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We recently spoke with the team at Seizert Capital Partners about their firm's experience switching to Ridgeline from a popular legacy technology. Based in Birmingham, Michigan, Seizert is a value investing firm that was looking for a change from the tech they’d been operating on for 20+ years.
Here’s what they had to say about the transition, the implementation, and starting a new era for their firm.
Q. What problem were you most interested in solving when you heard about Ridgeline?
David Collon, Portfolio Manager: "We had parts [of the solution] and they were ok, but we were ready to move to the next level: a complete solution across everything. What intrigued us the most was that you were starting from scratch.”
Wendy Kunze, Portfolio Administrator: "We were interested in reducing the number of systems utilized, we wanted to make the move to the cloud, and we wanted to eliminate the two-to-three-year upgrade process. We have been able to accomplish all three on Ridgeline’s platform."
Q. What was it like for the whole team to adopt Ridgeline after 20+ years on the same system?
Wendy: Everything has just worked perfectly; the system is extremely easy to use."
Clare Pauck, Trader: “It wasn’t anything I really had to learn, it just made sense."
Q. Why Ridgeline versus the other providers you evaluated?
David: "With our prior legacy system, we didn't have access across the board. Now, Ridgeline is literally on everybody's desktop everyday, and we're all using it for a different reason. We'd never come close to having that transparency or communication between roles, which I think is a tremendous benefit."
Wendy: "Having a fully integrated front and back-office system, without any licensing constraints, has allowed most everyone in our firm to have access to information they need. Portfolio Managers can easily see the status of trading on the Post-Trade Dashboard. Operations can easily view the same details which helps with trade settlement and end of day reporting."
Q. How do you see Ridgeline helping your firm achieve its long-term growth goals?
Cheryl Kotlarz, Chief Compliance Officer: “The Ridgeline system will allow us to scale. We’re not going to have to make changes if we double our assets under management.”
Clare: “I think it will really take us into the future.”
Q. Now that you’re fully operating on Ridgeline, would you say that Ridgeline delivered?
Wendy: "100% Ridgeline delivered.”
Q. What’s it been like to be an early Ridgeline customer?
David: "It's cool that we've helped provide input on something that other people are going to benefit from. But what's really neat is that we are actually going to benefit from the next partner and the next partner and the next partner that Ridgeline signs on. We're thankful for being aligned with you — it's been a lot of fun."
Want to see how Ridgeline can transform your firm? Just fill out the “Request a Demo” form on this page or send us a note to hello@ridgelineapps.com.
