Leading Voices for Nasdaq Solovis: Erich Merkel, Senior Client Service Manager

Nasdaq Solovis helps asset owners gain instant insights across their entire multi-asset class portfolio so they can create context faster and drive decision-making.

In this Q&A article series, we get to know the leaders behind Nasdaq Solovis who help power the platform and support the success of its asset owner clients.

This week, we spoke with Erich Merkel, Senior Client Service Manager.

What does your role at Nasdaq Solovis involve?

I manage the Nasdaq Solovis client support team, which helps post-implementation clients with training, consulting on new use cases, and data projects. We have full-time team members around the world, who regularly check in with clients, to ensure that wherever they are they’re getting all the assistance and guidance they need.

How do you support asset owner clients?

Having access to money is as important as having the money. All asset owners must contend with cash management, but it’s especially an issue for those investing in alternative assets, whether that means hedge funds or private equity. Both can impose limitations on how much of an asset owner’s capital is available for use at any point in time.

I’m an expert on liquidity modeling and future cash flow projection, so a big part of my role is helping clients understand their cash positions and plan for future investment pacing.

It’s important for asset owners to be able to model how much capital they will need and how much they will have available: cash availability from distributions and redemptions can be highly variable, but obligations still have to be funded and beneficiaries still have to be paid. Nasdaq Solovis can model both ends of the problem with a high degree of flexibility and precision.

What is a major blind spot for allocators that you’re working to address?

The most common problem I see is clients failing to re-evaluate their best practices. Clients may have inefficient workflows simply because that used to be the only way they could complete the work. In some cases, the process may be the relic of an employee who has not been at the firm for years, in others it’s a result of the limitations of a custodian’s data or the financial technology previously available.

In these circumstances, it’s useful to have a partner who can look at the bigger picture with them to figure out what will be best for their needs. With the capabilities of Nasdaq Solovis, we’re often able to develop a more efficient and accurate workflow for the client.

What’s the most rewarding part of working on Nasdaq Solovis?

I love creative problem-solving for our clients. Most problems don’t have a one-size-fits-all solution, and asset owners don’t all look at the world in the same way. Sometimes the why behind a request is more important than the what, and I love the chance to think through those new use cases. Whether it’s a new performance calculation or a new way of looking at exposure or a new way of using benchmark comparisons.