Northwestern Mutual leveraging Alkymi to scale investments capacity and mitigate risk

With a portfolio of over $300 billion in assets, spanning public investments, private investments, and real estate, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to more than 5 million clients. As part of its long-term strategic roadmap, Northwestern Mutual sought out a holistic solution to automate complex workflows across its diverse portfolio.

To scale its investments within alternatives, Northwestern Mutual needed to more efficiently process data across several operationally intensive asset classes. Manual data extraction and processing for its critical investment and real estate documents was not a sustainable and scalable solution, introducing risk and inefficiencies into data workflows.

After a comprehensive RFP process where no vendor could meet all their requirements, Northwestern Mutual found in Alkymi the end-to-end platform they were looking for. Northwestern Mutual is now working with Alkymi to support multiple complex data workflows, such as bank loan agent notices and promissory notes. By automating data processing, Alkymi is helping Northwestern Mutual reduce risk and increase capacity to scale and grow its portfolio.

Manual workflows limited efficiency and access to real-time data

With a diverse portfolio and a growing alternatives book, Northwestern Mutual set out to find a software solution for automating its data ingestion workflows. Documents such as promissory notes and bank loan agent notices required manually keying data into multiple systems and repeated accuracy checks.

To scale and achieve goals, Northwestern Mutual needed more efficient workflows and access to real-time data. Manual workflows also affected its talent strategy, increasing the difficulty of finding new analysts.

Northwestern Mutual wanted an end-to-end solution to automate use cases across its portfolio and mitigate risks, such as key person risk and manual error. After undergoing a comprehensive RFP process to evaluate solutions, there was no vendor that could meet all their needs and process their complex documents.

Alkymi automates complex workflows and delivers clean data to downstream systems

After meeting the team at an industry conference, Northwestern Mutual found a well-rounded solution in Alkymi to handle its complex data workflows. Alkymi is now automating multiple Northwestern Mutual use cases, such as promissory notes and bank loan agent notices.

Using Alkymi’s AI-powered platform, key data is extracted, transformed, and validated according to Northwestern Mutual’s requirements, and structured data is delivered to its investment data platform for processing. Northwestern Mutual’s ops team now has more efficient workflows and increased capacity for value-add capabilities in its portfolio as they look to scale investments.

Seamless interoperability between Alkymi and Northwestern Mutual’s systems enhances its time to market for data and operational activities. The validated data can be sent to its loan management and accounting systems in real-time, providing end-to-end value. As Northwestern Mutual plans future integrations, Alkymi will be able to easily adjust to continue to deliver data in its required formats.

“When we looked at Alkymi, through demos and a proof of concept, it hit the mark across our operationally intensive workflows and met our flexibility needs. Our partnership with Alkymi is one of collaboration and give and take. Alkymi is flexible enough to handle our use cases.”

Increasing transparency, mitigating risk, and enabling growth

Implementing Alkymi has proven successful for Northwestern Mutual, with an immediate increase in transparency into incoming documents through Alkymi’s platform. Validated data is delivered to its systems in real-time, through a flexible solution that can adjust to workflow changes.

Automating data workflows has a direct impact on risk, increasing accuracy and eliminating the risks of manual data entry and key person risk for manual processes requiring subject matter expertise. With Alkymi in its toolkit, Northwestern Mutual is in a better position to scale its alternative investments, facilitating its long-term strategic roadmap and company growth plans. Alkymi and Northwestern Mutual’s collaborative partnership is already yielding positive results, with both teams united in the shared goal of streamlining investment data workflows and optimizing for scale.

“Using Alkymi is a huge risk mitigator when it comes to data accuracy and key person risk, even finding talent. From a data accuracy standpoint, there’s a risk of manual error. Alkymi increases the accuracy of our data and allows our team to focus on lightweight oversight and reasonableness checks.”