processes are highly manual and time consuming, which raises the risk of errors and delays delivery of important information. Meanwhile, their investment portfolios and entity structures are becoming more complex, their external manager relationships are proliferating, and the number of family members that need attention grows with every generation.

Moreover, family offices are vulnerable to the same shortage of operational talent that is plaguing the wealth and asset management sector. As some of those long-time, loyal staffers start thinking about retirement, will capable people be there to take their place? And will their knowledge of “how we’ve always done things” be transferable?

Family offices are ripe for intelligent automation - a combination of robotic process automation (RPA) and machine learning - to take over some of the mundane tasks currently being performed by hand.

The fact is that many of the routine processes in a family office do not require a lot of human judgment, and therefore should not require any human intervention. Family offices are ripe for intelligent automation - a combination of robotic process automation (RPA) and machine learning - to take over some of the mundane tasks currently being performed by hand. This would free people up for more productive pursuits, such as servicing family members or researching investment opportunities, while removing friction and roadblocks from essential but routine processes.

Building A Digital Workforce

The term “robotic” conjures up images of anthropomorphic machines sitting at desks and shuffling paper around. But these robots or “bots” are actually pieces of software that reside inside computers. Collectively, these bots constitute a “digital workforce” that can interpret information, gather, aggregate, and extract data, sort and route emails, and more. The technology may have sounded like science fiction a decade ago, but RPA is quite commonplace today, easy to implement and increasingly cost-effective, delivering ROI in the form of significant efficiency gains and time savings.

Robotic software can even do sophisticated tasks that require some measure of analysis, such as compiling tax forms, due diligence reporting or compliance checks.

The digital workforce can be trained to perform a wide variety of repetitive, rules-based tasks - logging and paying household bills, for example, or running payroll. Robotic software can even do sophisticated tasks that require some measure of analysis, such as compiling tax forms, due diligence reporting or compliance checks. Think of the time spent simply downloading information from various investment managers’ portals or data feeds, then collating, formatting and feeding it into an accounting system for reconciliation or to generate reports. That entire process can be automated and completed in a fraction of the time it takes a team.

The digital workforce doesn’t replace human talent. On the contrary, it helps people to be more productive and effective in their roles. Digital; workers can perform all the steps in a process up until sign-off, putting operations professionals in the position of reviewing and approving the work rather than doing it themselves. What’s more, they don’t observe office hours or collect overtime. They can run processes overnight and have the work ready for review at start of business.

Mapping Out Your Automation Journey

So how do you go about deploying RPA in your operations? Where do you begin? A mistake that smaller offices often fall into is acquiring a piece of automation technology and trying to force-fit it into a particular process to see how it works, usually with discouraging results. If you recognise the value of intelligent automation, it’s important to look at your operations holistically and identify opportunities to automate. Which tasks are people doing manually that require little or no thought? What’s taking up the most time? Which tasks are highly repetitive? Where will automation deliver business value?

If that sounds like a tall order, you can accelerate the discovery of automation opportunities with a process assessment tool. This takes the guesswork out of intelligent automation by showing you which processes are easiest to automate and which will deliver the most business value - effectively giving you a roadmap for your automation journey.

Once you have identified the processes you can and want to automate, technology can further speed up the implementation by intelligently capturing process details and creating process prototypes.

Once you have identified the processes you can and want to automate, technology can further speed up the implementation by intelligently capturing process details and creating process prototypes. That’s an important point: you don’t have to search for an off-the-shelf solution that is a substitute for your processes. Rather, you can have solutions tailored to your ways of working. Once you have your automated processes in place, you can take advantage of monitoring tools to ensure they are performing properly - in other words, you can use intelligent automation to monitor and manage your intelligent automation processes.

One note of caution: don’t try to do all this yourself. Work with a technology provider that backs its solutions with service, not just to help you get up and running, but to help you get the most value from automation and troubleshoot issues you may encounter. The provider should be experienced and knowledgeable in family office processes and complex, multi-asset class investment operations. You’ll want to know the provider will be there for you for the long haul and is investing in intelligent automation technology.

The Outsourcing Option

Another alternative to consider is delegating certain routine processes to an outsourcing provider that has already made the investment in RPA infrastructure. This approach helps minimise your internal IT footprint while giving you access to best-practice processes, which should result in faster turnaround times and higher quality output. Outsourcing can often result in further cost savings compared to licensing and maintaining software internally.

Robotics technology is no longer a futuristic vision - it is proven, practical and quickly taking hold across the investment management landscape.

Family offices need technology that can keep up with the increasing complexity of their investment portfolios, entity structures and operational requirements. They need to be able to meet the information demands of family members in a timely manner with reliable data. And they need solutions that help them focus on opportunities and make informed decisions to sustain and grow their wealth. Robotics technology is no longer a futuristic vision - it is proven, practical and quickly taking hold across the investment management landscape. Family offices that adopt RPA stand to realise the benefits of increased efficiency, lower operational overhead, and more productive use of their most valuable asset: human capital.

About SS&C Family Office Services

SS&C’s Family Office Services team offers fully outsourced technology and operations as well as co-sourcing solutions for single and multi-family offices, endowments and foundations. Working in close collaboration with your office, our team delivers a comprehensive suite of technologypowered services, including portfolio accounting and reporting, full transaction support, partnership accounting, and tax accounting and reporting. Hundreds of family offices rely on our combination of technology and expertise to increase efficiency, ensure accuracy, reduce operating costs, and meet the diverse information needs of family members. SS&C offers a one-stop solution that reduces the cost, risk and time to integrate disparate systems.

For more information, email: solution@sscinc.com