Our Services
Aquila provides solutions for clients who are faced with increasingly strenuous demands of meeting reporting requirements for the front office, marketing, investors, and regulators.
Aquila offers a variety of back-office solutions that can be purchased modularly. Services include: Business Consulting, Operating Model Design, System Selection, Project Management, and System Implementation.
Business Consulting
Aquila advises clients on utilizing and leveraging the appropriate operating model and technology to achieve effective business results.
Operational Risk and Technology Assessment
Every project begins with a thorough current state assessment to evaluate overall risks and weaknesses. With ever-changing regulatory requirements and investor transparency demands, Aquila provides firms with the ability to review and take steps to mitigate operational risk. The assessment provides a high-level review of back-office technology, workflows and information flows on an intra- and inter- departmental basis. The result is a detailed baseline illustration of the client's current operational and technical infrastructure, highlighting gaps in critical business processes and the applications supporting them. As key deliverables of the analysis, our professionals will recommend appropriate solutions tailored to produce effective results.
Fund Administration Due Diligence and Evaluation Review
With the dramatic increase of third party fund administrators available, selecting the best service provider for your firm can be a daunting task. Aquila consultants have worked as third party fund administrators and within the back-offices of some of Los Angeles’ leading investment management firms. We understand the security products, value-added services, controls, requirements and intimate details of fund accounting, and the overall quality of a fund administrator. Our team will assess administrator capabilities, document business drivers and outsourcing requirements. Aquila can either serve as our clients' project managers and/or augment their existing staff in aiding them during the selection and eventual conversion process.
Operating Model Design
Aquila recreates operating models to fit current business needs. Often, as small firms transition to larger institutions, they realize that what was once a manageable process supported with skilled staff is no longer viable in supporting the growing assets under management. Faced with diminishing returns on manual processes, these firms will look to utilize the appropriate technology to increase capacity, scale, and reduce reporting timelines. Aquila can present a clear picture of the current technology landscape and assist management in choosing the appropriate technology. With the technology solution solidified, Aquila will aid management in designing an optimal operating model in supporting the technology. Aquila understands the big picture as much as the finer details, thus enabling us to harvest maximum productivity, scalability, and efficiency in the operating model design process.
System Selection
Aquila's proven evaluation approach provides for a superior evaluation process and will guide clients through the RFI and RFP process. Aquila provides objective recommendations to clients when considering the vast variety of technology vendors available to the investment industry. By aligning client current and projected future business requirements with the appropriate technology, Aquila is committed to assisting clients in selecting the most value-added application.
Project Management
Aquila utilizes traditional project management techniques to drive client projects forward. During this process, tasks and timeframes needed for the duration of the project are defined. Aquila diligently works to ensure milestones and key deliverables are met.
System Implementation
Resource and time management along with proper planning are the key success factors during any implementation. Utilize Aquila as an extension of your current accounting staff to add capacity during an implementation. Aquila can alleviate the many requirements that client staff would have to perform, thus enabling them to focus on their day-to-day responsibilities.
Aquila provides system implementation services for a variety of core accounting, partnership/tax allocation, and financial statement preparation systems, with a particular expertise on the industry-leading core accounting application Advent Geneva.
To learn more about Aquila's exceptional services for all your back-office operations solutions support, please contact us today.
